OF WASHINGTON, VOLUME XVI, 1914 



feed upon Egyptian cotton as readily as upon the wild cotton. 

 One worm about one-half grown on October 2 was placed in a hole 

 cut through the carpel of an Egyptian cotton boll and four days 

 later it was noted that it had consumed two cotton seeds and hav- 

 ing plugged up the artificial entrance hole with excrement it had 

 made a new hole as an exit. In two instances lame about three- 

 fourths grown were placed inside bracts of Egyptian cotton squares 

 and ate out the interior of the flower bud in each case. 



A few observations indicate the general similarity of the season- 

 Mi history of the Thurberia boll worm with that oi the Thurberia 

 boll weevil. No eggs or larvae of the boll worm were found on 

 July 2 in Yentana Canyon although the insects were abundant 

 there as indicated by the large percentage of old injured bolls as 

 noted above. The plants at that time were far advanced in their 

 development as compared with other localities; squares and blooms 

 were abundant and a few half grown bolls were seen. On Au- 

 gust 25 in Stone Cabin Canyon it was estimated that 50 per cent 

 of the eggs of the Thurberia boll worm had already hatched. Pink 

 lepidopterous larvae associated with these eggs, and now known 

 to be the young boll worms, were found boring into the squares 

 of the wild cotton plant. The worms found were in no case of 

 greater length than 10 mm. and were therefore less than one- 

 half grown. On September 1 worms of full size were found in the 

 Ventana Canyon by Messrs. Pierce and Thornber and on October 

 1, Dr. O. C. Bartlett collected in the same canyon 24 boll worms 

 of which 18 were full grown, four about three-fourths full grown, 

 one about one-half grown and one about one-third grown. 



After reaching full size the worms apparently remain for a con- 

 siderable period inside the empty boll, but as far as observed they 

 do not pupate there. Specimens which went into the ground and 

 pupated during the first ten days of October have not yet (Nov- 

 ember 15) emerged. 



Dr. Dyar, who has examined the larvae finds that they resemble 

 those of Sacadodes pyralis Dyar, the pink boll worm of cotton in 

 Trinidad. 



BLISTER MITES. 



In che Santa Rita and also the Santa Catalina Mountains we 

 found quite commonly a blister mite of the genus Eriophyes, to be 

 described as new by Mr. Banks. The tiny eggs of this species are 

 found in clusters like raspberries on the foliage in August. The 

 mites are so numerous that their feeding causes the surface of the 

 leaf to take on a fuzzy brown appearance. In Ventana Canyon 

 many plants were found killed or almost so by this species which 

 was abundant on both sides of every leaf and on the stems and 



