6 REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
counted as many as 49 eggs and egg-shells on a single leaf. With de- 
velopment the color becomes more dingy, or ^ale yellowish, frequently 
with brownish borders or a green curve, due to the coiled embryo, which 
may be seen through the transparent shell. The young worm or larva 
eats its way out through an irregular hole on one side, usually during 
the morning, ere the dew is dissipated, and from three to four days after 
oviposition. This is the average time elapsing between the laying of 
the egg and the hatching of the worm therefrom in ordinary midsummer 
weather, but the time varies with the temperature, and a much longer 
period is required in spring and late autumn. 
All eggs perish that are unhatched when overtaken by frost, as is 
not infrequently the case. The vacated and glistening shell is more 
readily noticed upon the green background than the unhatched egg. 
At Fig. 1 we have shown one of the more perfect eggs both from above 
(n) and from the side (Z>), and greatly enlarged, so as to indicate the 
sculpture, the natural size being indicated between them. 
Humidity seems to favor hatching. Aphides or plant-lice are quite 
often mistaken for the eggs of this insect, while the u Mealy-bug" (Dac tyl- 
opius up,), a species of Alearodes, the eggs of the Lady -birds (Coccinel- 
li Vc), those of the Lace-wings (Chrysopa), and even a minute snail, not 
uncommon on the cotton plant, are likewise so mistaken. 
THE WORM OR LARVA. 
This, as it appears in its different stages v of growth on Plate I, is 
familiar to every planter. Varying greatly in ground color, it is char- 
acterized by the particular position of the black pil- 
iferous spots upon the head and upon the body ; by 
the white ring which surrounds each of these spots; 
by its pure white subdorsal lines and by its elongat e and 
slender form. It is a seini looper, the first pair of pro- 
legs being very much reduced in size and seldom used, 
and the second pair, though longer, only about half as 
long as the succeeding pair. 4 
The worm molts live times during growth and 
changes appearance but little after the first molt. Ex- 
ceptionally only four molts are suffered. 
The newly-hatched worm measures l.G mm , is of a 
Pig. 2-Newlyhatched uniform, pale dingy yellow, marked as in Fig. 2, with 
Cotton wo km : a i,ack ; lishe(1 black slightly elevated spots, each bearing a 
b, snlo view. (After l 770./ <■ i " 
short, pale hair. Before the first skin is shed the color 
often becomes slightly greenish and sometimes inclines to orange. After 
the first molt the piiiferous spots are more conspicuous, the hairs from 
them Longer and black, and the characteristic markings appear, though 
less distinctly than after the, secondj but from this time on the prevail- 
ing color is very variable, being either entirely of various shades of pale 
or pea-green, or more or less intensely black along the back. 
