Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders) eggs were distributed over all parts of cotton plants with usually one per site. During early season (July–August) females preferred to oviposit on CIM-70, CIM-109 and NIAB-78 which flowered earlier than the late maturing varieties, Alseemi-515 and CIM-135. On medium maturing varieties, 77% more eggs were laid in September and 14% in October. On late maturing varieties, 85% and 46% more eggs were laid during the corresponding period compared with CIM-70. Most oviposition on flower buds was during August (72.5%) and on bolls during September (70.6%) and October (85%), when few eggs were laid on vegetative parts. Females from diapause larvae lived on average 7.3 days with lower fecundity (75 eggs/female) compared with the non-diapause generation (9.0 days; 125 eggs/female). Females preferred half grown flower buds (7–10 days old) for oviposition, laying 82–94% of the total eggs compared with 7–11% on large flower buds. More bolls from rosette and healthy flowers during August were shed compared with September and October with significant differences between months. Shedding was minimum in CIM-70 and Alseemi-515 but the differences were non-significant. However, differences between these two varieties and NIAB-78, CIM-109 and CIM-135 were significant. Shedding of bolls was between 2nd and 12th day of boll formation, the maximum being from 4th to 6th day. More than 64% of bolls that developed from rosette flowers were shed, whereas, 8–10% were shrivelled on one side and the rest were normal. Bolls that developed from rosette flowers had fewer seeds and less lint than those which developed from healthy flowers.