COTTON 419 



first few days after its emergence from the egg in the 

 outer shell of the boll, producing a small circular hole 

 which it enlarges as it proceeds into the boll itself. 

 When a boll worm has entered a boll it protects itself 

 from disturbance by other insects or parasites by dis- 

 charging a quantity of more or less moist excreta which 

 effectually prevents the entry of any other insect by the 

 passage which has been made by the larva. 



The boll worm may confine its attack to one cell only 

 in, a boll, or it may destroy all three cells, or even more 

 than one boll. If a medium-sized boll be attacked it 

 frequently dies and dries up without becoming detached 

 from the plant, but in such a case the plant itself has 

 ceased growing*, otherwise the boll would most probably 

 fall to the ground. When the bolls die and remain 

 attached to the plant they become a reddish-brown in 

 colour, and are known to the native cultivators as 

 " nabroon." 



Large bolls when pierced at a period of semi-maturity 

 open prematurely, and by the exposure of their moist, 

 incompletely developed lint render themselves liable to 

 the attacks of saprophytic fungi, which completely destroy 

 the value of the lint by covering it with black spores. 



Prolongation of Metamorphoses in Winter. As the 

 autumn advances and the weather becomes colder the 

 larval stage of the boll worm is prolonged, and after all 

 the valuable cotton has been picked the cotton plants are 

 pulled up and stored for fuel. During this storing period 

 boll worms remain inside the drying bolls attached to 

 the plants, feeding* upon the seeds until, by reason of the 

 contraction due to the drying up of the contents, the 

 worms, if immature, die, or if fully mature emerge in the 

 usual way to pupate. For this latter change they secrete 

 themselves in the dried and shrivelled involucres and 

 leaves or upon the stems and form a smooth cocoon of 

 brownish or buff-coloured silk in which to undergo the 

 change into the pupa state, during which time they 

 require no further nourishment. In this stage they 

 remain until the warmer weather causes them to be 

 transformed into moths, when they emerge, either to 

 remain dormant for a further period, or to fly off to 

 deposit eggs on the food plants of their coming genera- 



