71 



best strained honey were among the sweets tried. The conditions were 

 such as to lead the weevils to eat the sweets if they would ever do so. 

 The only alternative offered them for food was a supply of rather old 

 cotton leaves such as weevils never touch in the field. In spite of the 

 unfavorable conditions for getting at the real choice of the weevils, 

 they showed little inclination to feed upon the sweets except in the 

 case of honey, which seemed to attract them quite strongly. Many 

 weevils fed upon the. unattractive leaf tissue or upon the broken end 

 of the petiole rather than upon the sweets. 



The result of Mr. Harris's experiments with undiluted molasses 

 applied to plants in the field as summed up in his own words was that 

 "nothing indicated that the weevils were attracted by the odor of 

 sweets." Honey was then tried, and this did attract a few weevils. 

 Mr. Harris's general conclusion, based upon the results of his experi- 

 ments, was that "while a high grade of sweets seemed to have more 

 attraction than a cheaper grade, neither can be depended upon to 

 attract the weevils for poisoning." 



ATTRACTIVENESS OF SWEETS TO HIBERNATED WEEVILS IN 



LABORATORY. 



The sweets used in these tests were of three kinds: High-grade 

 molasses, common molasses, and light-brown sugar. The weevils were 

 brought in from the field and left for one week without food or drink 

 previous to the beginning of the tests on April 2, 1903. Three weevils 

 were used with each kind of sweet, the latter being in their strongest 

 form and the sugar in a saturated solution. The inclosing apparatus 

 was formed by placing two bottles mouth to mouth with sufficient 

 space for air but not enough for the escape of the weevils between 

 them. In the bottom of one bottle was placed the sweet and the 

 second leaves of cotton in the bottom of the other. The weevils were 

 then inclosed, and the cages thus formed were placed in a horizontal 

 position in the dark to eliminate every possible influence of direction 

 of light, relative elevation of food, etc. The food supplies were 

 renewed occasionally, and the location of the weevils relative to the 

 food in each cage was noted frequently. The weevils were counted at 

 each observation. The results of these observations are briefly sum- 

 marized in the following table: 



Table XV. — Attraction of various sweets versus cotton, second leaves. 



Character of sweet. 



Number 

 of obser- 

 vations. 



Number 

 of wee- 

 vils on 

 cotton. 



Number 

 of wee- 

 vils at 

 sweets. 



Best molasses, cage 1 



20 

 13 

 18 

 21 



25 

 29 

 42 



48 



1 



Best molasses, cage 2 



5 



Common molasses, cage 3 



4 



Brown-sugar sirup, cage 4 



8 







Total 



72 



144 



18 







