PREFACE. 



The present bulletin is based upon Bulletin No. 45, of this Bureau, 

 entitled "The Mexican Cotton Boll Weevil," issued in May, 1904. 

 That publication included the results of investigations of this impor- 

 tant pest which had been carried on for several years. The present 

 bulletin includes additional results that were obtained during the sea- 

 son of 1904. In form the principal changes are in the incorporation 

 of the treatment of some 50 additional topics. As a matter of fact, 

 however, some of the principal actual additions are incorporated in 

 the tables which occur throughout the pages of the bulletin. Many 

 additional features of the life history of the pest that may throw light 

 upon the question of combating it have been investigated. In some 

 respects very considerable additions to our knowledge of the insect 

 have been made. This is especially the case in all matters relating to 

 dissemination. This topic deals with matters that are naturally diffi- 

 cult to determine. The work must be done in the field, and a large 

 territory must be covered. Through the cooperation with the Louisi- 

 ana Crop Pest Commission, which was engaged in an attempt to pre- 

 vent the further advance of the boll weevil into that State, a number 

 of entomologists occupied several months' time in the extreme eastern 

 and northern regions infested by the pest. It is, of course, only upon 

 the basis of such a complete knowledge of all means by which the 

 weevil reaches new regions that the possibility of checking its advance 

 may be considered. 4 



The Mexican cotton boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis Boh.) has the 

 unique record of developing in less than twenty years from a most 

 obscure species to undoubtedly one of the most important economic- 

 ally in the world. It was first brought to the attention of the Bureau 

 of Entomology as an enemy of cotton in Texas in 1894. Before it 

 had invaded more than half a dozen counties in the extreme southern 

 portion of Texas several entomologists were sent to the region in con- 

 nection with this work. Enough was soon discovered to indicate the 

 most feasible plans for avoiding damage by the pest. These original 

 plans, based upon investigations of the life history of the insect, with 

 modifications, for the most part due to climatic conditions in regions 

 quite dissimilar to the lower portion of Texas, are still the basis for 

 all that is known in combating the pest. However, at that time it 



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