CROP ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 



215 



several kinds of bugs and ground beetles which feed on the potato 

 beetles and their larvae. 



Mexican Cotton Boll Weevil. The Mexican cotton boll weevil 

 is so destructive that it has caused the cultivation of cotton to be 

 abandoned in large areas in Mexico. About fifteen years ago the 

 weevil was brought into Texas, and in the region invaded it has 

 caused a loss of from twenty-five to ninety per cent of the cotton 



MEXICAN COTTON BOLL WEEVIL, BEETLE, LARVA, AND PUPA 

 Five times natural size 



crop. It is now found in one third of the cotton section, and is 

 extending its range year by year. Our American farmers are not 

 disposed to surrender their cotton fields to the boll weevil, as did 

 the Mexicans. Labor and science have found ways of lessening 

 its injuries, and probably a method will be discovered, sooner or 

 later, of controlling it. 



The insect which does so much mischief is a small grayish beetle 

 about one fourth of an inch in length. With its snout it makes 

 a hole in the cotton square or boll, and there deposits an egg. This 

 becomes a grub, which lives in and feeds upon the square or boll. 



