ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 39 r 



are distorted and maimed) and very fre 

 quently the flower falls without forming 

 any boll whatever. In many cases, how- 

 ever, the young worm bores through the 

 bottom of the flower into the immature 

 boll before the old flower falls, thus leav- 

 ing the boll and involucel or envelope 

 still adhering to the foot-stalk, with the 

 worm safely lodged in the growing boll. 

 The number of buds destroyed by this 

 worm is very great, as they fall off when 

 quite small, and are scarcely observed as 

 they lie brown and withering on the 

 ground beneath the plant. The instinct 

 of the Boll-worm, however, teaches it to 

 forsake a bud or boll about to fall, and 

 either to seek another healthy boll, or to 

 fasten itself to a leaf, on which it remains' 

 until at length it acquires size and strength 

 sufficient to enable it to bore into the 

 nearly matured bolls, the interior of which 

 is nearly destroyed by its attacks, as, 

 should it not be completely devoured, 

 rain penetrates through the hole made by 

 the worm, and the cotton soon becomes 

 rotten and will not ripen. . . . One 

 thing is worthy of observation, and that 

 is, whenever a young boll or bud is seen 

 Avith the involucel spread open, and of a 

 sickly yellow color, it may be safefy con- 

 cluded that it has been attacked by the 

 Boll-worm, and will soon perish and fall 

 to the ground. . . . The buds in- 

 jured by the worms may be readily dis- 

 tinguished by a minute hole where it has 

 entered, and which, when cut open, will 

 be found partially rilled with small black 

 grains, something like coarse gunpowder, 

 which is nothing but the digested food 

 after having passed through the body of 

 the worm." 



This insect is very variable in the larva 

 state, the young worms varying in color 

 from pale green to dark brown. When 

 full grown there is more uniformity in this 

 respect, though the difference is often 

 sufficiently great to cause them to look 

 like distinct insects. Yet the same pat- 

 tern is observable, no matter what may 

 be the general color; the body being 

 marked as in the above figures with 

 longitudinal light and dark lines, and 

 covered with black spots which give rise 

 to soft hairs. Those worms which Mrs. 

 Treat found in green peas and upon corn 

 tassels had these lines and dots so ob- 

 scurely represented that they seemed to be 



of a uniform green or brown color, and: 

 the specimens which we sometimes see 

 in string beans are of a dark, glass- 

 green color with the spots inconspicuous, 

 but with the stripe below the breathing 

 pores quite conspicuous and yellow. The 

 head, however, remains quite constant 

 and characteristic. Figure 32 may be 

 taken as a specimen of the light variety,. 

 and Figure $5 as illustrating the dark 

 variety. When full grown, the worm 

 descends into the ground, and there forms, 

 an oval cocoon of earth interwoven with 

 silk, wherein it changes to a bright chest • 

 nut-brown chrysalis (Figure 33), with four 

 thorns at the extremity of its body, the 

 two middle ones being stouter than the 

 others. After remaining in the chrysalis 

 state from three to four weeks, the moth 

 makes its escape. In this last and per- 

 fect stage, the insect is also quite variable 

 in depth of shading, but the more com- 

 mon color of the front wings is pale clay- 

 yellow, with a faint greenish tint, and 

 they are marked and variegated with pale 

 olive and rufous, as in Figure 33, e show- 

 ing the wings expanded, and /represent- 

 ing them closed, a dark spot near the 

 middle of each wing being very conspicu- 

 ous. The hind wings are paler than the 

 front wings, and invariably have along 

 the outer margin a dark brown band,, 

 interrupted about the middle by a large, 

 pale spot. 



Mr. Glover says that there are at least, 

 three broods each year in Georgia, the 

 last brood issuing as moths as late as 

 November. With us there are usually 

 but two, though, as already hinted, there 

 may be exceptionally three. Most of 

 the moths issue in the fall, and hibernate 

 as such, but some of them pass the 

 winter in the chrysalis state and do not 

 issue till the following spring. We have 

 known them to issue, in this latitude,, 

 after the 1st of November, when no frost 

 had previously occurred. 



Remedies. — It is the general experi- 

 ence that this worm does more injury t& 

 very early and very late corn than to that 

 which ripens intermediately, for though 

 the broods connect by late individuals of 

 the first and early individuals of the 

 second, there is nevertheless a period 

 about the time the bulk of our corn is 

 ripening, when the worms are quite 

 scarce. We have never yet observed 



