i7 



but in the experimental plantings at this Station and else- 

 where in and about Honolulu it does great damage to the cot- 

 ton crop. It is said to have been introduced (unquestionably 

 from India) within comparatively recent years. It has doubt- 

 less spread to all the islands, having been reported to this 

 office from Hawaii and Kauai; indeed, that it is not every- 

 where prevalent can only be accounted for by the small extent 

 to which cotton has been grown. 



Gelechia gossypiella is also a major pest of cotton in India. 

 It has been known there for a quarter of a century and is said 

 to have been introduced with Egyptian or American cotton 

 brought in about 1883. Lefroy reports it as now generally 

 present throughout the Indian Ocean region, in India, Ceylon, 

 Burmah, Strait Settlements and German East Africa. The 

 insect is also reported to have been collected in Japan, but 

 Kuwana writes that it is not known there. 



Lefroy says of it : 



"The pest is apparently universal in India, Ceylon, Burma and the 

 Strait Settlements, causing a very large aggregate loss to cotton in 

 India, which may amount to at least one crore of rupees (over 

 $4,000,000) annually. The destruction of the seed, the staining of 

 the lint, and the loss of young bolls are the principal forms of dam- 

 age. So far as is known all varieties of cotton now grown as field 

 crops in India are attacked, the American and Egyptian as well as the 

 indigenous. It remains to be seen whether there are any varieties 

 of cotton immune to the pest, but none have definitely proved so up 

 to the present. Unlike the other boll-worms, this species has not been 

 found attacking plants allied to cotton; its wild food-plants appear 

 to be trees with oily seeds which are widely distributed in India." 



In Hawaii, according to Perkins, it attacks other plants 

 than cotton. I have bred it from milo (Tliespesia populnea). 



The boll-worm, as its name indicates, attacks primarily the 

 boll, although the immature worms sometimes enter the ovary 

 and devour the young ovules, preventing the normal forming 

 of the boll, which either drops or opens prematurely, before 

 the lint has been formed. In the boll it causes premature 

 opening, rotting and soiling of the lint. The worm also enters 

 the seed, eating its contents. In a planting where no effort was 

 made to control the pest it was estimated that fifty per cent of 



