PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOLL WEEVIL CONVENTION. 13 



stage assume the pupa or kicker condition, and in frojn five, to twelve 

 days the weevils emerge from the pupae and are soon ready 

 to lay eggs. Two facts must be here emphasized, viz : that the 

 entire early life is completely concealed in the square or 

 boll, and that the length .of the cycle of development depends upon food 

 and temperature conditions. In early and late summer thirty or more 

 days may be consumed in the transformation from egg to weevil, while in 

 midsummer only fifteen to twenty are required. 



During winter the weevil does not require food, but in spring, summer 

 and fall, when life's functions are active, food is essential. 



COTTON IS THE ONLY KNOWN FOOD PLANT. 



In the absence of cotton the weevils die in summer. 



The importance of a study of conditions cannot be too strongly empha- 

 sized. Misleading and confusing statements of the habits of the weevil 

 in Cuba and Mexico have recently appeared in our daily papers. These 

 statements, while correct for the counties in which the observations were 

 made, are in a very limited sense applicable to the conditions existing in 

 Texas and Louisiana. In Cuba and Mexico cotton is perennial, and the 

 weevil may continue breeding throughout the year, and, therefore, the 

 cultural methods suggested and so clearly demonstrated effective in Texas 

 are ineffective in Cuba and Mexico. It is, therefore, perplexing and mis- 

 leading to base preventives or remedies for the cotton-boll weevil upon 

 habits peculiar to conditions at variance with ours. 



When squares are punctured and eggs deposited in them they invaribly 

 fall to the ground, where, in the shade of the plant, the weevil goes on 

 developing until its life cycle is completed. The sun's heat frequently 

 dries up fallen squares before the weevils are mature, and hence the value 

 of planting cotton in wide rows and plenty of distance between the plants 

 in the row in weevil-infected cotton lands. 



In the presence of sufficient food the boll weevil does not range exten- 

 sively, and hence cultural methods that will limit the number of weevils 

 during the active breeding season is of the utmost importance in checking 

 the migration of the weevil to other fields and States. It therefore seems 

 plain that the wide distribution of the weevil each year is not due so much 

 to the ranging or migratory habits of the weevil itself, but to the distribu- 

 tion of material such as cotton, cottonseed, hay and other products from 

 infected lands, in and upon which the weevil may be resting or hibernat- 

 ing. The cotton gin is a focal point for weevils, which are gathered in 

 seed cotton, and the cottonseed a distributing medium, especially in the 

 spring of the year. 



Among the suggestions as to how best to protect Louisiana, against the 

 invasion of the boll weevil, none seem more important than the one 

 whereby every planter in the State shall become conversant with all 



