6 REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



couuted as many as 49 eggs and egg-shells on a single leaf. With de- 

 velopment the color becomes more dingy, or pale yellowish, frequently 

 "with brownish borders or a green curve, due to the coiled embryo, which 

 maj" be seen through the transparent shell. The young worm or larva 

 eats its way out through an irregular hole on one side, usually during 

 the morning, ere the dew is dissipated, and from three to four days after 

 oviposition. This is the average time elapsing between the laying of 

 the egg and the hatching of the worm therefrom in ordinary midsummer 

 weather, but the time varies with the temperature, and a much longer 

 period is required in spring and late autumn. 



All eggs perish that are unhatched when overtaken by frost, as is 

 not infrequently the case. The vacated and glistening shell is more 

 readily noticed upon the green background than the unhatched egg. 

 At Fig. 1 we have shown one of the more perfect eggs both from above 

 (a) and from the side (Z)), and greatly enlarged, so as to indicate the 

 sculpture, the natural size being indicated between them. 



Humidity seems to favor hatching. Aphides or plant-lice are quite 

 often mistaken for the eggs of this insect, while the ''Mealy -bug" {Dactyl- 

 ojnus sp.), a species of Aleurodes, the eggs of the Lady -birds (Coccinel- 

 Udce), those of the Lace- wings {Chrysopa), and even a minute snail, not 

 uncommon on the cotton plant, are likewise so mistaken. 



THE WORM OR LARVA. 



This, as it appears in its different stages of growth on Plate I, is 

 familiar to every planter. Varying greatly in ground-color, it is char- 

 acterized by the particular position of the black i)il- 

 iferous spots upon the head and upon the body ', by 

 the white ring which surrounds each of these spots; 

 by its pure white subdorsal lines and by its elongate and 

 slender form. It is a semi-looper, the first pair of pro- 

 legs being very much reduced in size and seldom used, 

 and the second pair, though longer, only about half as 

 long as the succeeding pair.* 



The worm molts five times during growth and 

 changes appearance but little after the first molt. Ex- 

 ceptionally only four molts are suffered. 

 The newly-hatched worm measures 1.6°^"^, is of a 

 Fig. 2. --is"EWLY-HATCHED uniform, pale dingy yellow, marked as in Fig. 2, with 

 T^leVeZ' ""lAftr polished, black, slightly elevated spots, each bearing a 

 KUey.) short, pale hair. Before the first skin is shed the color 



often becomes slightly greenish and sometimes inclines to orange. After 

 the first molt the piliferous spots are more conspicuous, the hairs from 

 them longer and black, and the characteristic markings appear, though 

 less distinctly than after the second j but from this time on the prevail- 

 ing color is very variable, being either entirely of various shades of pale 

 or pea-green, or more or less intensely black along the back. 



