INSECTS MISTAKEN FOR BOLL WEEVIL. 



29 



because the boll weevil has shown considerable adaptability in the 

 past and may be able to adapt itself to higher altitudes than it has 

 yet reached. 



With regard to the possible relation between life zones and the 

 distribution of the weevil it is to be said that at present the infested 

 territory includes the tropical regions of Cuba, Central America, and 

 Texas, and a considerable part of the Austroriparian Zone of the 

 Lower Austral Region in the other Southern States. It is interest- 

 ing to note that the weevil has not yet succeeded in establishing 

 itself in the Upper Sonoran Zone of the Upper Austral Region of 

 either Mexico or western Texas. It has invaded, or at least sur- 

 rounded, two isolated areas of the Carolinian Zone of the Upper 

 Austral Region in Oklahoma and Arkansas. Considerable cotton is 

 grown in western Texas, in the Upper Sonoran Zone. There also 

 exist in Arkansas, southern Missouri, Tennessee, northern Georgia, 

 northern South Carolina, western North Carolina, and Virginia large 

 regions of cotton-producing territory included in the Carolinian 

 Zone. It is possible that the boll weevil will be unable to establish 

 itself permanently beyond the limits of the Lower Austral Zone 

 and this would exclude it from the regions just mentioned. 



As a matter of fact, the effects of climatic conditions upon the 

 weevil are so powerful that there may be occasional diminution in 

 the serious attacks from the insect in the moist regions, such as was 

 experienced in the summer of 1911. The season of 1911 was unusual 

 in Louisiana and Mississippi, starting with severe cold in January, 

 which cut down the emergence from hibernation to 0.5 per cent, 

 and continuing with a very unusual drought. Such conditions are 

 not often experienced, and we may usually expect severe attack by 

 the weevil in southern Louisiana and the Delta of Mississippi. 



INSECTS OFTEN MISTAKEN FOR THE BOLL WEEVIL. 



The anticipated appearance of a serious pest such as the boll 

 weevil in new regions causes greater attention to be given to the 

 insects found in the cotton fields. Many planters notice common 

 native insects which appear to answer the description of the boll 

 weevil. The result of such mistaken identifications is generally a 

 local panic. On account of the difficulty of distinguishing the boll 

 weevil from a large number of related insects, we advise that whenever 

 a planter discovers an insect which he suspects to be the boll weevil 

 he send it either to the State entomologist or to the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology and receive authoritative information. 1 



i Addresses of officials who will give authentic determinations of the boll weevil: 

 Alabama. — W. E. Hinds, Auburn. 

 A rkansas. — Paul Hayhurst, Fayetteville. 

 Florida.— E. W. Berger, Gainesville. 

 Georgia.— JZ. L. Worsham, Atlanta. 

 Louisiana.— J . B. Garrett, Baton Rouge. 

 Mississippi.— ~R. W. Harned, Agricultural College. 

 North Carolina. — Franklin Sherman, jr., Raleigh. 

 Oklahoma. — C E. Sanborn, Stillwater. 

 South Carolina.— A. F. Conradi, Clemson College. 

 Tennessee.— G. M. Bentley, Knoxville. 



Texas.— Wilmon Newell, College Station. Ernest Scholl, Austin, Department of Agriculture. W. D. 

 Hunter, Bureau of Entomology, Dallas. 

 Virginia.— E. A. Back, Blacksburg. 



