INSECTS INJURIOUS TO COTTON 



235 



failed to show the slightest evidence that these insects are ever in- 

 jurious to cotton, though they are common upon it, the supposed 

 injury being undoubtedly due to the physiological condition of the 

 plant which causes a shedding of the fruit at the season when 

 the supposed injury occurs. 



The adult insects hibernate in rubbish on the ground near the 

 food-plants and appear in early spring on the elm, hackberry, red- 

 bud, cot ton wood, willow, and the tender shoots of other trees, 

 especially on bottom-land near streams. Here they suck the 

 juices of the tender leaves and deposit their eggs in them. The 

 eggs are laid in rows of ten to fifteen, side by side, just under the 



FIG. 197. The cotton leaf-bug (Calocoris rapidus) . a, adult; 6, c, d, stages in 

 growth of nymph. (Author's illustration, U. S. Dept. Agr.) 



surface of the leaf, forming a blister-like mark. They hatch in a 

 few days and the young bugs, or nymphs, are grayish or yellowish 

 in color and resemble the adults except in the lack of wings. Two 

 or three generations occur annually in Texas, and the insects are 

 not common on cotton until midsummer. They are exceedingly 

 fond of banana, trees, sorghum and sunflowers, sometimes doing 

 considerable injury to the latter, but there is no evidence for con- 

 sidering them pests of cotton. 



The Cotton Leaf-bug * 



This insect was the cause of considerable damage in Northern 

 Texas in the latter part of the season of 1904, and had been pre- 



* Calocoris rapidus Say. Family Capsidoe. 



