The Cotton Worm—Its History, Character, Visitations, Etc. [pp. 535-543]

THE COTTON WORM.
Here then it would appear was an end of the cotton worm, for a season at least, for those which yet remain in chrysalis in the fence corners, will change to the fly in ten days. But where are now the cotton
leaves upon which the pregnant female is to deposit her eggs? There
is not one left. If they are placed on any other leaf the eggs may
hatch, but the worm must perish, as we have just seen them perishing
by myriads while wencing their way through a various and luxuriant
herbage in search of that food intended for them by nature. In ten
days from tlhe time that the worm becomes a chrysalis on the borders of
the cotton fields, a host of flies are seen issuing therefrom: they go
forth in search of food for their forthcoming progeny; now it is to
be found their days are numbered, in ten more if they meet with no
cotton leaves they themselves must die, and thus put an end to the
whole race. But their search is continued, and now when the weary
insect is ready to finish its term of days, a tender but sparse foliage
crowns the leafless twigs of the cotton plant, on them the eggs are
deposited: they hatch, the worm eats, returns again to its chrysalis.
The cotton stalk still puts forth new leaves, they grow and expand
until the fields again look green; ten days, aye, forty elapses, yet
there is not a worm to be found. One would have thought that this
second crop of leaves would scarcely have been sufficient for a single
repast for them, yet the food that they so lately devoured with such
voraciousness is now left untouched What is the matter! Why
don't they eat, their food is spread before them? Read on, the answer
will be found in the sequel. Let us examine the cause. In nearly
every fourth leaf we find a chrysalis writhing and contorting itself at
the touch. Ah! here is the explanation of the difficulty, this is no ten
days chrysalis, but that in which it is to hibernate, possibly for one win.
ter, perchance for twenty. Let us take a pocket full of these home,
and place them beneath tumblers and wait patiently to see what they
will produce. If I had found a treasure my delight could not have been
greater than that I experienced at the idea of unraveling this mystery.
But man is prone to disappointment, as we shall soon see. About the
fifteenth of November the insect appeared, but mirabile dictu! as different from the cotton fly as it is possible to suppose one insect could
differ from another. It belonged altogether to a different family, a de,
scription of which I give, as follows:
Antenna fiiiform; black, six lines in length. Palpi ffour; two external and two intermediate, the external white, twice the length of the
other two, in shape angular, the angle projecting externally. The
two middle are straight, scarcely perceptible over a strong light; they
are of a dark color. Wings four; hymenopterous; iacumbent, extend.
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