THE BOLL WORM — CHARACTERS AND TRANSFORMATIONS. 369 
There were hundreds of the pupa- devoured 1>\ niiiio memy that broke into the larger 
end. Much of this work was freshly done ; and when we first observed it, a few days 
previously, I was disposed to attribute it to a small blaek or dark-brown grub (sup- 
posed to be a Telephorus), many of which I found in the new 1> -rilled chrysalids, de- 
vouring the remains. But theso were never in sufficient numbers to aeeount for the 
destruction of the Aletke. Professor Jones on the occasion alluded to eaughi a boll- 
worm in the very act ; and I have 6ince verified their propensity by finding them to 
prefer this diet to every other. Further observation, therefore, led me to acquit the 
little Telephorids of initiating the robbery. They only play the jackal at this feast ; 
the lion they follow is the boll-worm. 
Dr. Anderson, in one of bis letters, says: "Accompanying this I send 
a larva (Hcliothis armigtra) found preying upou Aletia larva in its web, 
and this has been so often repeated as to induce me to think it may be 
classed among those destructive to Aletia." 
This habit was also observed by Mr. Hubbard in Florida and by Mr. 
Schwarz in Alabama. The latter states that it was more often the 
strongly marked, highly striped individuals which were found preying 
upon the Aletia pupa. 1 than any other variety . 
No instance, so far as we are aware, have been noticed or recorded 
where the Boll Worm has been found feeding upon Alet ia larvae when 
free upon the plant ; but in the breeding-cages it will eat almost anything 
in the shape of a Lepidopterous larva, no matter how much vegetable 
food may be supplied to it. An interesting instance of this came under 
our notice in 18S2, in the case of a larva of Hcliothis found feeding 
upon tomato Leaves, which, when placed in a breeding-cage with larvae 
of Plnsia brassicce, found upon the same plant, not only destroyed the 
JMusia larvae, in preference to feeding upon the lu sh tomato, leaves 
furnished to it, but even penetrated a newly spun cocoon and devoured 
a larva which was tilled with specimens of Oopidosoma t runcatdhnn , 
parasites and all. 
The leugth of life of the larva of Ileliothis varies of course with the 
season of the year, and also with the state of the weather. According to 
Dr. G. \V. Smith- Vaniz, of Canton, Miss., who has reared the worm 
from the egg state, it occupies from egg to papa, in the month of Au- 
gust, twenty-one days. Prof. K. W. Jones, without further qualification, 
places it at from fifteen to twenty days, and Judge W. J. Jones states 
that the early brood in corn spends three weeks in the larva state. 
The only detailed statement of the growth of the worm yet published is 
the following, taken from Glover (18G6) : 
A Boll Worm which was bred from an egg found upon the involucre or " ruffle" of 
a flower-bud grew to rather more than a twentieth of an inch in length by the third 
day, when it shed its skin, having eaten in the mean time nothing but the paren- 
chyma or tender fleshy substance from the outside of the calyx. On the fifth day it 
pierced through the outer calyx and commenced feeding hibide. On the sixth day it 
again shed its skin, and had increased to about the tenth of an inch in length. On 
the tenth day it again shed its skin, ate the interior of the young tlower-bnd, and had 
cjrown much larger. On the fourteenth day for the fourth time it shed its skin, at- 
63 CONG 24 
