AMERICAN ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 213 



and to use every effort in checking the spread of insects intro- 

 duced from other countries, are the prime functions of the 

 American Bureau of Entomology. How well it has carried out 

 its gigantic task in a number of cases it is the object of the 

 following notes to illustrate. 



Before proceeding to discuss a few selected instances, refer- 

 ence may, however, be made to the summary of the laws in force 

 against injurious insects and foul brood in the different States of 

 the Union forming the subject of Bulletin No. 6 of the Entomo- 

 logical Bureau. The careful and complete manner in which this 

 summary (which was issued in November of last year) has been 

 drawn up enables the reader to ascertain with the least possible 

 trouble how efficacious for their purpose are these laws as a 

 whole, and in what respects they might be improved by additional 

 local legislation. 



There are two insects to which, from force of circumstances, 

 the Bureau has been compelled to devote special attention, the 

 first of these being the Mexican cotton-boll weevil, and the 

 second the San Jose, or Chinese, scale-insect. In both instances 

 the Bureau is to be congratulated on the results of its investiga- 

 tions, both from the scientific and from the practical point of 

 view. 



The Mexican cotton-boll weevil {Anthonomas grandis) is a 

 relatively small beetle whose larvae attack the heads or " bolls " 

 of growing cotton, upon the internal tissues of which they feed. 

 The species has been known to science since the year 1843, 

 when it was observed in Vera Cruz ; and five years later it made 

 its appearance in one district of Mexico in such numbers as to 

 render cotton-growing impracticable. When or by what means 

 it crossed the Rio Grande it is now impossible to determine. 

 Certain it is that the insect made its appearance in Texas during 

 1892, and two years later had spread to half a dozen counties in 

 the Bronnsville district, when it was brought to the notice of the 

 Bureau of Entomology as a serious enemy to cotton-growing. 

 An officer of the division was immediately dispatched to Texas 

 to make investigations on the spot. The main practical sugges- 

 tion contained in his report was that cotton-growing should be 

 prohibited on a belt of land along the Rio Grande. Had this 

 been done, the northern advance of the pest would have been 

 effectually stopped. The authorities in Texas did not, however, 

 at the time see their way to adopting the suggestion; and in 



