LUTHER BURBANK 



Quite recently, however, an enemy of the boll 

 weevil has been found in Guatemala by Mr. W. F. 

 Cook, the botanist in charge of investigations in 

 tropical agriculture of the Bureau of Plant Indus- 

 try. This enemy of the boll weevil is described as 

 a large, red-brown, ant-like insect. It is known to 

 the native of Guatemala as the kelep; entomolo- 

 gists describe it as the Guatemala ant, Ectatomma 

 tuberculatum. 



This insect is described by Mr. Cook as strik- 

 ingly adapted by structure and instinct for the 

 work of protecting the cotton against the weevils. 

 It has large jaws or mandibles that fit neatly about 

 the weevil and hold it firmly, and a sting that 

 penetrates a vulnerable point in the shelly armor 

 of the weevil. The sting paralyzes the victim, 

 somewhat as wasps paralyze spiders and caterpil- 

 lars to supply food for their young. 



After paralyzing the weevil with the poison 

 injected by the sting, the kelep carries its prey 

 to its subterranean nest, to feed the larvae. 



The kelep does not confine its predaceous 

 attacks to the boll weevil but kills also many other 

 insects found upon the cotton, including the larvae 

 of boll worms and leaf worms. It has the curious 

 habit, Mr. Cook tells us, of storing the dismem- 

 bered skeletons of captured insects in special 

 chambers of its subterranean home. 



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