IMPORTANT INSECT ENEMIES OF COTTON 135 



The eggs are deposited on growing corn, cotton, tomatoes, 

 and sometimes on tobacco. Fresh corn silk^ are preferred 

 by the adults as a place for depositing eggs to all other 

 objects. 



The eggs hatch into small dark-colored caterpillars, 

 or larvse, within from three to five days after being depos- 

 ited. This is the destructive stage of the insect and for 

 this reason is the one most generally noticed. When the 

 larvEB have completed their growth, which usually requires 

 about 18 days, they crawl or drop to the ground, select 

 a suitable spot and burrow from 2 to 5 inches into the soil. 

 In their underground cell thej>^ go into the pupal or resting 

 stage. In the summer months this stage lasts only 12 or 

 15 days. The larvse that enter the soil late in the fall 

 pass the winter in the pupal stage. At the end of this 

 stage the adult insects emerge. 



The adult is a brownish yellow moth, measuring about 

 an inch and a half from tip to tip of the expanded wings. 

 These moths usually fly at dusk and after dark, feeding 

 upon the nectar of flowers. 



162. Food plants. — The cotton boll-worm is known 

 to feed upon a large number of different plants. Its 

 principal food plants are cotton, corn, tomatoes, tobacco 

 and many garden crops. Corn seems to be the preferred 

 food "of the boll-worm. It feeds upon the succulent corn 

 kernels and is often called the "corn-ear-worm." When 

 the kernels have become hardened it turns to cotton 'and 

 other crops. 



163. Damage. — The young caterpillars, when first 

 hatched, feed upon the leaves and tender parts of the cot- 

 ton plant close to where the eggs were laid. Later they 

 attack the bolls or bore into the bud. Sometimes the larva 

 will eat the entire contents of a boll before it leaves it. 



