ttEPOUT OF J. P. STELLE. [27] 



good fortune to make a discovery which lets them out of the hands of the court with- 

 out bail. I was amusing myself one evening trying to induce a colony of ants to re- 

 plenish their larder with a well-grown Boll Worm (Heliothis annigera), but they didn't 

 seem to want him, so he made his way to the nearest cotton stalk and ascended. I 

 kept quiet to see what he would do. just as the sun was setting he reached a cotton 

 boll bordering upon maturity, and fell to work at it after the usual manner of Boll 

 Worms. Its shell proved too hard for his boring machinery at the point where first 

 attacked, therefore he changed his location to the other side and tried it again. Same 

 result; then he took himself to another part of the plant and set to work upon another 

 boll. While this was going on I thought I would examine his first job to see if he 

 had left any mark upon the surface, when lo ! to my great surprise, I saw the identi- 

 cal dull green or bruised spot always taken as an indication of coming boll rot ; and 

 on the opposite side of the boll where he had worked was another. There could be 

 no mistake about it. I watched his operations till the gathering darkness concealed 

 them from view, and until he had made eight similar bruises. Tearing my pocket- 

 handkerchief into strips and tying them as marks at the base of the bruised bolls, I 

 left him alone in his glory. 



Next day, towards evening, I found the bruises already assuming a brownish hue ; 

 in three days more they were dark brown. On the fifth day the bolls began to burst ; 

 not one upon which I had seen the Boll Worm work that evening escaped entire de- 

 struction by the "rot." 



With the back of my pocket-knife I made similar bruises on other bolls to see 

 whether or not the effect would be the same ; but it was not — from my bruises the in- 

 terior of the boll sustained no injury whatever. 



Since, on two occasions, I have seen the Boll Worm making these same bruises, and 

 have kept the bolls under mark till they rotted, which they did in every case ; all of 

 which convinces me that I have found' the cause of boll rot, but how the mere nib- 

 bling of a worm upon the surface of the boll brings it about is more than I shall at- 

 tempt to explain. 



THE FLARE. 



The involucre or " square" which surrounds the base of the cotton-flower bud, or 

 young boll, is found to have spread out, exposing to view a kind of neck or stem be- 

 low the bud or boll. This condition planters call the " Flare." Upon close examina- 

 tion of a specimen we discover that a small hole has been bored into the bud or young 

 boll, and that the castings of some insect are deposited upon the involucre just below 

 it. Or, if we do not find these, we, uiDon still closer scrutiny, discover that the "neck" 

 of the bud or boll exhibits a puncture or two so minute as to be scarcely visible to 

 the naked eye. In a short time this injured fruit separates from the plant and falls to 

 the ground. 



The question as to the cause of Flare has been settled in case of the holes bored in 

 the flower-bud or young boll ; it is the work of young Boll Worms ; but in the case of 

 the niinute punctures the author, so far as I know, has not yet been identified. In 

 obedience to iDstrnctions I made diligent search for the culprit throughout the sea- 

 son, but was unable to detect him directly at the work, though I often saw certain 

 Hemipterous insects (as leaf hoppers) in such familiar juxtaposition to young cotton 

 bolls or flower-buds as to strongly rouse the suspicion that they knew more about the 

 cause of Flare than was known to me. They are a class of insects so shy as not easily 

 to be detected at mischief. I tried the experiment of confining some of them under 

 gauze cloth with young squares, but secured no results. It is, in my opinion, highly 

 probable that several species of Hemiptera may have a hand in producing the "Flare." 



OTHER FOOD PLANTS THAN COTTON. 



The woods and prairies adjacent to cotton-fields were often carefully searched in 

 hopes of finding the larva of Aletia feeding upon some other plant than cotton, but 

 to me no such "find" ever resulted. 



Repeated efforts to feed the worms in confinement upon such botanical relatives of 

 the cotton as could be found native to Texas were also made. Many species of Mal- 

 vacesB were largely experimented upon in this direction, but, save in one instance, 

 there was gained not so much as a single step towards success. That instance was in 

 the case of Abutilon texenais, the worms having eaten part of one leaf. Beyond this 

 they fed no more, though fresh and tender plants were placed at their disposal every 

 day; they either "webbed up" or starved to death, depending upon their stage of 

 growth when put into confinement. 



With reference to Aletia in the moth state I observed the case to be quite different. 

 The moths seem to find their natural food upon almost every species of plant yielding- 

 nectar. Among the cultivated i)lants outside of cotton the Southern field pea (DoU- 

 ,chos) appears to rank as a great favorite. On several occasions, where patches of 



