214 
DISEASES OF THE COTTON PLATSTT. 
spotted with black, and slightly covered with short hairs. 
These variations of color may perhaps be caused by the 
food of the caterpillar. Some planters assert that, in the 
earlier part of the season, the green worms are found in the 
greatest number, while the dark brown are seen later in 
the fall, as we know is the case with the cotton caterpillar. 
The upper-wings of the moth are yellowish, in some 
specimens having a shade of green, but in others of red. 
There is an irregular dark band running across the wing, 
about an eighth of an inch from the margin, and a cres- 
cent-shaped dark spot near the centre ; several dark spots, 
each enclosing a white mark, are also discovered on the 
margin ; the under-wings are lighter colored, with a broad, 
black border on the margin, and are also veined distinctly 
with the same color. In the black border, however, there 
is a brownish-yeUow spot, of the same color as the rest of 
the under-wings, which is more distinct in some specimens 
than in others, but may always be plainly perceived ; there 
is also, in most specimens, a black mark or line in the 
middle of the under-wings, on the nervure ; but, in some, 
it is very indistinct. 
These moths multiply very rapidly ; for, as I have be- 
fore observed, one female moth sometimes contains five 
hundred eggs, which, if hatched in safety, would rapidly 
infest a whole field, three generations being produced in 
the course of a year. 
In an interesting communication from Colonel Benja- 
min F. Whitner, of Tallahassee, he states that the boll- 
worm was scarcely known in his neighborhood before the 
year 1841 ; and yet, in the short period of fourteen years, 
it had increased to such a degree as to have become one 
of the greatest enemies to the cotton on several plantations 
in that vicinity. 
