OF THE COTTON 



July to October, but has been found at all times. The life history is 

 completely unknown and is apparently not passed in the cotton plant. 

 Special treatment is not required 

 for this pest, which is easily de- 

 stroyed by shaking it off the 

 plant ; it has a habit of falling to 

 the ground when disturbed and 

 "shamming dead/' The Green 

 Weevil l is also a pest of cotton, 

 eating the leaves in the same 

 manner. This insect is larger 

 than the White Weevil, of a 

 dark colour but clothed in 

 metallic green scales, which give 

 it a peculiarly brilliant appear- 

 ance. It is common in Behar 

 and, like the White Weevil, is 

 found also on bhindi, maize and 

 other crops. The Cotton Cater- 

 pillar 2 is a green caterpillar, 

 which is found on the cotton leaf ; 

 it walks after the fashion of the 

 true looper caterpillars, hunching 

 up its body at every step, but is actually a " semi-looper " with three 

 pairs of sucker-feet on the abdomen. The caterpillar is marked with 

 fine white lines and grows to a length of one inch and a quarter. It eats 

 the leaf, making large holes, and finally pupates by turning over the 

 edge and folding it down. The moth emerges after eight days. This 

 pest is not common, is found only during the rains, and feeds also on bhindi 

 and other plants. 



Another semi-looper found on cotton has but two pairs of sucker- 

 feet on the abdomen and a swelling on the upper surface of the body on 

 the first abdominal segments and the tail. It feeds on the cotton leaf 

 and eventually comes out as a white moth 3 with dark markings. Like 

 the last this is not usually injurious but is likely to be mistaken for a 

 serious pest. 



Hairy caterpillars which at times ravage large areas of crops also 

 attack cotton and may do much harm. In Behar, the common hairy 



1 388. Astycus lateralis. F. (Curculionidse.) 



2 115. CosmopJiila erosa. Hubn. (Noctmdse.) 

 8 152. TaracJie catena. Sow. (Noctuldse.) 



FIG. 130. 

 Cotton Aphis, unwinged female. 



