abundance along the valley of the Guadaloupe River at V'ictoria, 

 Thomaston, and Cuero. North of its old range it extended to Kenedy, 

 Floresville, and many points in the country lying between the latter 

 place and Cuero. A single field was found near San Antonio which 

 contained weevils in large numbers, and in the same way a single field 

 was found far to the east of Wharton in which the weevils had 

 appeared late in the season. The exact localities where the insect was 

 found during 1895 are indicated on the accompanying map. 



NATURAL HISTORY AND HABITS. 



The insect passes the winter in the weevil state. It can be found on 

 the cotton plant until late in December, and, in fact, as long as any 

 portion of the plant is green. It is found most abundantly in the early 

 winter hidden between the in- 

 volucre and the boll, and later it 

 frequently works its way down 

 into the dry and open bolls. 

 All the specimens found by Mr. 

 Schwarz in such situations in 

 the late spring of 1895 were 

 dead ; but Mr. Townsend found 

 a few living in March. The 

 dry boll is probablj^ not a fre- 

 quently successful hibernating 

 place. Judge S. G. Borden, of 

 Sharpsburg, however, writin;.' 

 under date of January 27, 189(5, 

 states that the weevil at that 

 time was being found nearl.v 

 every day in the dr^' bolls ; but 

 this statement lacks the sig- 

 nificance which it might other- 

 wise have had as bearing on 

 the question of hibernation from 

 the fact that no heavy frost had probably occurred up to that time at 

 Sharpsburg. 



With the cutting of the plants or with the rotting or drying of the 

 bolls as a result of frost, the adult weevils leave the plant and seek 

 shelter wnder rubbish at the surface of the ground, or among weeds and 

 trash at the margin of the fields. Here they remain until the warm 

 days of spring, when they fly to the first buds on such volunteer plants 

 as may come up in the neighborhood. They feed on these and lay their 

 eggs on the early squares, and one, or perhaps two, generations are 

 developed in such situations, the number depending upon the character 

 of the season and the date of cotton planting. By the time the planted 

 cotton has grown high enough to produce squares the weevils have 

 become more numerous, and those which have developed from the gen- 

 eration on volunteer cotton attack the planted cotton, and through 

 their punctures, either for feeding or egg-laying, cause a wholesale 

 shedding of the 3'oung squares. It seems to be an almost invariable 

 rule that a square in which a weevil has laid an egg drops to the ground 

 as a result of the work of the larva ; in the square on the ground the 

 larva reaches full growth, transfoi-ms to pupa, and issues eventually as 

 a beetle, the time occupied in this round approximating four weeks. 

 Later, as the bolls form, the weevils attack them also and lay their 



lu. S.—a. newly hatched larva in young square ; h. 

 nearly full-grown larva in «/«m .• c. pupa in younsboU 

 picked from ground. 



