[70] REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



NOTES ON INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE COTTON PLANT IN THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO. 



As the principal cottou planting districts are at some distance from this ca})ital, I 

 have not been able to obtain the specimens of insects requested by the Chief of the En- 

 tomological Commission, nor can I flatter myself that the descriptive information which 

 I have been enabled to collect after much difiQculty and delay, will be found to be of 

 much practical value. I nevertheless present it for what it may be worth. 



1. The most usual and fatal enemy of the plant is a small white worm from 1 to 9 

 centimeters in length, and in form somewhat resembling a centipede without the feet. 

 When in motion this worm shows streaks of light green. It is believ^ed to be inherent 

 to the plant, always accompanying it, even in the seasons of the most abundant crops. 

 It is usually observed when the plant has attained its full growth and just before it 

 blossoms. This worm attacks the leaf alone, and devours it completely. In bad seasons 

 it is so abundant that in two days a whole plantation will be entirely stripped of its 

 leaves, showing nothing but the bare stalks. 



Various experiments have been tried to counteract and destroy this enemy, but none 

 seem to have been attended with good results except the fumigation with sulphur, 

 which has been tried on a limited scale, and has been only partially successful. 



2. Another worm somewhat similar in form, but smaller, and of a green color with 

 white stripes, makes its appearance at times, but never in such vast armies, and is 

 consequently not so much dreaded as the former. 



3. The third insect mentioned is a large bug of a brown color called the "cou- 

 chuela," which is never so abundant as the Cotton Worm, but inserts itself into the 

 bud and prevents the maturing of the blossom, thereby causing considerable damage. 



4. The '' chahuistle" is an insect so microscopic in size that it tirst appears as adrj^ 

 reddish powder covering the leaves and stock of the plant. As it accumulates the 

 mass seems to distil a gummy substance which speedily destroys every vestige of the 

 growth. The chahuistle is common throughout the country, and attacks not only the 

 cotton plant, but other vegetables and cereals, such as beans (frijoles), wheat, and 

 maize. 



5. In Durango the crops are reported to suffer seriously from "pocks" (viruela), 

 and in some seasons are severely damaged by locusts. 



Ever since cotton has been cultivated in Mexico by Europeans or their descendants 

 it has been more or less infested with the above-described insects, which, however, 

 are not supposed to be indigenous, but to have been imported with foreign seed. 

 Whether this opinion is merely conjectural or founded on well authenticated tradi- 

 tions, I do not know. Hernando Cortez, on landing, found the natives of the country 

 clothed in cotton garments of their own manufacture, but to the best of my knowledge 

 neither history nor tradition has preserved us any information in regard to the ene- 

 mies of the cotton crop before the coming of the Spaniards. 



In the districts near the Pacific coast, after the before-described insects an eclipse 

 of the moon is believed to be the most damaging enemy of the cotton plant. When 

 the eclipse takes place at the time when the plant is in blossom it perishes immedi- 

 ately and completely. The only means of saving any part of a crop under these 

 circumstances is to fumigate with a certain wood found on that coast, which burns 

 slowly and gives out volumes of smoke. The Indians on such occasions imagine they 

 can save their cotton by fixing streamers of red or other gay colored rags upon reeds 

 and sticking them over their fields. The planters of European stock, however, regard 

 this practice as a superstition. 



The information here furnished has been derived principally from planters in the 

 vicinity of Tepee and Durango, no reports having been received from other quarters. 



DAVID H. STROTHER, 

 United States Consul- General, City of Mexico. 



