2 



In Bulletin No. 18 of this Station a detailed description of the 

 insect has been given and from this we take the life history 

 which is as follows : 



The eggs are deposited singly upon squares, flowers or leaves — 

 from which in about ten days the larva or worm is hatched. The 

 larva feeds upon the plant for a period of about twenty-three 

 days, after which it pupates and emerges from the pupa as an 

 adult or moth fourteen days later. After a few days the moth 

 will begin egg-laying and lives for several days. The larva is 

 the form that does the damage to the cotton. It may attack the 

 squares or flowers and destroy the vital parts of the flower, in 

 which case the square or bloom falls to the ground. Scores of 

 squares from each plant in our Caravonica field fell to the ground 

 during the month of April as a result of insect attack. The larva 

 also attacks the young bolls in all stages of growth and usually 

 damages the lint and eats out the seed contents and causes a pre- 

 mature opening of the boll. 



It has been our observation that Sea Island cotton is more sub- 

 ject to the attack of this worm than Caravonica and Egyptian 

 somewhat less subject, while upland cotton is the least subject 

 of all varieties to their attack. The worm is known to attack 

 other host plants and has been found in Milo (Thcspesia pop- 

 lilnea), may possibly be found in Hau bushes and in India it is 

 said to attack trees which have oil-bearing seeds. 



Because of its occurrence in large numbers only upon cotton 

 it will be possible in a measure to control it by cultural methods, 

 and, until an effective parasite is found, we must make the best 

 use possible of such methods. It must be remembered that these 

 additional measures add to the expense of cotton production and 

 so long as effective should be as simple as possible. However, 

 the ])runing advocated being necessary for other reasons, only 

 the two others given should be considered extra. 



Cultural methods include, first, annual pruning; second, clean 

 culture ; third, trapping the mature moths. 



