308 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 10 



in California, a kind of cotton, Egyptian, is being produced for which 

 other sections of the country are not adapted and for which there will 

 be an increasing demand as the Mexican boll weevil damage to the 

 Sea Island cotton industry in the East increases. 



The growth of the cotton industry in west Texas is shown by a 

 comparison of a series of recent years with an earlier series. For the 

 seasons of 1899, 1900, 1901 and 1902 the west Texas counties lying 

 west of the ninety-eighth meridian, produced on the average 17 per cent 

 of the total crop of the state whereas for the seasons 1911, 1912, 1913 

 and 1914 the same section produced on the average about 27 per cent 

 of the state's crop. 



In the extreme arid portion of the southwestern United States 

 cotton has become firmly established as an important crop within the 

 short space of seven years. In 1909 the total cotton production of the 

 states of California, Arizona and New Mexico amounted to only 390 

 bales whereas in 1916 the production had reached a total of over 

 52,000 bales in these states. The New Mexico acreage is virtually an 

 extension of the west Texas or semi-arid cotton-growing region and 

 is of not as much interest as presenting new problems in economic 

 entomology as are cotton-growing districts of Arizona and California. 

 These are located in the most arid section of the United States where 

 the annual rainfall averages less than eight inches. With its im- 

 portant relation to the dairy and beef feeding industries, cotton 

 growing has become one of the corner-stones of agriculture in this part 

 of the arid Southwest. Its direct returns to this region amounted to 

 about six million dollars for the past season and it is expected that it 

 will become a twenty million dollar industry within a few years. 



The development of this new industry as briefly outlined has devel- 

 oped also the need for special protection against the introduction of 

 pests and for a practical knowledge of other cotton pests which already 

 exist in the arid Southwest. The existence in parts of southern 

 Arizona of a native species of wild cotton plant {Thurberia thespesiodes) 

 with its native insect enemies introduces an element of possible danger 

 and a factor which is highly interesting from the scientific standpoint. 



Cotton growing in the arid and semi-arid Southwest is confined 

 to the Lower Sonoran area of the Lower Austral life zone and to the 

 Tropical region on the lower Colorado. Passing westward from the 

 ninety-eighth meridian in Texas, a marked difference in the pests of 

 cotton is soon noted. Certain ones are found in abundance which 

 do not occur or are rarely found in the humid region, others commonly 

 found in both regions become more injurious to cotton and still others 

 become less so. Further differences are noted between different 

 localities just as local differences occur in the humid cotton belt. 



