page_title: Helicoverpa armigera
section_title: Lifecycle
hierarchical_section_title: Helicoverpa armigera / Lifecycle
caption_attribution_description: English: Helicoverpa armigera
context_page_description: The cotton bollworm, corn earworm, or Old World bollworm is a moth, the larvae of which feed on a wide range of plants, including many important cultivated crops. It is a major pest in cotton and one of the most polyphagous and cosmopolitan pest species. It should not be confused with the similarly named, related species Helicoverpa zea.
context_section_description: The female cotton bollworm can lay several hundred eggs, distributed on various parts of the plant. Under favourable conditions, the eggs can hatch into larvae within three days and the whole lifecycle can be completed in just over a month.
  The eggs are spherical and 0.4 to 0.6 mm in diameter, and have a ribbed surface. They are white, later becoming greenish.
  The larvae take 13 to 22 days to develop, reaching up to 40 mm long in the sixth instar. Their colouring is variable, but mostly greenish and yellow to red-brown. The head is yellow with several spots. Three dark stripes extend along the dorsal side and one yellow light stripe is situated under the spiracles on the lateral side. The ventral parts of the larvae are pale. They are rather aggressive, occasionally carnivorous and may even cannibalise each other. If disturbed, they fall from the plant and curl up on the ground.
  The pupae develop inside a silken cocoon over 10 to 15 days in soil at a depth of 4–10 centimetres (1.6–3.9 in), or in cotton bolls or maize ears.
caption: Lateral view
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D50", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "386", "Image YResolution": "386", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Picasa 3.0", "Image DateTime": "2008:09:10 20:49:43", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "210", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "990", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5249", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF FNumber": "16", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:09:11 15:51:51", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:09:11 15:51:51", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, auto mode, return light detected", "EXIF FocalLength": "82", "EXIF SubSecTime": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1024", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "768", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "866", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 2, 1, 1, 0]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "123", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Soft", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "849670132d8f650b9e295df90fdb2373"}