When it first emerges it is yellowish, then becomes grayish brown and finally assumes a black shade.

It breeds on no other plant than cotton and feeds on the boll.

This little animal, at first attacked the cotton crop in Texas.

It was not thought that it would extend its work into the heart of the South so as to become of national consequence, but it has, at the rate of forty to one hundred sixty miles annually, invaded all of the cotton district except that of the Carolinas and Virginia.

The damage it does, varies according to the rainfall and the harshness of the winter, increasing with the former and decreasing with the latter.