PINK BOLL-WORM. 



95 



The pest is apparently universal in India, Ceylon, Burma and the 

 Straits Settlements, causing* a very large aggregate loss to cotton in India, 

 which may amount to at least one crore of rupees annually. The destruc- 

 tion of the seed, the 

 staining of the lint 

 and the loss of 

 young bolls are the 

 principal forms of 

 damage. So far as 

 is known all varieties 

 of cotton now grown 

 as field crops in 

 India are attacked, 

 the American and 

 Egyptian as well as 

 the indigenous. It 

 remains to be seen 

 whether there are any 

 varieties of cotton im- 



FIG. 107. 



Parasite on Caterpillar of Pink Soil-worm. 

 (Magnified six times.) 



mune to the pests, but none have definitely proved so up to the present. 



Unlike the other boll-worms, this species has not been found attacking 

 plants allied to cotton ; its wild food-plants appear to be trees with oily 

 seeds which are widely distributed in India. 



Remedies. The first and most important remedy is to check the 

 increase of the pink boll-worm by plucking off the first crop of bolls if 

 they are attacked. When the first bolls are forming, the first batch of 

 moths lays eggs on them and the boll-worm commences. If left alone 

 these boll-worms will emerge as moths and each lay many eggs. The 

 increase from one pair of moths being large, the second brood is generally 

 a fairly numerous one. Had this first brood been destroyed, it could not 

 have multiplied and destroyed so much cotton later in the season. 



The second precaution is the treatment of seed by fumigation or 

 other means to destroy the hibernating larvae. Fumigation with carbon 

 bisulphide after the seed has been picked over in the sun is the most 

 effective method of freeing cotton from boll-worms. Equally it is import- 

 ant to pick off the bolls which are destroyed on the plant. Leaving on 

 the plants the bolls that are eaten or destroyed assists cotton pests to 

 multiply and increase. It particularly assists pink boll-worms and the 

 cotton bugs. Other methods of treatment, such as the spraying of bolls 

 with lead arseniate and the use of light traps, are as yet only in the experi- 

 mental stage. 



