25 



afternoon of the seventh day of these observations a male was ob- 

 served courting a female, and later in the same afternoon, in a brief 

 stop in a field, two pairs of the bugs were seen copulating. During 

 tlie last three days spent in investigating this insect many pairs Avere 

 found mating. -The reason for the reappearance of the mating 

 instinct w^as not apparent. Messrs. Conduit and Vaughan, both in 

 the employ of the Tlahualilo Company, assert that fiv^e or six weeks 

 earlier in the season the adults were frecpiently seen copulating on 

 the cotton plants. 



LIFE HISTORY AND HABITS. 



Methods. — Owing to the scarcity of the bugs during the investiga- 

 tion and to the ease with whicli they can be detected w'hen present, 

 the plan of tagging bolls and plants in the field and making records 

 twice a day, w^as found to give good results. Some observations were 

 made with adults in confinement in tumblers, and with others con- 

 fined in large wire screens in the fields. 



Feeding hahits. — Tlie adults seem to be able to detect food from a 

 distance, though this point was not definitely determined. In each 

 of three cases when an adult escaped from a cage out of doors in a 

 field where the plants were widely separated, it was afterward found 

 on the plant nearest in its direction from the cage; in other Avords, 

 the bugs did not pass over or near any other cotton plants in going 

 to the plant upon which they A^ere found. 



In confinement, the adults fed on the fruit of the China tree antl 

 twigs of the mesquite tree, as Avell as upon cotton bolls. FiA^e adults 

 left in a glass Avith a tAvo-thirds groAvn bolhvorm for six hours 

 showed no carnivorous tendencies. 



Although the adults feed ui>on all parts of the cotton plant in the 

 field, the bolls are much preferred to the stems and leaA^es. Fifty- 

 seven field records shoAv the total inimber of times the bugs were re- 

 corded as feeding on l)olls to be 4-3; on leaves, 4; on stems, 10. The 

 bugs AA'ere recorded resting on bolls in the field ten times; on the leaf, 

 once ; and on the stem, once. The bolls are undoubtedly preferred on 

 account of the rich juice of the seed which the insect is able to reach 

 (except probably in the ohler bolls Avith Avell-matured lint) by means 

 of its mouth setae. The examination of many bolls shoAvs that the 

 immature seeds are the objective points of the insect's attacli. A 

 preference is almost invariably shoAvn for bolls groAving near the 

 tops of the plants. 



In feeding on the cotton plant, the adult generally occupies a con- 

 spicuous position, especially Avhen on a boll. The writer has ncA^er 

 found them inside the bracts of a square, and Avhen on a boll, neA^er 

 entirely hidden by the bracts. 



When feeding upon a cotton boll the mouth setae do not remain 



