PLANT-BUGS INJURIOUS TO COTTON-BOLLS. 



HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PUBLISHED WRITINGS ON PLANT-BUGS 

 INJURIOUS TO COTTON BOLLS. 



For reasons hereinafter explained, comparatively little has been 

 written concerning insects of the suborder Heteroptera (better known 

 as plant-bugs) in relation to their damage to cotton. The earliest 

 records of this kind are found in the writings of Townend Glover. 

 In the U. S. Agricultural Report for 1854,^ in a short article on 

 insects infesting the cotton plant, Glover writes: ^'Several insects 

 (Pentatoma and Anisoscelis) were very abundant in the cotton fields, 

 both on the bolls and leaves, which have been accused of piercing the 

 young bolls for the sake of the juice, but as none were observed in 

 the act it can not be stated definitely whether they actually do harm 

 or not, before their habits have received further investigation." In 

 the report published for the following year (1855)^ the same writer 

 gives a brief account of many insects which frequent the cotton 

 plant, and refers to the rotting of bolls as possibly due to the feeding 

 of plant-bugs, mentioning especially two Pentatomids, one appar- 

 ently Nezara Jiilaris Say, and the other apparently of the genus 

 Euschistus, as also a Coreid, which, judging from the description and 

 drawing, is Leptoglossus phyllopus L. The cotton leaf-bug (Calocoris 

 rapidus Say), which in 1903 and 1904 proved to be of considerable 

 importance as a cotton pest in certain sections of Texas, was here 

 first recorded in this connection and nearly two pages in this report 

 were devoted to the well-known " red bug" or cotton stainer (Dysdercus 

 suturellus H. Schf.), an account being given of its occurrence and 

 depredations on cotton in Florida. The report for the year 1858^ 

 contains additional notes on this latter pest. No writings concerning 

 Heteropterous insects attacking cotton bolls, published between the 

 date of this last-mentioned report and that for the year 1875, are 

 known to the writer. In Glover's report for 1875^ the cotton 



o Agricultural Report for 1854, p. 61. 



& Agricultural Report for 1855, pp. 86-87, 93-95, 103-105. 



c Agricultural Report for 1858, pp. 271-273. 



<^ Report of Commissioner of Agriculture for 1875, p. 124. 



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