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FUNDAMENTALS OF AGRICULTURE. 



EGG OF COTTON- 

 WORM MOTH. 



The larva grows rapidly, shedding 

 its skin five times before reaching 

 maturity. Only about two weeks 

 are required for the growth of the 

 larva. It then selects a convenient 

 place on the limb of the cotton plant, 

 sometimes within a folded leaf 

 which its appetite has overlooked, 

 or on an adjacent weed, and spins 

 about itself a thin web. In this 

 pupal, or chrysalis, stage, the insect 

 remains quietly for from one to 

 three weeks. Then the thin cocoon 

 is burst asunder and the adult moth 

 issues, to take up her task of laying the eggs, which are 

 to produce the following generation of caterpillars. 



The Moths. The winter 

 is passed in the adult stage 

 only, the moths hibernating 

 in trash, leaves, grass, etc., in 

 the warmer parts of the 

 South. Moths of each gen- 

 eration during the summer 

 fly further and further north- 

 ward, so that by autumn the 

 caterpillars are sometimes 

 found as far north as Ar- 

 kansas and Virginia. 



Its Importance. Shortly 

 after the Civil War, at which 

 time the crop was almost to- 

 tally destroyed by its ravages, 

 this insect was considered the 

 most dangerous enemy of the 

 cotton crop. In later years, 

 however, it has been of rela- 

 tively less importance, for its 



natural enemies have in- COTTON CATERPILLAR. 



creased to such an extent that a , side view; b, top view. 



