13 



suddeuly brought up to tliem, so that at every stop tlie body assumes tlie 

 shape of an arch ; wliereas the grass worm glides along by moving its feet 

 alternately and gradually vfithout raising the middle of its body from the 

 leaf. The cotton worm has also a habit of doubling itself up suddenly 

 when disturbed, and springing to a distance, but the grass worm merely 

 rolls itself up somewhat like a snake when coiled. The cotton worm when 

 about to change spins a very loose web or cocoon among or in the leaves or 

 branches of the cotton plant or weeds infesting the field, at some distance 

 from the ground. The grass worm, on the contrary, comes down from the 

 plant it has fed on and retires under stones, loose earth, or buries itself in 

 the ground fbefore forming its cocoon. The perfect moth of the real cotton 

 worm is much more angular and gTaceful in form, with the upper wings of 

 a somewhat reddish or claret colored brown, and there is always a darker 

 spot having a light center, more or less defined in the middle of these 

 wings, while the under wings are of a dark ash color. The grass moth is 

 much, more clumsy in form, its upper wings being clouded and barred 

 with dark and light grayish brown while the under wings are lighter 

 colored. 



Whether the cotton caterpillar feeds upon any other plants or not, I am 

 unable to say, never having found it eating anything but cotton, and even 

 when seen on weeds in the cotton fields, the worm has merely wandered 

 away to find some suitable locality in which to 8-pin its cocoon. Several 

 cotton worms, kept for the purpose of experiment constantly refused to eat 

 anything but cotton, although supplied daily with fresh leaves of all the 

 weeds or plants in the neighborhood, and several actually starved to death 

 rather than touch anything but cotton as food." 



These worms appear in successive broods, and accomplish their trans- 

 formations in a period of about twenty-eight days. Their growth and 

 changes seem to depend in some degree on the condition of the atmosphere, 

 moist warm weather favoring their rapid development, cold seasons having 

 a contrary eifect. 



PREVENTIVES. 



From the fact that the cotton moth is capable of making long flights, 

 and is of migratory abilities and tendencies, some persons contend and have 

 contended for years that the only way to master the pest " is to destroy 

 the moths before they have a chance to couple and reproduce, while others 

 as positively assert that, " any attack made on the insect, while in the 

 form of a moth is entirely useless," but if the parent can be destroyed, and 

 there is no good reason to doubt that it can, it seems poor policy for the 

 planter to wait for the children and grand-children, particularly when each 

 generation is many millions in excess of its predecessor in point of numbers. 



Among the many remedies recommended for the cotton moth, and the 

 only artificial one which has been used at all advantageously, is the light- 

 ing of fires and lamps in the fields, whigli attract and destroy the miller, 



