194 
DISEASES OF THE COTTON PLANT. 
mentioned vary so mucli in the distinctness of their stripes, 
some of them being the medium between the perfectly 
gray and the striped, that it is somewbat diflBcult to deter- 
mine whether they are the same insect or not. The under- 
wings are clouded, and nearly black. 
These insects, although they eat boles in the petals, do 
but little, if any, damage to the crop ; yet, together with 
the Chauliognathus, bees, and. wasps, may perhaps be ben- 
eficial, as serving to fecundate many plants by carrying the 
pollen from flower to flower. 
The Cotton CHAULioaNATHus. — {Chauliognathus Pennsyl- 
vanicus.) 
This insect does not appear to attack the petals in the 
same manner as the cantharides, just described, but con- 
tents itself with the pollen or nectar, which is found in the 
flower, where it may be often seen so much occupied in 
feeding as scarcely to take any notice of the approach of 
mankind. It is so plentiful near Columbia, South Caro- 
lina, that four or six may be taken from one bloom alone. 
When issuing from the flower, tbey sometimes appear to 
be so abundantly powdered with pollen as to be perfectly 
yellow, and no doubt serve in some measure beneficially, 
as a medium for transporting the pollen and fertilizing 
other blooms. 
This insect is not quite three-quarters of an inch in 
length ; its head, eyes, and antennje are black ; its thorax, 
orange, with a large dark spot in the centre ; its wing-cases 
are orange yellow, with a black, longitudinal, broad stripe 
running down each, near the inner margin, leaving a nar- 
row inner and broad, outer margin of yellow orange. This 
black stripe grows broader toward the abdomen, leaving a 
