22 The Bulletin. 



cotton plants hurt by this insect, together with specimens of the in- 

 sect itself. Mr. Hodge reported that it was very destructive on land 

 that was in cowpeas the year before, but was not present on other 

 cotton not ten feet distant from where peas were grown. He said 

 one could' tell almost to the row just where the peas had been by the 

 presence of the weevils. 



Fig. 7. — Cowpea-pod Weevil. Side view. Much enlarged. 

 (After Chittenden, Bur. Ent., U. S. Dept. Agr.) 



Life-history and Habits. — The principal food plant of this insect 

 and the one in which it naturally breeds, in the Southern States, 

 is evidently cowpeas, and as already indicated its injury to cotton is 

 principally confined to lands that were in cowpeas the year previous. 

 . Its attacks on cotton are likely due to absence of cowpeas in the fields 

 where the weevils emerge in spring. The eggs are laid in the pod 

 of the cowpea and the larva or grub comes to maturity without leaving 

 the pod. In 1901 it was reported by Scott and Fiske (then State 

 Entomologist and Assistant, respectively) as common among the in- 

 sects jarred from peach trees in Georgia. In 1903 it was reported 

 on cotton to the United States Department of Agriculture at Wash- 

 ington, but was thought to be of accidental occurrence in cotton 

 fields and was not regarded as a serious cotton pest. In 1901 a brief 

 account of it was published by F. H. Chittenden, of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, giving many instances of reported 

 injury in the extreme southern States.* 



In 1904 it was quite destructive to young cotton in Georgia and 

 was investigated to some extent by Mr. Newell, then State En- 

 tomologist. According to his account, they were found to feed on the 

 cotton mostly in early morning or in the afternoon, or on cloudy days. 

 The weevils punctured the leaf stems or the tender part of the 

 main stem of the young cotton. In a 15-acre field fully 25 per cent, 

 had been killed. During the middle of the clay the weevils hid for 

 the most part in the loose dirt about the plants at a depth of from 

 one-half inch to two inches. Mr. Newell tested the preference of 

 the beetles by placing them on young cotton plants and placing 

 young cowpea plants close by and found that they preferred the 

 cowpeas. In speaking of the injuries to cotton, Mr. Newell says : 

 "In all cases the owners of infested fields reported that the first 

 appearance of these insects was in those portions of the field that 

 had been in cowpeas the year previous." 



♦Bulletin 44, Division of Entomology, U. S. Dept. Agr., Feb., 1904., pp. 39-43. 



