several days. There was a high incidence of fungus contamination in buds in which 

 eggs were placed. This may have accounted for the low yield of adults. Six cap- 

 sules of the wine cup were implanted with eggs, but no adult weevils emerged. Ob- 

 servations of other capsules implanted with weevils eggs indicated that little or 

 no larval development occurred. 



In April 1958, newly emerged pairs of boll weevils were enclosed with wine 

 cup buds as their only source of food. Copulation was first noted 6 days after 

 confinement, and the weevils commenced to deposit eggs in the buds approxi- 

 mately 7 to 9 days after emergence. Four of the eggs deposited by these weevils 

 were removed from buds, placed on moist filter paper and held at 80°F. All 

 hatched within a 3-day period. 



ATTRACTANTS AND REPELLANTS 



1898 - Pino y Solis, Patricio. El Algodon en la Costa Grande (Estado de Guerrero). El 

 Prog, de Mex. ano 5, p. 258-259. Feb. 8. 



Expresses a belief that certain substances in the soil tend to protect the 

 cotton from the boll weevil. 



1924 - Anonymous. The control of the cotton weevil. Sci. 60(1554) Sup., p. 12. Oct. 

 Garrison, N. Y. 



Attempts are being made to discover which of the many complex substances 

 in the cotton plant gives it its peculiar attraction for the cotton weevil. When this 

 is known and the substance produced in sufficient quantities to be used as a bait 

 for traps or mixed with poison, an important advance will have been made in 

 controlling this pest. 



1924 - Power, F. B., and V. K. Chesnut. Alkaline reaction of the cotton plant. Sci. 

 60(1557):405. Oct. 31. Garrison, N. Y. 



The alkalinity of the dew of the cotton plant is believed to be attributable, at 

 least in part, to the presence of ammonia and trimethylamine, which has been 

 determined in it. They have also been obtained in very much larger amounts from 

 the products of distillation of the cotton plant with steam. Both ammonia and 

 trimethylamine are emanations from the plant and the latter possesses a par- 

 ticular attraction for the boll weevil. 



1926 - Mclndoo, N. E. Senses of the cotton boll weevil. An attempt to explain how 

 plants attract insects by smell. Agr. Res. J. 33(12): 1 094- 1 141. Dec. 15. 



A thorough investigation into the senses and sense organs of A . grandis 

 made with the object of determining the means by which the cotton plant attracts 

 the insect. The author studied the olfactory pores described by Hicks in 1857 in 

 Hymenoptera and Coleoptera and decided that they serve as olfactory organs, 

 and, having described the structure of the sense organs of both larvae and adults, 

 he records experiments showing how plants attract insects by smell. He is very 

 doubtful, however, whether it is possible for anyone to reproduce accurately the 

 odor or odors that emanate from a plant merely by using the constituents derived 

 from the plant by chemical means. Insects having a keener sense of smell than 

 human beings should be able to distinguish the differences more readily. The 

 antennae of boll weevils have 4 types of sense organs, including many innervated 

 hairs, chiefly on the club, 3 or 4 olfactory pores at the base of each antenna and 

 2 so-called auditory organs in the second segment. Olfactory pores also occur on 

 many parts of the body, in both adult and larva. The author believes the senses of 

 smell and taste in insects to be inseparable. The olfactory sense seems to be the 

 only one that can serve to attract the weevils to cotton plants from a distance and 

 many experiments were conducted in the hope of finding a substance that would 

 attract boll weevils as powerfully as cotton squares (flower buds) do. Saccharine, 

 sugar, ice cream powder, a sweetened form of calcium arsenate, honey and 3 

 brands of molasses were tried, but none of them gave any indication of being of 

 any practical use in the control of the weevils. 



159 



