INSECTS. 
105 
bolls ; it is indelible, and considerably reduces the price of the cotton 
in the market. These insects have been much on the increase for the 
last ten years, which I attribute to the excess in planting, as well as 
the want of proper efforts for their destruction.” 
It has been stated by other planters, that the fceces of the insect 
produces the reddish or greenish stain, and that the red-bugs will col- 
lect where there are splinters or fragments of sugar-cane. Advantage 
has already been taken of this habit to collect them by means of small 
chips of sugar-cane, when they may be destroyed by boiling water ; 
and as they also collect around piles of cotton-seed, they may thus be 
easily decoyed, and then killed, either by fire or hot water, when con- 
gregated. All stumps and dead trees standing in the field should be 
well burnt out. The experiment of destroying them by means of the 
crushed sugar-cane and poison, has been tried ; but, as no report of 
the experiment has been received, it remains doubtful whether it can 
be recommended or not. 
INSECTS FOUND IN THE COTTON-FIELDS— NOT INJURIOUS TO 
THE CROP. 
{Zanlhidia niceppe.) 
There are many other insects found in cotton-fields, which are per- 
fectly harmless to the plant, although the larvre of many of them 
subsist upon the weeds which grow between the rows or around the 
edges of the plantation. 
Among these insects, we find butterflies, in general, one species 
of which is frequently seen hanging over the ground by hundreds, 
around moist and damp places. The caterpillar of this fly (PI. IX. 
fig. 8) is of a deep-green, velvety appearance, with a yellowish lon- 
gitudinal line running down each side. It was found upon the Cassia 
marylandica, and measured an inch and one-fifth in length. The 
chrysalis is greenish, with a very pointed head, and fastened to the 
branch or leaf by the tail, and by a thread fastened at each side and 
passed over its back. 
This butterfly is about an inch and four-fifths across the expanded 
wings, which are of an orange-color, with a broad, black border 
around the edges. 
THE ARGYNNIS COLUMBINA. 
The caterpillar of another butterfly (PI. IX. fig. 9) is often found 
on cotton-plants, where it has wandered from its natural food, which 
consists of the wild passion-flower, so often found growing as a weed 
amongst the crops. It is about an inch and two-fifths in length, of 
a bright-chesnut color, with two longitudinal black stripes along the 
sides, and a broken line of yellowish-white inside of each black 
stripe ; it has also two long, projecting, black horns, or protuberances, 
