The characters nectariless and glabrous in Gossypium spp. were evaluated in test strains for resistance to 5 lepidopterous cotton pests. Nectariless caused reductions ranging from 39 to 64% in egg deposition by the bollworm, Heliothis zea (Boddie), and the tobacco budworm, H. virescens (F.). Glabrous caused a reduction of more than 60% in eggs deposited by the Heliothis spp. Plants with both nectariless and glabrous characters had 80% fewer eggs of these species than a strain that was comparable to commercial varieties. Bolls of nectariless plants had significantly fewer mines formed by pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders), larvae, and significantly fewer larvae of the cabbage looper, Trichoplusia ni (Hübner), and the cotton leaf worm, Alabama argillacea (Hübner), on the foliage than the nectaried plants. Numbers of P. gossypiella larval mines and T. ni larvae in or on glabrous and hirsute strains were not significantly different.