490 REPORT UPON COTTON INSECTS. 



bloom and the young bolls, causing them to fall off. They are more or less on the cot- 

 ton every year. The first crop of bolls that are formed in July generally escape their 

 ravages, but the top squares and bollst hat conie in August are liable to their attacks. 

 [C. B. Richardson, Rusk. 



The cotton has two more dreadful enemies ; the first consists of a small bee or fly that 

 bores into the square or rather the formation of the bloom, and causes it to wither and 

 fall off. Some years they are very destructive. The second is the boll- worm that pene- 

 trates the young boll in its tender state, causing it to fall and sometimes rot on the 

 plant. This pest is caused by a small fly or bee that deposits its eggs on the boll, and 

 I think is the same chap that bores in the square ; the only way to catch or destroy 

 him is by the lamp ; you cannot do anything with him with poison, as he only preys 

 on the boll, &c. [Nat. Hoi man, Fayette. 



There is one other insect that has destroyed more cotton in this locality within the 

 four years than all other insects combined. It is known here as the boll worm, the 

 moth of which is larger and darker than the cotton-moth, which deposits its eggs by 

 piercing the form or square at the base of the bulb that makes the bloom. The egg 

 hatches in a few days, and the larva devours the young boll before it fairly blooms. 

 Then it crawls upon the limb to another boll, bores in, and eats out the contents; 

 then to another, and so on until all, or nearly all, that is upon the stalk is destroyed. 

 The habit of the moth is nearly that of the cotton-moth, but the worm does not re- 

 semble that of the cotton-worm in any respect. It does not feed upon anything but 

 the cotton-boll. Its numbers are increasing so rapidly and its destruction so great, it 

 is becoming a terror to the cotton planter in this locality. If you know anything of 

 this worm and can point out some means of destroying it you will have the gratitude 

 of the cotton planters in this county and probably throughout the cottou belt. [ J. 

 W. Jackson, Titus. 



The plant is injured to some extent by aphides or leaf-louse, which appear every 

 year in large numbers on the lower side of the leaves ; they do the most injury in 

 spring, when the plant is small and tender. The web-worm, which only injures the 

 plant in spring when the plant is small, and appears mostly in large and destructive 

 numbers during the prevalence of cold and dry weather, the plant then making little 

 or no progress in growth ; the worm is a small insect about one inch in length, green 

 with black dots, spins the leaf together, and destroys the substance between the leaf 

 ribs, causing the young plant to wither and die. The boll-worm, which attacks the 

 grown fruit before its opening, boring into it and destroying the lint, has been very 

 destructive the past summer. Several varieties of grasshoppers, the green grasshop- 

 per appearing in summer, has been observed the past summer in large and destructive 

 numbers in some fields. f J. H. Krancher, Austin. 



