The New Student's Reference Work/Cottonworm

Cottonworm, the larva of a moth doing great damage to the cotton-plant by eating the foliage. It is estimated by officials of the United States government that the loss occasioned by this insect in a year of great abundance of cotton-plants amounts to 30 million dollars. The average loss is placed at 15 million dollars. The perfect insect is a small, brownish moth, which flies at night and deposits eggs on the under side of the leaves of the cotton-plant. These eggs hatch in mid-summer within three days, and at once is begun the destruction of the leaves. The larva, when full-grown, is about an inch and three fourths in length, of a light-green color, striped with white and black and spotted with black and yellow. When through feeding, the caterpillar folds a leaf about itself, spins a cocoon and pupates; shortly after emerging, the moth lays her eggs. There may be seven broods in a single season. A related species destroys cotton in the ball. See Riley: Entomological Commission's 4th Report (Washington, 1885); Bulletin No. 18, New Series (Washington, 1898).