12 



of the base of operations, whether truthful or otherwise, that the cotton 

 caterpillar first received the name of "army worm." 



It is said also that these interesting insects have a partiality for " long 

 staple" cotton, and that the moth in its flights will pass over a field of " short 

 staple," to rest in a more remote one where the long-stapled dainty is grow- 

 ing. 



HOW THEY LOOK. 



The annual losses by the notorious cotton worm amounts to many millions 

 of dollars, and in years of its extensive prevalence brings ruin to thousands, 

 yet, even in the cotton growing sections, not one person out of every one 

 hundred, could tell a cotton worm from the grub of the most harmless and 

 beautiful butterfly. 



Entomologists classify many insects for which the cotton plant furnishes 

 food, but regard only one as the inveterate enemy of the plant. As a great 

 confusion still exists about the habits and appearance of the true cotton 

 caterpillar, (Anomis xylenas) many confounding it with the grass worm 

 which usually makes its appearance about the same time, I give below a 

 description of the real caterpillar which 1 copy verbatum from the " Report 

 of the Entomologist," for 1867, prepared for the Agricultural Department, 

 at Washington, by the distinguished Townsend Grover, than whom I could 

 quote no higher or better informed authority on the subject. 



" As false alarms about the appearance of the cotton worm in certain 

 districts are frequently inserted in the Southern newspapers, by persons 

 interested in the sale of cotton, when the worms seen in the fields are 

 merely boll worms, grass worms, or some other comparatively harmless 

 caterpiller, I will mention some distinguishing marks by which the cotton 

 moth may be recognized in either the egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, or perfect 

 state. In the first place, the egg. of the cotton worm is round and very 

 much flattened in form, and of a green color, whereas the egg of the boll 

 worm moth is round, somewhat bluntish, conical in shape and of a yellow 

 color. The egg of the cotton worm is mostly deposited on the leaf or 

 branches, while the egg of the boll worm is usually placed in the so-called 

 " ruffle " or envelope of tl^e flower. 



The caterpillar of the cotton worm has six pectoral or front feet, two anal 

 and eight ventral, the two foremost of the ventral feet being very small, 

 apparently useless, and not employed for grasping like the other six ; while 

 in the grass worm, the legs are all perfectly formed and used when creeping 

 from leaf to leaf. Owing to this imperfection in the formation in the first 

 pair of ventral feet, the cotton caterpillar always moves like a span worm 

 or looper, that is, by alternately contracting and expanding its body 

 holding fast by means of its hind feet to the object on which it rests, while 

 the head and fore-feet are extended as far as possible, the stalk or leaf 

 being securely grasped by the pectoral feet, the hinder part aud legs are 



