54 PAPERS ON THE COTTON BOLL WEEVIL, ETC. 



ditions as regards food, while others are barely able to exist, thus 

 lengthening the instars and delaying maturity and greatly increasing 

 the length of the life cycle. 



NATURAL ENEMIES. 



Only one natural enemy was recorded during our observations upon 

 this species. This was a proctotrypid egg parasite, which Doctor Ash- 

 mead pronounced a new species of the genus Hadronotus Forst. Only 

 one egg mass was collected from the field. Of these eggs 12 per cent 

 were parasitized. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Say, in describing this species, reports it as being very abundant in 

 Arkansas. Stal, in his Enumeratio Hemipterorum, reports it from 

 Mexico and Texas. In the Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of 

 Sciences Osborn reports it from Albuquerque, X. Alex. In 1905 it 

 was collected in Texas at San Antonio and Cotulla by J. C. Crawford, 

 at Handley by J. C. Crawford and W. D. Pierce, at Rosser by C. R. 

 Jones and F. C. Bishopp, and at Gurley and Dallas by the writer. 

 Pittier reports it also from Cruz de Guanacaste, Costa Rica, in Inver- 

 tebrados de Costa Rica. 



CONCLUSION. 



Altho the experiments upon Apiomerus spissipes were conducted in 

 the laboratory under conditions more or less unfavorable to the species, 

 yet enough has been learned of its food habits to class it as a species 

 of doubtful economic value, if not one of positive injury. Also, its 

 scarcity in cotton fields, even tho abundant upon the borders, argues 

 unfavorably. Only occasionally have specimens been observed upon 

 cotton plants, and in the instances when these were observed feeding 

 it was always upon ladybirds. Again, in midsummer, when weevils 

 were most numerous, spissipes could not be found either in the cotton 

 fields or near their borders. 



The only injurious insects fed upon were the boll weevil (Anthono- 

 rnus grand is), the pepper weevil {A. ceneotinctus), the twelve-spotted 

 cucumber beetle {Dialjrotica 1-2-pioictata), and a few house flies. This 

 was in laboratory experiments. It is doubtful if any of these are fed 

 upon more than occasionally in the field, for not a single instance has 

 been recorded. 



Lastly, the great mortality of the young and consequent paucity of 

 adults, the unspecialized food habits, the failure to feed to any appre- 

 ciable extent upon harmful insects, and the practical disappearance 

 of the species from the vicinity of cultivated fields during a part of 

 the summer would unquestionably place Apiomerus spissipes among 

 insects of economic insignificance. 



