248 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



ever frost or other unfavorable weather causes the plants to cease 

 putting on squares, the weevils attack the bolls. A conservative 

 estimate of the possible progeny of a single pair of weevils during a 

 season beginning on June 20, and extending to November 4, is 

 12,755,100." Hunter. Although the weevil may develop from 

 egg to adult in two or three weeks, it requires an average of about 

 forty-three days for a complete generation and there are probably 

 not over four or five generations in a season 



With the first killing frosts, most of the immature stages 

 developing are killed, though in south Texas they often develop 



during the winter, and the adult 

 weevils soon go into hibernation. 

 When seeking places for hiber- 

 nation the weevils migrate from 

 field to field, and it is at this 

 season that the principal migra- 

 tion of the pest takes place. The 

 weevils may hibernate in hedges, 

 woods, corn-fields, haystacks, or 

 farm buildings, particularly 

 about seed-houses or similar sit- 

 uations. Experiments have 

 shown that Spanish moss forms 

 an exceedingly favorable place 



from old bolls left on stalks over for hibernation, and that many 

 wmter - weevils pass the winter in it on 



trees some distance above the ground. Others may hiber- 

 nate in the cotton-field, crawling into cracks, under grass, 

 weeds, and trash, and in the empty cotton burrs, while in the 

 more southern sections many hibernate in injured bolls. The 

 weevils which hibernate most successfully do so outside of the 

 cotton fields. The number which survive the winter has been 

 accurately determined under various conditions for several seasons, 

 and depends upon the minimum temperature, the amount of moist- 

 ure, and the kind of shelter. Thus in central Texas but 2 or 3 per 

 cent survive in many normal winters, while in the open winter of 

 1906-07 11.5 per cent survived; in South Texas 15 per cent may 

 survive, and in experiments made in Central Louisiana in 1908-09 

 with rather favorable conditions 20 per cent survived. The 



