UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



BULLETIN No. 723 



Contribution from the Bureau of Entomology 



L. O. Howard, Chief ^^Ci^ 



jfC^^^l. and the Federal Horticultural Board, C. L. Marlatt, Chairman Oi\?V "5^^ 



Washington, D. C. T August 30, 1918 



THE PmK BOLLWORM^ WITH SPECIAL REF- 

 ERENCE TO STEPS TAKEN BY THE DEPART- 

 MENT OF AGRICULTURE TO PREVENT ITS 

 ESTABLISHMENT IN THE UNITED STATES. 



By W. D. HuNTEE, 



In Charge of Southern Field Crop Insect Investigations and Member of the 

 Federal Horticultural Board. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Historical 1 



Original home 2 



Present range 3 



Present distribution in Mexico 5 



Nature and amomt of damage 5 



Description and life history 7 



Page. 

 Precautions taken to prevent the introduc- 

 tion of the pink bollworm into the United 



States 15 



Discovery in Mexico 21 



Discovery in Texas 22 



Present work of the department. 25 



Natural enemies 14 Literature cited 27 



HISTORICAL. 



In 1842 the superintendent of the Government cotton plantations 

 at Broach, India, sent specimens of a very destructive cotton insect 

 to the distinguished English entomologist, W. W, Saunders, The 

 specimens were described as a new species, Depressaria (now Pectino- 

 phora) gossypiella^ by Mr. Saunders in a paper presented to the 

 Entomological Society of London on June 6, 1842 (9).^ This is the 

 first published record concerning the insect which is now attracting 

 so much attention in the principal cotton-producing countries of the 

 world. 



For 61 years after the publication of Saunders's description no 

 published statement regarding the pink bollworm was issued. In 

 1904, however, an article was issued by J. Vosseler (10) regarding the 

 great injury done by the insect in German East Africa. Within 



''■ Pectinophora gossj/piella Saunders; order Lepidoptera, family Gelechiidae. 

 2 Numbers in parentheses refer to " Literature cited," p. 27. 



63886°— Bull. 723—18— — 1 



