«4 



BRAZILIAN COTTON 



to me that the forthcoming Cotton Congress at Rio de Janeiro, which 

 will be held in October, 1922, in connection with the Centenary In- 

 dependence Festivities, might appropriately deal with this very 

 important subject. 



The holl-weevil^ {ayithonomous grandis)* came from Mexico in 

 1892 to Texas and in spite of rigorous measures has now covered the 

 whole of the United States' cotton belt. The pink boll-worm was 

 brought from India to Egyj^t, from there in a cargo of cotton seed to 

 Brazil, thence in the same manner to the West Indies and in 1917 to 

 the U.S.A. Mr. Maxwell Lefroy. Professor of Entomology at the 

 Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, stated recently 

 that " it was quite natural that America should have decreased its 

 area of cultivation by one-third. The growers have all the expense 

 of preparing the ground and growing the crops and there is no means 

 of telling until the last moment that the crop has been infested. • If 

 in addition to the loss of 30 per cent, of her cotton crops through the 

 boll-weevil, she is to suffer a 17 per cent, loss through boll-worm, 

 xlmerica can hardly be expected to continue growing cotton." The 

 pink boll-worm is the more difficult of the two pests to deal with because 

 it forms into a moth Avhich has a big range of flight, thus the West 

 Indies received the invasion through a cargo of seed cotton which lay 

 in one of the West Indian ports and from this the moth flew ashore. 

 In the caterpillar state it coils itself up in the seed and may live there 

 for more than two years. 



Entomologists state that the following cotton pests exist in Brazil : 



Attacking 



Dysdercus ruficollis 

 Plociomerus, sp. 

 Oncopeltus, sp. 

 Gargophia, sp. . . 

 Aphis gossypii . . 

 Saissetia depressa 

 Hemichionaspis mhior 

 Nysius ericae . . 

 Colaspis, sp. 

 Spermoj^hagus hoffrnanseggi 



Hemiptera. 



Coleoptera. 



Pyrrhocoridae. 

 Lygaeidae. 



Tingitidae. 



Aphidae. 



Coccidae. 



Lygaeidae. 



Chrysomelidae. 



Mylabridae. 



bolls. 



leaf. 



lint. 



Orobitidae. 



Lepidoptera. Gelechiidae. 



,, Noctuidae. 



,, Arctiidae. 



,, Pyralidae. 



Gasterocercodes gossypii 



Plaiycdra gossypiella . . 

 Alabama argillacea 

 Utethcisa ornatrix 

 ,, bella . . 

 Ephestia cautella 



leaf. 



seed, 

 (stem. 

 - above 

 I root. 



boll. 



'leaf. 



) 

 seed. 



lagarta 



The pink boll- worm (gelechiidae), known in Brazil 

 Tosada," had devastated a large part of the crop, especially in Sao 

 Paulo, in 1919, and the Government took energetic steps to overcome 

 this pest by insisting on fumigating chambers being established at the 

 ginneries and by netting in all apertures in stores where seed was 



* The American boll-weevil must not be confounded with the pink boll-worm, 

 as it is a beetle that walks about or flies only at a short range. 



