eggs are irregular in shape, yellowish white, and not 
easily seen. They hatch in about 3 days. 
The newly hatched larvae (pickleworms) are yellow- 
ish white. Numerous dark spots soon appear on them; 
these disappear before the larvae are full grown. 
In 10 to 28 days the larvae are full grown. At this 
time they are about 34 inch long, and have yellowish- 
green bodies and brown heads. 
A full-grown larva leaves the part of the plant where 
it has fed, attaches itself to a leaf on the plant or to a 
leaf or other object on the ground under the plant and 
spins a thin web around its body before transforming to 
a pupa. 
The pupae are 14 to 34 inch long. At first they are 
greenish white; later, a shiny reddish brown. 
The pupal stage lasts 6 to 31 days except in cold 
weather when it may last as long as 70 days. 
The life cycle from egg to adult normally is completed 
in 22 to 53 days. 
Several overlapping generations of the pickleworm 
occur each year in the South. There may be only a 
partial one in the northern limit of the range of the insect. 
The pickleworm apparently is able to survive the 
winter only in semitropical areas where living host plants 
do so. In other areas the first brood of larvae usually is 
small and causes little damage to cultivated crops. The 
insect then gradually increases in abundance until frost 
kills its host plants. Summer and fall plantings usually 
are the ones that receive most injury. 
Pickleworms feed throughout the winter on cultivated 
and native host plants in extreme southern Florida and 
extreme southern Texas. The species gradually spreads 
northward during the spring and summer of each year. 
This spread results from flights of the moths and occa- 
sionally from shipment of infested squash or other hosts. 
Larvae have been found in central Florida in March, in 
southern Georgia in April, in coastal South Carolina in 
May, in coastal North Carolina in June, in eastern 
Virginia in August, and in Maryland in September. 
Similar northward spread evidently occurs from other 
Certain insects may be mistaken for the pickleworm when 
found on cucurbit crops. These are the melonworm, 
which feeds chiefly on foliage; the squash vine borer, 
which usually confines its feeding to stalks near the soil 
surface; and the corn earworm, which usually is found 
only in the flowers. 
