. Cotton or boll weevils. Boll weevil; Cotton. COTTON OR BOLL WEEVILS 6 then puts a very small pearly-white egg in it. The egg is about the size of a pinhead and is pushed deep down in the hole. In a short time the juices of the plant harden around the egg and completely seal it up within the square. About 3 days later the egg hatches, and a tiny, white, footless grub appears. This grub looks very much like a small worm, and all it can do is eat and grow. Owing to the care taken by the mother weevil in placing the egg within the square, the little grub finds itself actually touching the very k
. Cotton or boll weevils. Boll weevil; Cotton. COTTON OR BOLL WEEVILS 6 then puts a very small pearly-white egg in it. The egg is about the size of a pinhead and is pushed deep down in the hole. In a short time the juices of the plant harden around the egg and completely seal it up within the square. About 3 days later the egg hatches, and a tiny, white, footless grub appears. This grub looks very much like a small worm, and all it can do is eat and grow. Owing to the care taken by the mother weevil in placing the egg within the square, the little grub finds itself actually touching the very kind of tender, juicy food that it needs. After eating away for 7 to 12 days, the grub, or larva, as the scientist calls it, becomes full grown (fig. 2, A) and changes into another stage, called the pupa (fig. 2, B). This stage in the life of the weevil is like the well-known chrysalis stage of the butterfly, when no food is Figure 2.—The pearly-white egg which the mother weevil puts into a tiny hole in the cotton square hatches into a grub. This grub eats and grows for 7 to 12 days. It then changes to a pupa. The weevil grub is shown at .1 and the pupa at B. A is about natural size and B about twice natural size. After the pupal stage of the weevil has lasted from 3 to 5 days. another change takes place; the little creature sheds its skin and wriggles clear of it in the exact form of the parent weevil that Laid the egg. The egg has now become an adult weevil, which is ready to leave its childhood home. It is still inside the walls of the square, but by using its tiny jaws it soon cuts a hole the size of its body and crawls through it to the outside world. When the weevil first comes out of the cotton square, its body is soft and reddish-brown colored. After it has found food and lived in the open air for a few days, the shell of its body hardens and turns a darker shade, hut it does not grow any larger. About 5 days after it has left the square, the weevil, if a fema
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookpublisherwashingtondcusdeptofagriculture
