COTTON OR WEEVILS 5 



white, footless grub appears. This grub looks very much like a 

 small worm and all it can do is eat and grow. 



Owing to the care taken by the mother weevil in placing the egg 

 within the bud, the little grub finds itself actually touching the very 

 kind of tender, juicy food that it needs. After eating away for 

 from 7 to 12 days, the grub, or larva as the scientist calls it, becomes 

 full grown (fig. 3, A) and changes into another stage called the 

 pupa (fig. 3, B). This time in the life of the weevil is like the 

 well-known chrysalis stage of the butterfly. 



In the meantime all the inside part of the flower bud has been 

 eaten. Needless to say, it will never bloom for it is entirely dead. 

 Frequently these eaten flower buds drop off the plant and fall to 

 the ground. Even before the flower buds drop they look very dif- 

 ferent from healthy buds. They become whitish and the three outer 



Fig. 3. — The pearly white egg which the mother weevil puts into a tiny hole in the 

 flower bud hatches into a grub. This grub eats and grows for from 7 to 12 days. 

 It then changes to a pupa. From three to five days later the little creature sheds 

 its skin. It has now become a full-grown or " adult " weevil, like its mother. 

 By using its tiny jaws it soon cuts a hole in the flower bud and crawls out. The 

 weevil grub is shown at A, the pupa at B, and the adult weevil, feeding on a cotton 

 boll, at C. All are natural size 



leaves or bracts open out or flare. In a healthy bud these bracts 

 are pressed together. Figure 4 shows this difference between healthy 

 buds and a flared bud. 



After the pupal stage of the weevil has lasted 'from three to five 

 days another change takes place; the little creature sheds its skin 

 and wriggles clear of it in the exact form of the parent weevil that 

 laid the egg. The egg has now become a full-grown or adult weevil, 

 and it is time to leave its childhood home. It is still inside the walls 

 of the flower bud, but by using its tiny jaws it soon cuts a hole the 

 size of its body and crawls through it to the outside world. 



When the little bug first comes out of the cotton square its body 

 is soft and orange colored. After it has found food and lived in the 

 open air for a few days the shell of its body hardens and turns a 

 darker shade. In about five days from the time of leaving the 



