COTTON 
187 
the smaller bolls and the flower buds to the young 
and immature worms. 
After living thus for two or three (and some- 
times even for four) weeks, the larva reaches its 
full growth, and now, weary of the world in this 
form, it seeks some place for rest and change. It 
finds this in the very soil out of which the plant 
comes and upon which it is fed. It enters the 
ground, and out of earth it welds an oval cell, and 
here remains from a week to a month. At the end 
of its pupa life, it appears as a moth, varied in its 
markings and somewhat stout in body. Its dress 
is bright in color, shading from a dull yellow to an 
olive green. 
An active little creature, we find it darting here 
and there, but usually seeking the night time for 
exercise, food and work. Whether it thinks it 
safer to appear at this time or whether it is some- 
what ashamed of its deeds, does not appear; still we 
know it hides among the clover and the grass during 
the day, and with the approach of darkness comes 
out of its seclusion to find food and a place to 
deposit its eggs. 
Unlike the two insects previously described, the 
moth seeks sweeter feeding-grounds and more 
appetizing foods, such as the honey found in the 
blossoms of the cowpea, the clovers, and other 
nectar-secreting plants. 
THE SEASON'S POPULATION 
A single female deposits something like 500 eggs 
at a time. The average time occupied in the various 
changes from the egg to the adult state of the moth 
is from thirty-five to forty days; and since the first 
appearance is about the last of April or the first of 
