39 2 COTTON 



reached, and that the 1914 crop will be less affected. The 

 damage will probably always be most severe in new 

 localities. 



The relative proportions of Gelechia and Earias present 

 in cotton bolls have also been worked out for several 

 localities, and it is found, as was to be expected, that 

 Gelechia is commoner than Earias in some localities, 

 whilst the opposite result is obtained in other places. 

 The figures available do not show anything worth record- 

 ing yet, but will be useful for comparison in coming 

 years. 



If it has been impossible to get a reasonably accurate 

 estimate of the total damage by examining the destruction 

 done in counts of large numbers of bolls, or of the 

 damaged seeds in bolls of entire plants collected for the 

 purpose, it is almost as impossible to obtain results by 

 comparing the returns for the total crop in 1911, 1912, 

 and 1913. 



In 1911 the crop was 7,386,328 kantars, in 1912 

 7,499,100 kantars, and in 1913 the estimate of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, which appears to be very close to 

 the exact quantity, is 7,554,000 kantars, yet there is no 

 doubt that a very severe and general attack occurred in 

 1913. These figures refer to the lint; the damage is, 

 however, more evident in the seed than in the lint. This 

 year it has been almost impossible to find cotton seed 

 free from Gelechia larvae; some bad samples examined 

 by us had at least 30 to 40 per cent, of damaged seeds. 



The statement has just been made that the damage in 

 any locality seems to reach its maximum in the first or 

 second year of the known existence of Gelechia in that 

 locality, and that thereafter the number of pink boll 

 worms observed there in a given number of bolls 

 decreases. Such a decrease can be brought into con- 

 nection with observations of their parasites. 



The following parasites have been bred from or 

 observed on Gelechia gossypiella: Pimpla roborator 

 Fabr., Chelonella sulcata Nees, Limnerium interruption 

 Holmgr., Pediculoides ventricosus Newport, and Micro- 

 sporidium polyedricum Bolle. 



Pimpla roborator is an Ichneumonid with a very wide 



