[66] REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



eion -will at once see its imperfections and inaccuracies. It is a hotly-disputed point 

 as to what becomes of the worm during the "six or eight years" when it does not ap- 

 pear, and no one in my circuit of acquaintance gives me anything better than a super- 

 stition for a solution of the problem. Our climate never giving us frost, scarcely 

 affects the constant germinal qualities of plants or the enemies thereof; and it has 

 been asserted to me that at one place or another the Cotton Worm can always be 

 found. However, the difficulty I have experienced in obtaining the specimens sent, 

 induces me to doubt the correctness of that assertion. 



4. ''Has this worm alwavs been in the country, or is it believed to be an importa- 

 tion?" 



Answer. It has been here as long as cotton has been cultivated by the Mexicans. 



5. '' How long has cotton been grown in Mexico, and does it grow wild ? " 

 Answer. We have historical accounts that cotton was grown and utilized since the 



twelfth century, but have no data that it was or was not naturally indigenous. But 

 if said history be reliable it is fair to presume that it was indigenous, because there 

 is no knowledge of commercial relations with foreign countries at that period. At 

 present, however, there is no evidence of its being indigenous any more than the banana 

 plant or other produce known to be of foreign origin. 



6. " What is the prevailing direction of the wind during the months of March, April, 

 June, and July ? '" 



Answer. Easterly and southeasterly. 



7. '^ Transmit, if possible, in alcohol, specimens of the worm most destructive to 

 the plant." 



Answer. The specimens I send I transmit in the same condition as received. I was 

 promised the grasshopper and the ant, but the specimens have not been sent to me, 

 and I have been so far behind time with my report that I do not deem it right for me 

 to wait longer for them. They devour the cotton plant in common with e\ery other 

 green substance and are not a specific enemy of it. So, too, of the ground mole. 

 Your obedient servant, 



S. T. TROWBRIDGE, 



C07lSUl. 



Hon. William Huxter, 



Second Assistant Secretary of State, Wasliington, D. C. 



[EnclosTire — translated.] 



Yeea Cruz, March 2, 1880. 



Dear Sir : I send you a bottle containing various kinds of worms that destroy the 

 cotton and plant. They are all I have been able to procure. This is now the part of 

 the year in which the worms usually appear, and have been gathered near San An- 

 dres Tuxtla, on the southern coast from here. 



I think some of the samples I send you do not attack the plant, but live on it with- 

 out harming it. The large thick ones of the tobacco color with black half moons are 

 of that species. The narrow green ones having two black lines on the body are, in 

 my opinion, the only ones that attack the cotton x^lant. You will see other samples 

 of the caterpillar in the state of chrysalis, and other Lepidoptera.^^ On the coast they 

 are called palomas or salomilla (chrysalis or aurelia). Said paloma is ash color, and 

 is nocturnal in its habits: is, in reality, a bombyx, which produces a multitude of 

 microscopic eggs on the i)lant, which eggs create, in short, the worm, also microscopic, 

 and which commences immediately to devour the plant, and so continues until it gets 

 to the state of enrollment to pass the last metamorphosis. 



This worm is in my opinion the Aiiomis xylina, or Xoctua gossypii: but I may be mis- 

 taken. 



I have not been able to obtain the data sufficiently clear to saj- whether they were 

 imported into this country, but I am assured that they do not make their appearance 

 every year at the same place: or, better said, they only come one or two years in suc- 

 cession ; then disappear for six or eight years. They are not to be found in all the 

 couutry at one time. Their reproduction is usually ascribed to our southern coast. 



I understand their invasion can be victoriously combatted by sprinkling dry chlo- 

 ride of lime over the ground and j)lants, or an aqueous solution of the same, and I 

 have recommended this remedy to those living on the coast for a trial. 



I hope these data may be of utility, and I improve this occasion to place myself 

 anew at your orders, repeating myself, 

 Yours from my heart, 



R. DE 7.AYAS ENRIQUEZ. 



Consul Trowbridge. 



