28 



bollworin is well established, appearing- in considerable numbers 

 almost eveiy year and attacking sweet corn, tomatoes, field corn, garden 

 vegetables, ornamentals, and various other plants. Numerous reports 

 are made of its injuries to these plants. In New Jerse}^, Delaware, 

 Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and other States of this area, where 

 sweet corn and tomatoes are largely grown for canning purposes, the 

 insect is considered a pest of prime importance to these crops. Injury 

 to field corn occurs in varying degree almost every 3"ear, often attain- 

 ing considerable proportions. The character and regularit}^ of injuries 

 by this insect fix it as a permanent pest in this area, and it is unnec- 

 essar}^ in this connection to cite specific examples of injur3^ 



UPPER SONORAN AREA. 



In the western or more arid portion of the Upper Austral zone east 

 of the Rocky Mountains the bollworm, from the data in hand, appears 

 to lose much of its importance as a pest. SuflScient data are not avail- 

 able to discuss the extent and character of its injuries, but the few 

 reports indicate that during certain years it is moderatelj^ abundant 

 and destructive to sweet and field corn. 



LOWER AUSTRAL ZONE. 



In the Lower Austral zone, especially the area eastward of, approxi- 

 mately, the one-hundredth meridian, and known as the Austroriparian, 

 the bollworm attains its maximum abundance. 



AUSTRORIPARIAN AREA. 



The Austroriparian area marks, approximately, the principal cotton- 

 growing territoiy of the South. While the bollworm varies much in 

 destructiveness throughout this territory — a fact due largel}^ to local 

 conditions, such as differences in methods of farm practice — yet it is 

 everywhere present, and usually in injurious numbers, on some of its 

 numerous food plants, as corn, cotton, tomatoes, tobacco, alfalfa, and 

 various garden vegetables. Throughout the greater part of the area 

 the commercial culture of sweet corn is attended with the greatest 

 difl&culty by reason of the attacks of this species. In Florida and other 

 sections of the South, where the growing of earh^ tomatoes for north- 

 ern markets is an important industr}^ the bollworm is yearl}^ the source 

 of much loss from its ravages to the early fruit. Probably nowhere 

 in the world does the cotton bollworm become the source of more 

 complaint than in the Austroriparian area of the United States. 



LOWER SONORAN AREA. 



The western and arid portion of the Lower Austral zone is desig- 

 nated the Lower Sonoran area. In Texas, from about the ninet}^ -eighth 



