'chapter II. 
CHARACTERS, HABITS, AND NATURAL HISTORY. 
[Plate I.] 
The Cotton Worm, like most other insects, and all belonging to its 
Order and Family, exists in lour distinct States, which differ much from 
each other. They arc, 1st, the egg ; 2d, the larva or worm ; 3d, the chrysa- 
lis; 4th, the imago or moth. 
The worm MT78T hatch from an egg deposited by the female moth. 
All theories to the contrary, s ich as its supposed spontaneous develop- 
ment from the plant, or its origin from the cotton-seed, are therefore 
utterly without foundation. They need emphatic denial here, because 
of their prevalence not only among the negroes and the more ignorant, 
but anions intelligent men unfamiliar with the principles of biology. 
Such theories always have been, and doubtless always will be entertained 
in explanation of the apparently sudden appearance and rapid multipli- 
cation of any insect or other organism in which the preliminary phases 
of the phenomena are easily overlooked or with difficulty traced. We 
will indicate the characteristics of these four states, so as to enable the 
reader unacquainted with any or all of them to recognize the species in 
any phase of its growth and to distinguish it from all other insects, and 
will give detailed descriptions of the different stages elsewhere;' On 
Plate T, more particularly, we have represented, of natural size, all the 
different phases, as they may be observed in the held. 
THE EGG. 
The egg is O.G mm wide, circular, much flattened and ribbed, as at Fig. 1. 
Of a bright bluish-green or sea-green when first laid, it contrasts suffi- 
ciently with the warmer green of the leaf to 
be easily detected, even by the naked eye 
when practised (Plate I, Fig. 1). It is i 
laid singly, and fastened with such firmness m 
as not to be easily removed without injury. V 
It is laid by preference, during early summer, 
on the under side of the larger and lower ^^^I83^<sc 6 
leaves, and seldom more than three or four fig.i.-eggof ai.f.tia: a.fromabove; 
are found on one leaf. In confinement and &. from side. (After Riiry.) 
exceptionally in nature it will be laid on the upper surface of the leaf, 
or on any other exposed part of the plant. In autumn, more particu- 
larly, the upper leaves receive a due share of the eggs, and we have 
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