THE TEXTILE PLANTS 61 



maize at intervals of twenty-five cotton rows 

 throughout the cotton field. 



But the newest and most aggressive of the 

 pests, the cotton boll weevil, is an enemy that is 

 not so easily reckoned with. 



This little insect has been known a long time 

 in Mexico as a pest that attacks and destroys the 

 tender portion of the cotton boll itself. But it is 

 only in recent decades that this insect has worked 

 its way northward and into the cotton region of 

 the United States. 



It must now be reckoned as one of the most 

 destructive enemies of the cotton plant in the 

 more southerly districts. 



Quite recently, however, an enemy of the boll 

 weevil has been found in Guatemala by Mr. O. 

 F. Cook, the botanist in charge of investigations 

 in tropical agriculture of the Bureau of Plant) 

 Industry. This enemy of the boll weevil is de- 

 scribed as a large, red-brown, antlike insect. It 

 is known to the native of Guatemala as the kelep ; 

 entomologists describe it as the Guatemala ant, 

 Ectatomma tuberculatum. 



This insect is described by Mr. Cook as strik- 

 ingly adapted by structure and instinct for the 

 work of protecting the cotton against the weevils. 

 It has large jaws or mandibles that fit neatly 

 about the weevil and hold it firmly, and a sting 



