92 
AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
and, from this circumstance, derive their common name of “span- 
worm,” or “looper.” 
The favorite food of these insects appeared to consist of the petals. 
In some places, they were very numerous, as many as four having 
been taken from one bloom alone. In color, they varied much from 
green to brown ; but botli were similarly banded with another color. 
The chrysalides were fixed by the tail to the leaves with a. glutinous 
matter or silk, and measured about seven-twentieths of an inch in length ; 
were of a brownish-green color, and remarkable for having the upper 
part of the thorax somewhat square, flat, and furnished with two 
minute protuberances, or spines, over the head and eyes. When dis- 
turbed, they instantly drop from the leaves, and susperid themselves 
in mid-air, by means of a thread, which issues from the mouth; and 
although exceedingly abundant in one part of the field, yet they 
were scarcely to be found out of that particular spot. 
As these insects are very small, and eat holes in the petals of the 
flowers alone they cannot injuriously affect the general crop. 
THE LARGER SPAN-WORM. 
Another span-worm, or caterpillar, (PI. VIII. fig. 4,) appears in 
the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida, early in October, and feeds upon 
the petals of the cotton-flower. It measures, when fully grown, 
from an inch and a half to an inch and three-fourths in length ; the 
color is reddish-brown, marked with faint, longitudinal darker stripes; 
the head is somewhat angular, and divided at the top; there is a 
light spot on each side, about the middle of the body, and two short 
excrescences, or warts, on the extremity. In several specimens, there 
are white spots running down each side of the back. The chrysalis 
is a little more than half an inch in length, and is of a brownish 
color. The moth measures an inch and three-tenths across the 
expanded wings, which are of a light, clouded-grey color, with an 
irregular, dark, oblique line running across the upper-wing, and two 
others, not quite so distinct, nearer the body. There is also a dark, 
oblique line, and another fainter one, crossing the under-wing ; the 
margins are scalloped with a darker color ; the antennm of the spe- 
cimen figured are feathered. 
This caterpillar feeds upon the petals of the cotton-flower, and, 
when disturbed, assumes a stiff, erect attitude, in which it might 
easily be mistaken by men or birds, for a dried twig or stick. When 
about to change, in October, it descends into the earth, becomes a 
brownish chrysalis, and in about fourteen days the moth appears. 
The caterpillars are not very numerous, and therefore can do but 
little harm to the general crop. 
Another span-worm, somewhat similar to the above in shape and 
color, is very numerous in cotton-fields, but feeds upon the bind-weed 
flower, (convolvulus,) and does not disturb cotton. 
I 
