Photo by W. Sterling. Larval stages, found inside cotton squares and bolls, are legless grubs with brown heads that grow to about inch long before forming a pupa that resembles the adult features but appears mummy-like. Adults emerge in 4 to 6 days and chew their way out of the cotton square or boll in which they developed. Development from egg to adult can be completed in 16 to 18 days. Six or seven generations can be produced each year.
Mouthparts are for chewing.
Some of these feeding sites are used to lay eggs in by the females. After inserting the egg into the feeding puncture, she secretes a sticky substance that covers the cavity that hardens and forms a wart-like blemish. Feeding punctures do not have this wart-like blemish. Infested cotton squares or bolls turn yellow and falls off the plant. Larger infested bolls may not drop, but cotton lint developing in these bolls is damaged.