36 



Instead of ceasing to develop, the soft tissues of the staminal tube 

 are stimulated in a manner analogous to that by which galls and 

 other vegetable excrescences are formed. The cavity eaten out by 

 the larva is filled and the little miscreant is either smothered in 

 paste or, more likely, starved by the watery tissue which is 

 certainly no equivalent for the highly organized protoplasm of the 

 pollen, the normal infant-food of the young larva. But whatever 

 may be the actual cause of death the practical fact is that the 

 larva is killed, and apparently in every instance in which prolifera- 

 tion occurs,* A very little of the new tissue may be effective. 

 When the cavity eaten out by the larva is small it is often neatly 

 plugged by the new growth, and the flower may develop with no 

 very great distortion, though the corolla generally shrivels up 

 before reaching more than half the normal length. The young 

 boll is not always blasted, though it is often small and irregular 

 in shape, perhaps as a result of deficient pollination. The stigma 

 sometimes projects from the injured flower and might be fertilized 

 normally, but in other instances the withered staminal tube and 

 corolla remain closely wrapped about it, so that pollen could 

 scarcely have entered. It would not be surprising if the more 

 rapid and persistent growth which favours the new protective tissue 

 were also accompanied by a tendency toward parthenogenesis. 

 Or it may be that the irritation resulting from the presence of the 

 larva stimulates the ovary as well. Moreover, proliferation is not 

 confined to the bud ; the same or a closely similar formation of 

 tissue sometimes appears in the bolls, when these have been at- 

 tacked by the weevils. 



It is thus not merely a coincidence that the proliferation is most 

 frequent in the quick-growing early varieties of cotton which are 

 now prized in Texas as the best means of securing a crop. The 

 weevil has conducted, as it were, a selection for rapidity of growth 

 and early fruiting, and a further accentuation of vegetative energy 

 has introduced the new protective habit. The destructive insect 

 has, in effect, over-reached itself, and induced a condition which 

 with man's assistance may accomplish its own destruction. 



It is not easy to conjecture any means by which the weevil could 

 survive the general planting of a variety of cotton having prolifer- 

 ation as a constant character. If only the squares would ' ge- 

 latinize' the weevil might develop an instinct of postponing the egg- 

 laying period until the young bolls could develop. The advantage 

 might be partly temporary, though it would take many years for 

 the weevil to meet the new demand, and it could never reach its 

 present destructiveness because the delay of the breeding season 

 even for a week or two would be an effective handicap, particular- 

 ly if the weevils should continue to waste most of their ammunition 

 on the squares, as they probably would. 



• In a few oases livinj? weevil larvae were found in squares which gave evidence of 

 gelatinization, but there was always a secopd puncture from the outside, indicating 

 that another egg had been deposited. 



