66 BULLETIN NO. 4. DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



On the day following our arrival at Palmares we took horses for 

 Bonito, and arrived at our destination in the evening of the same day. 



The village of Bonito is a small one, on the southeastern border of 

 the cotton-growing district. There being no hotel in the place, and it 

 being impossible to arrange any other way to live and carry on onr 

 work, it was necessary to hire a house for these purposes. With con- 

 siderable difficulty one was obtained, and preparation made for a short 

 stay in the place. 



Arriving at Bonite on the (3th of January, it was my expectation that 

 we would be able to leave for the provinces further south, in which 

 much cotton is grown, within a couple of weeks at the most. It was 

 found later, however, that in order to carry out our investigations sat- 

 isfactorily it would be necessary to remain at Bonito much longer than 

 I originally proposed. The fact that we had arrived so early in the 

 season, as far as insects were concerned, also made it necessary to re- 

 main here longer than would have been necessary had we come later, 

 say in April or May, when insects are more active. 



Once in the cotton-producing country, there was no difficulty in learn- 

 ing of the existence of caterpillars that destroy the plants. On the 

 day following our arrival we visited some fields of cotton near Bonito, 

 but, though we found various interesting insects injuring the plants, we 

 were not able to find any indication of the existence of caterpillars. The 

 people assured me that it was too early in the season, and that the 

 weather was not of the kind favorable to these insects. The next day, 

 however, Mr. Koebele found both larva* and eggs, and, although they 

 never appeared in large numbers during our stay at Bonito, from that 

 time forth we found a few every day. In order to obtain as good a col- 

 lection as possible of these insects in every stage of development, and 

 of their parasites, we arranged to breed all we could find until our col- 

 lections and observations were complete. At the same time especial 

 efforts were made to find and raise caterpillars that feed upon other 

 species of malvaceous plants. We had about a hundred breeding cases 

 in our house for the different kinds of insects, parasites, &c. 



We made observations on and collections of insects injurious to other 

 industrial plants, such as oranges, coffee, corn, beans, tobacco, &c.,and 

 also of useful insects, such as bees. 



Sugar cane is not grown at Bonito in sufficient quantity to allow of 

 our doing much in regard to the sugar-cane disease, or insects affecting 

 it. At the city of Pernambuco I learned that the Imperial Government 

 had appointed a committee to investigate the causes and report upon 

 remedies for the caneylisease that has been doing great damage in this 

 country for several years, but I was unable to find that anything had 

 been made public in regard to what the committee had accomplished. 

 The Pernambuco Agricultural Society had sent specimens of diseased 

 cane to Germany for examination, and a short report from the gentle- 

 man to whom they were sent was given me. This report says that a 



