4S WEEVIL-RESISTING ADAPTATIONS OF COTTON. 



the style and central column of the flower, and thence down into the 

 ovary or young boll. After this has been consumed the larvae return 

 to the upper part of the bud to finish the remainder of the pollen. 



Nevertheless, this suggestion of a protecting quality in the pollen 

 itself can not be accepted with much confidence because the weevils 

 showed in numerous instances that they could live and thrive upon the 

 pollen of the young squares, quite as in the United States. This oc- 

 curred in the experimental plot where there were no keleps, and the 

 weevils were very numerous and persistent in their attacks. After 

 two or three punctures the squares flared and fell to the ground in 

 the usual manner, and in these the weevil larvae were able to reach 

 maturity. 



A more probable reason for the usual failure of the larvae to eat the 

 pollen as freely as in the United States is furnished by the opinion of 

 Mr. W. D. Hunter, that the original habit of the weevil was to attack 

 the bolls, like related species of Anthonomus, which live upon various 

 kinds of fruits. If this be true with reference to the boll weevil we 

 may think of the Guatemalan members of the species as having 

 retained somewhat more of the ancestral habits which with them are 

 definitely useful, because the cotton variety with which they have to 

 deal has perfected, to a larger extent than the Texas varieties, the art 

 of proliferation. 



As a further indication of the greater strength among the Guate- 

 malan weevils of the instinct of attacking the ovary of the bud 

 may be mentioned the fact that a very large proportion of the 

 punctures occur low down — that is, on or below the level of the apex 

 of the young boll. The larva commonly eats directly to the center of 

 the bud and hollows out the apex of the young boll. This habit 

 gives rather less opportunity for successful proliferation than in 

 Texas, because the cavity hollowed out by the larva lies below the 

 level of the staminal tube, the tissues of which are the most active 

 m proliferation. The Kekchi cotton shows occasionally another 

 form of proliferation not recorded from Texas, namely, that of the 

 base of the corolla. Sometimes this enlargement takes place in an 

 outward direction, forming a wart or protuberance on one side 

 of the bud, as shown in Plate VI. In other instances the direc- 

 tion is reversed and the ingrowing edges of the wound made by 

 the weevil fill the internal cavity and prevent the development 

 of the larva. The proliferation of the corolla, besides being less 



a A new species of Anthoiiomus with, habits closely identical with those of the 

 boll weevil, but parasitic on the pepper plant (Capsicum), has been discovered 

 recently in Texas by Mr. E. A. Schwarz. This gains an added interest from the 

 fact already noted that it is the regular 'custom of the Indians of Alta Vera 

 Taz to plant peppers among the cotton. 



