28 PROLIFERATION IN CONTROL OF BOLL WEEVIL. 
Average percentage of locks in which proliferation follows weevil punctures in bolls as shown in 
several preceding tables. 
Table II. Feeding punctures in bolls. Proliferation formed in 44.8 per cent of total locks 
and in 81.3 per cent of locks actually fed upon. 
Table IV. King and Shine bolls. Proliferation formed in 54 per cent of total locks and in 
77.4 per cent of locks actually fed upon. 
Table V. Fertilized and unfertilized bolls. Proliferation formed in 67.8 per cent of total 
locks. 
These figures indicate that proliferation is stimulated by weevil 
punctures in somewhat more than 55 per cent of all locks in bolls 
attacked. The figures in regard to feeding punctures only, show that 
proliferation results in nearly 80 per cent of the locks thus attacked. 
It should be noted here that in many cases the proliferation may have 
been stimulated by secondary causes, such as the entrance of fungi or 
by decay starting in the open feeding punctures. 
INCREASED MORTALITY OF WEEVIL STAGES DUE TO PROLIFERATION. 
As would naturally be expected, a study of the increase of mortality 
attributable to proliferation will show a somewhat greater variation in 
the figures for various series of observations than has been found in 
the percentages of instances in which proliferation occurs. Thus for 
squares there is found a range of from 9 to 31.6 per cent, the general 
average being only about 13.5 per cent. For bolls the range is not as 
ereat as for squares, being only from 7.1 per cent to 15.6 per cent, 
while the general average increase in mortality in bolls was found to be 
only about 6.3 per cent. This increase is scarcely one-half as great 
as was the increase found in squares. 
In neither squares nor bolls is the percentage of mortality sufficiently ' 
high to appreciably delay the time of maximum infestation by the 
weevil, since, if hibernated weevils survived in their usual numbers, — 
the number of weevils developing would be abundantly able to totally — 
infest a field by the time the weevils of the third generation had 
deposited a majority of their eggs. However, the fact that prolifera- _ 
tion does evidently increase the mortality in both squares and bolls 
must be regarded as a very encouraging sign. It indicates clearly one 
of the most promising lines of investigation in the future development 
of cotton varieties which, by possessing this quality in a still greater — 
degree and in combination with other desirable characters, may prove 
most desirable for culture in the weevil-infested area. So far as our 
present knowledge is concerned, we may say that the mortality of the 
weevil is more greatly increased by only two other natural factors 
known—(1) by the effect of long-continued dry weather when the 
sun has direct access to the fallen squares upon the ground, and (2) — 
by the work of a widely distributed species of native ant, Solenopsis 
geminata Fab. 
