122 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 1 



parasites over to other hosts in time to insure their establishment. 

 Having safely disposed of an important element of control and se- 

 cured its reappearance, the stalks can be burned about fifteen days 

 after cutting, thus establishing another important method of control. 

 The total gain is greater than that to be had by allowing the parasites 

 to hibernate on the boll weevil. 



Finally there remains the third group of parasite methods, known as 

 direct propagation, including the transfer of breeding material or 

 parasites, the use of field cages for infested squares, and the establish- 

 ment of new ant colonies. 



After locating places where a very high percentage of parasitism 

 prevails, either on the boll weevil or on other weevils, large quantities 

 of infested material may be gathered and transported to the laboratory 

 or to experimental fields where the parasites may be directly hiber- 

 nated. In case of the existence of secondary parasites, the material 

 must be placed in breeding cages in the laboratory. As this is a com- 

 mon practice, thoroughly understood by all entomologists, it need have 

 no further treatment. It has proved of direct and immediate value 

 when tried. 



A similar method of treatment is at hand for all planters. They 

 may gather infested cotton squares and place them in 14 to 18 mesh 

 wire screen cages in the field with the assurance that all parasites and 

 only a small portion of the weevils will escape, thus by a simple meas- 

 ure increasing the pro rata of parasites. 



Since the little fire ants are very important enemies of the boll 

 weevil, it is desirable to have some way of increasing their usefulness. 

 It appears that they are very fond of fly larvae in fresh manure and 

 transfer their colonies to it frequently, and that by boxing this manure 

 the colonies may be secured very easily. The method has not yet 

 been tested. The time of swarming is the critical time for establish- 

 ing colonies, for then a single queen is sufficient. 



In conclusion it may be said that a decided gain is apparent in the 

 amount of parasite control, that the cultural methods of cotton culti- 

 vation are most favorable to parasite propagation, that the host rela- 

 tions of the boll weevil parasites can be more or less easily changed, 

 that immediate results have been obtained by the release of parasites, 

 and finally that the present investigations are bringing to light evi- 

 dence that must cause important modifications of some of the ac- 

 cepted ideas as to the host relationships of parasites. 



The next paper presented was entitled: 



