290 EEPORT UPON COTTON INSECTS. 



on one side what appears to be a slight puncture. As I never saw any 

 insect inflicting this injury, I am unable to state whether this impres- 

 sion of the planters be correct or not. Several reasons have led me to 

 doubt it. First, it seems improbable that the young boll- worms should 

 eat out the contents of so small a proportion of the bolls which they 

 puncture. I have often observed from twenty to fifty of these blasted 

 "squares" lying on the ground under a single cotton-plant, while the 

 most patient search revealed only one or two boll-worms upon the plant. 

 Second, the punctures referred to above differ in appearance from those 

 which I have seen the young boll- worms make. The newly -hatched 

 boll- worm, according to my observation, when it punctures a young boll, 

 gnaws a hole through the pod sufficiently large to insert its head. The 

 punctures in the blasted square appears much smaller, as if made by 

 some haustellate insect. 

 The observations of Mr. Trelease upon this point were as follows : 



When a flower, bud, or young boll of cotton is punctured by the boll-worm, the 

 involucre or " square" which surrounds its base spreads open or "flares," and sooner 

 or later the injured fruit falls to the ground. Even before the cotton commenced to 

 bloom, many of these blasted squares were to be seen upon the ground, and in every 

 case where the involucre had flared open I found the form punctured, though most of 

 these punctures early in the season were very small and had no excrement in the 

 square beneath them ; thus differing from punctures formed by the boll-worm. There 

 is no doubt that these very small perforations are made by hemipterous insects ; and 

 I strongly suspect two species, which are very common on the cotton-plant, and which 

 have the habit of running around the stalk as you try to obtain a view of them, much 

 as squirrels do under similar circumstances, so that they always keep the stem inter- 

 posed between themselves and an observer. This shyness prevented me from verify- 

 ing my suspicious, though I watched the insects a great many times. On the other 

 hand, many blasted squares i esult from climatic injuries, and these may be distin- 

 guished from those caused by insects, since the square retains its normal position and 

 form.* 



Mr. Glover states that he has observed three species of Hemipterous 

 insects pierce cotton-bolls, thus causing them to fall. The cotton Ly- 

 gaeus (Lygaem sp.) although usually carnivorous, he has seen to pierce the 

 terminal shoots and buds of cotton. He describes it as follows : 



The perfect insect is rather more than one-twentieth of an inch in length, with red- 

 dish-brown eyes, yellowish antennae, and a head and thorax black; the triangular 

 space between the wings is black; the wings are brownish-yellow, barred in the cen- 

 ter with two triangular black marks ; the ends of wings diamond-shaped, of a light 

 color ; the upper part of the thigh is black ; and the rest of the leg yellowish. 



Of Calcorus bimaculatus, II. Schf., and C. rapidus Say, which he also 

 found piercing cotton-bolls, he says : 



I observed three insects (C. bimaculatu*') when confined under glass, sucking the sap 

 from the buds and young bolls, their only food. The young eventually completed 

 their transformations into perfect insects. They were observed, moreover, to eject 

 large drops of green sap from their abdomens, which could only have been procured 

 from the buds themselves. * * * The perfect insect is seven-twentieths of an inch 

 in length ; the antennae are brown and green, the eyes brown ; the thorax somewhat 

 triangular ; the anterior part green, and shaded with reddish-brown posteriorly ; the 



* Appendix I, report of William Trelease. 



