34 



The Bulletin. 



from its destructive habit of attacking the growing part of the to- 

 bacco plant. It is also known to attack the pods or fruits of various 

 other plants, such as peas, beans, okra and squash. 



Fig. 12.— Cotton Boll-worm, a, AdUlt moth ; b and c, views of the larva or Boll-worm ; 



d, pupa. All slightly enlarged. 



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



Injury in North Carolina. — The Boll-worm has not usually been 

 considered as a serious cotton enemy in North Carolina, but it does 

 some damage every year, and in its latent or pent-up possibilities for 

 evil, we consider it one of our most prominent pests. Taking the 

 State as a whole probably our four most important crops are corn, 

 cotton, cowpeas and tobacco. There are few pests that attack all of 

 these, yet this Boll-worm (so called when it attacks cotton) has -been 

 at various times reported to this office as doing noticeable damage 

 to all four of these leading crops, and it is known to attack a large 

 number of other crops and plants to a slighter degree. In all cases 

 its habits and methods of attack make it a difficult pest to combat 

 satisfactorily. Should conditions be favorable to its increase for a 

 series of years, there can be little doubt that it would forge to the 

 front as an exceedingly important pest, not only of cotton, but of 

 other important crops as well. On one or another of the crops named 

 this insect has been complained of every year from 1900 to 1907, in- 

 clusive, and no doubt 1908 will witness further destruction by it. It 

 is such a common and universal pest in the ears of corn that it seldom 

 attracts more than passing notice, except in gardens or truck patches 



