14 PLANT-BUGS INJURIOUS TO COTTON BOLLS. 



cotton was through the staining of Hnt in the open bolls by the 

 excrement of these insects. In this connection it seems well to refer 

 to the common belief among the natives of that part of Mexico where 

 the conchuela has been so destructive, that the damage to the cotton 

 is effected by the voiding of excrement upon the lint and unopened 

 bolls. The author can state positively that such a belief is unfounded 

 in this instance, and that he is, moreover, disposed to look carefully 

 into the source of all such similar suppositions before accepting them 

 as entirely credible. Glover quotes at length a communication from 

 a Sea Island cotton grower in Florida who shows himself to be a care- 

 ful observer, capable of distinguishing between fact and theory. 

 This correspondent states: ^^The pod or boll is perforated by the bug. 

 Whether the staining matter is imparted to the fiber of the cotton 

 during the perforation directly or by a slow process diffusing itself 

 with the sap abounding at the time in the pod is not yet ascertained. 

 I am of the latter opinion, from the fact tJiat almost the entire prod- 

 uct of the holl is discolored when it opens, which does not seem at all 

 to cause a premature development."^ As opposed to this source of 

 the discoloration Glover merely states: ''It has been stated by other 

 planters that the faeces of the insect produce the reddish or greenish 

 stain." Three years later the same author states^ concerning the 

 injury by the cotton stainer: ''It drains the sap from the bolls by its 

 puncture, causing them to become diminutive or abortive, but the 

 principal injury it does is by sucking the juice of the seed and boll and 

 then voiding an excrementitious liquid, which stains the cotton fiber 

 yellow or reddish, and very much depreciates its value in the market, 

 the stains being indelible." This description of the injury, as well as 

 the descriptions presented in the later writings of Glover and others 

 on the cotton stainer in Florida, seems to be based on the first account 

 of the insect damage from which the above quotations were made. 

 In 1879 Mr. E. A. Schwarz,^ in a report on insects injuring cotton in 

 the Bahamas, refers to the cotton stainer of the Bahamas^ later 

 identified as belonging to the same species which occurs in this 

 country. He states regarding its injury: "It punctures the green 

 bolls, thus preventing them from opening; the bolls wilt and finally 

 dry up, the half-formed cotton and dried-up seeds giving food to a 

 number of other insects; more often the cotton-bug crowds in the 

 half or not quite half open bolls, sucking the seeds, thus preventing 

 the cotton from blowing, or at least renders the cotton yellow and 

 unfit for use." As these observations extended over a period of less 

 than ten days, they do not disprove the statements of Glover's 



« Italics are mine. — A. W. M. 



& Agricultural Report, 1858. 



c Report upon Cotton Insects, pp. 347-349. 



