AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
98 
to dislike the open light, and were generally found in dark and ob- 
There were likewise several small insects found in rotted-bolls, 
such as the Colastus semitectus, and many others, which it will be 
unnecessary to enumerate here, as their habits are very much the 
same as those above mentioned, nearly all of them frequenting such 
places merely for food and shelter, and not causing the rot in any 
m The hemipterous insects, heretofore mentioned, certainly do pierce 
the bolls with their beaks, or piercers, for the sake of the sap ; tor 
they have been caught in the very act, and this even before any ap- 
pearance of the rot could be discovered. They might, therefore, per- 
haps, with better reason, be suspected of having something more to 
do with the disease than the small beetles already mentioned. But, 
even in this case, it would he well to investigate further oeiore com- 
ing to a definite conclusion. 
THE CORN-WORM. 
( Heliothes ?) 
The caterpillar producing this small moth, (PI. IX. fig. 3,) de- 
scribed in the Agricultural Report for 1854, as injurious to the Indian 
corn in the Southern States, is likewise found in the bolls of cotton 
which have been split open by the rot, but can have nothing to do 
with producing the disease. It most probably feeds upon the seeds 
contained in the rotted bolls. , . . , n ... , . 
The chrysalis is formed in a cocoon inside the boll ; it is about one- 
fifth of an inch in length, of a brown color, and formed in a cocoon 
of silk, interwoven with foBces and dust from the boll. 
The caterpillar is about three-tenths of an inch in length, of a red- 
dish or pink color, with the head and part of the first segment 
brownish. It has six pectoral, eight ventral, and two anal feet, and 
is able to suspend itself by a thread, when disturbed, ihe body is 
slightly covered with a few short hairs. _ 
The moths appear in about fourteen days, in warm weather, and, 
when expanded, measure nearly two-fifths of an inch ; the upper- 
wings are of a shaded chestnut-brown, mottled with darker brown and 
black • the tips of the wings are marked with dark spots ; the under- 
wings’ are very narrow, brown and deeply fringed with fine hairs, 
presenting almost the appearance of feathers. The insect, when at 
rest, places the upper wings together, forming a ridge with the ex- 
tremity turned up. There appear to be several generations of these 
insects during the season, and, although found in rotted bolls, they 
are perfectly harmless as to the causing of disease. 
There are several other insects found in rotted bolls which it will 
be unnecessary here to describe ; for, although, as before stated, they 
are found in bolls already split open by the rot, or eaten into by the 
worm vet they are no more the cause of the disease than the wood- 
pecker is the cause of the death of the tree out of which it extracts 
th e insects which have already accomplished its destruction. 
