rACKAED.l THE BOLL-WORM. 779 



stead of green. It is usually deposited singly on the outside of the 

 iu volucel or outer calyx of the flower or young boll, and each female moth 

 is capable of thus consigning to their proper places upward of five hun- 

 dred eggs." — (Kiley.) 



" Some eggs of the boll-worm hatched in three or four days after being 

 brought in from the field, the inclosed worms gnawing a hole through 

 the shell of the egg, and then escaping. They soon commenced feeding 

 upon the tender, fleshy substance of the calyx near the place where the 

 egg had been deposited. When they had gained strength, some of the 

 worms pierced through the calyx and others through the petals 

 of the closed flower-bud, or even penetrated into the young and 

 tender boll itself. The pistils and stamens of the open flower are 

 frequently found to be disturbed and injured without any apparent 

 cause. This has been done by the young boll- worm ; when hidden 

 iu the unopened bud, it has eaten one side only of the pistils and 

 stamens, so that when the flower is open the parts injured are dis- 

 torted and maimed, and very frequently the flower falls without form- 

 ing any boll whatever. In many cases, however, the young worm 

 bores through the bottom of the flower into the immature boll before 

 the old flower falls, thus leaving 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, raiu 

 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 with 

 the involucre spread open and of a sickly yellow color, it may be safely 

 concluded that it has been attacked by the boll-worm, and will soon 



perish and fall to the ground. 



******* 



"The buds injured by the worm may be readily distinguished by a 

 minute hole where it has entered, and which, when, cut open, will be 

 found partially filled with small black grains, something like coarse 

 gunpowder, which is nothing but the digested food after having passed 

 through the bodv of the worm." — (Glover, Monthly Agricultural Report, 

 July, 1866.) 



When fully grown, the worm descends into the ground, there forming 

 an oval cocoon of earth interwoven with silk wherein it changes to a 

 bright chestnut-brown chrysalis with four spines at the end of the body, 

 the two middle ones being stouter than the others. In this state it re- 

 mains three or four weeks when the moth escapes. Mr. Glover says 

 that " there are at least three broods each year in Georgia, the last 

 brood issuing as moths late in November. With us (Missouri) 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. I have known them to issue iu this latitude after 

 the first of November, when no frost had previously occurred." — (Riley.) 



Description of the moth. — I regret that there is no good description of the caterpillar 

 iu existence and that I have no opportunity to study these caterpillars either in a 



