98 



upon so long as squares are available. The puncture 

 from the outside is only large enough to admit the pro- 

 boscis, to the tip of which the mouth parts are attached. 

 The principal part of the square eaten consists of the 

 anthers and pollen sacs. When these are reached the 

 cavity is broadened out to give to the whole cavity much 

 the shape of a flask. 



The males are known to make on an average about 3 

 feeding punctures per day, though during the first lew 

 dpys of adult feeding existence they may make as high 

 as* 6 to 9 punctures per day. They average, however, 

 about 3 punctures to a square, and hence really do very 

 little damage. The males, unlike the females, more fre- 

 quently chose to puncture the square very near the top. 



After the females begin to oviposit they eat less on one 

 square or from a single puncture than before. Since as 

 we have said that as a rule a female oviposits but once 

 on a square and since most of her eating is done in con- 

 nection with oviposition, it becomes clear that the 

 amount of damage done by the females is much greater 

 than that due to the males. 



It has been demonstrated by experiment that the 

 American upland cottons are much less subject to attack 

 by the weevils than any others, and that the Egyptian 

 (kit Afifi) cotton is more subject to attacks than any 

 other variety. It is now known also that the boll weevil 

 has no food plant, native or cultivated, other than the 

 various species and varieties of cotton. 



Number of Generations. 



No hard and fast line can be drawn between the dif- 

 ferent broods of the weevil — not even between the 

 hibernated weevils and those of the first spring genera- 

 tion. 



It is probable that in the southern part of Texas five 

 broods occur between 1 May and 1 December — this is 

 on the assumption that the average life cycle of a genera- 

 tion from egg to egg is about 42 days. In northern 

 Texas and probably also in this region not more than 

 4 broods would occur. 



