394 COTTON 



of cotton seed and Gelechia larvae have been handled by 

 us. To obtain specimens we had to examine samples of 

 seed from a great number of localities. Whether the 

 mite will ever be of much help in checking Gelechia gossy- 

 piella still remains to be seen. It appears to breed fastest 

 in warm and somewhat moist surroundings conditions 

 that hardly obtain in seed stores in Egypt during the 

 winter. 



Microsporidium polyedricum, the protozoan parasite 

 which caused so much destruction to the cotton worm 

 (Prodcnia litura Fabr.) in the last two years, has also 

 been observed in Gelechia. 



As time goes on other parasites will doubtless be dis- 

 covered attacking Gelechia. Rhogas Kitcheneri is most 

 probably also a parasite of the pink boll worm, as we 

 have bred it from other lepidopterous larvae, in addition 

 to Earias, which was its first discovered host. 



The amount of mortality due to all these parasites has 

 been found to vary in the seed samples examined from 

 i o to 40 per cent. ; it may even reach a higher percentage 

 if outside reports be true. 



Parasites and diseases are evidently helping to combat 

 the worm, and when the measures devised by the Ministry 

 of Agriculture have been enforced we will probably have 

 the pest well in hand. The existing legislation against 

 the boll worm (Earias) is being extended to make it 

 applicable to Gelechia also. For this purpose clauses are 

 being added to the law making it an offence to store 

 cotton sticks for fuel after a certain date each year without 

 having destroyed all attached bolls, and permitting the 

 Government, if necessary, to have bolls removed at the 

 expense of the owner. Cotton sticks, it must be remarked, 

 form the principal fuel supply for large parts of Egypt. 



It would not, however, be sufficient merely to destroy 

 all the larvae and pupae hibernating in the bolls, in the 

 field, or in the stacked firewood, unless something were 

 done to destroy the larvae and pupae sheltering in the 

 cotton seed intended for planting. 



The Entomological Section of the Ministry of Agricul- 

 ture has made a careful study of the methods for use in 

 destroying the pink boll worm in cotton seed without at 

 the same time injuring the seed. 



