THE MEXICAN COTTON BOLL WEEVIL. 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

 HISTORICAL. 



There is very little certainty regarding- the history of the Mexican 

 cotton boll weevil before it came to the attention of the Division of 

 Entomology in Texas in 1894. The species was described by Boheman 

 in 1843 from specimens received from Vera Cruz, and it was recorded 

 by Suffrian in 1871 as occurring at Cardenas and San Cristobal in 

 Cuba. Written documents in the archives at Monclova, in the State 

 of Coahuila, Mexico, indicate that the cultivation of cotton was prac- 

 tically abandoned in the vicinity of that town about the j^ear 1848, or 

 at least that some insect caused very great fears that it would be nec- 

 essary to abandon the cultivation of cotton. A rather careful inves- 

 tigation of the records makes it l)y no meaiis clear that the insect was 

 the boll weevil, although there is a rather firmly embedded po]3ular 

 notion in Mexico, as well as in the Soiithern United States, that the 

 damage must have been perpetrated bj^ that species. As far as the 

 accounts indicate, it might have been the bollworm {Heliofhis armi- 

 ger) or the cottou caterpillar {Aletia argillacea). 



From the time of the note by Suffrian regarding the occurrence of 

 the weevil in Cuba in 1871 up to 1885 there has been found no pub- 

 lished record concerning it. In 1885, however, C. V. Riley, then 

 Entomologist of the Department of Agriculture, jiublished in the 

 report of the Commissioner a very brief note to the effect that Antho- 

 7iomus grandis had been reared in the Department from dwarfed cot- 

 ton bolls sent by Dr. Edward Palmer from northern Mexico. This is 

 the first account associating the species with damage to cotton. The 

 material referred to was collected in the State of Coahuila, supposedly 

 not far from the town of Monclova. The exact date at which the 

 insect crossed the Rio Grande into Texas is as uncertain as the means 

 whereby this was accomplished. All that can be found, which is 

 mostly in the form of testimony of planters in the vicinity of Browns- 

 ville, indicates that the pest first made its appearance in that locality 

 about 1892. In 1894 it had spread to half a dozen counties in the 

 Brownsville region, and during the last months of the year was 

 brought to the attention of the Division of Entomology as an impor- 

 tant enemy of cotton. Mr. C. H. T. Townsend was immediatelj^ sent 



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