THE BOLL WORM CHARACTERS AND TRANSFORMATIONS. 365 
The duration of the egg state is said by Prof. R. W. Jones to be from 
three to five days, but in spring and late fall a longer time elapses be- 
fore hatching, while in midsummer the worms may occasionally appear 
i?i two days from the time <>t* ovi position. 
The Larva (Plate III, Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5; Plate IV, Figs. 3, 6, 10, 13, 
14, IT), 10, 17, IS, 10, 20, 22 .—The newly-hatched Boll Worm has much 
the appearance of the young Cotton Worm. It is rather darker in 
color, however, and though walking like a looper to a certain degree, its 
pro-legs are much better developed than is the case with Aletia. No 
marked difference in the size of the legs is observable, except that the 
anterior pair, although apparently perfectly formed, is shorter and 
weaker than the others. The head is large, as are also the piliferous 
tubercles, while the hairs arc long and stout in proportion to the size of 
the body. The larva feeds at first at the spot on which it was born, be 
it leaf, petiole, stalk, involucre, corolla, or boll; but it soon manifests a 
migratory tendency, crawling from one leaf to another, and letting itself 
drop and swing suspended from a line of silk, until, sooner or later, a 
young bud or boll is found, into which it bores, it often happens that 
several days pass while the young worm is searching for a boll, during 
which time it feeds upon the leaves. Indeed, as will be instanced later, 
the worm may and does occasionally pass the whole of its larval exist- 
ence with no other food than leaves. 
The passage of the young I>oll Worm into the flower bud is a fre- 
quent — perhaps the most frequent — cause of tin* flaring of the involucre 
and the final dropping of the bud or young boll. (Plate IV, Figs. 8, ) 
The idea that this u shedding of cotton," as it is called, is mainly caused 
by insects, is not generally accepted at the South; vet such is t lie ease, 
and the Boll Worm is the chief of the malefactors. An examination 
of the shed bud or boll will show that in nearly every ease it is pierced 
by a small hole. (Plate IV, Pig. 2.) Frequently granular excrement is 
to be seen on the involucre, between it and the boll, and when this is 
the case it is proof positive of the agency of Ileliothis. But frequently, 
also, a hole or puncture is to be seen with no sign of excrement. In 
such cases it is probably the wort of some Hemipterous insect. Of 
these, Mr. (''lover has briefly described CaloeorU rapidus Say, and C. 
MmavAihitus II. Schf., in the following words:* 
I observed three insects (C. bimocuJatux) when confined under glass, sucking the sap 
from the buds and young balls, their only food. The young eventually completed 
tbeir transformations into perfect insects. They were observed, moreover, to eject 
large drops of green sap from their abdomen 8, which could only have been procured 
from the buds themselves. * * * The perfect insect is seven-twentieths of an inch 
in length ; the antenna' are brown and green, the eyes brown ;i the thorax somewhat 
triangular; the anterior part green, and shaded with reddish-brown posteriorly: the 
legs brown and green ; the wing-cases with a cros6, shaped like therdetter X, forming 
four triangles, those nearest the thorax being reddish-brown; the sido triangles are 
green. 
See Bibliographical List : Glover (1855). 
