DISEASES OF THE COTTOISr PLANT. 
207 
the effect is thus mistaken for the cause, and that insects 
perfectly innocent are blamed for a disease with which they 
have nothing to do, except that they resort to the already 
injured bolls for food or shelter. 
The insects in decaying and rotted bolls of cotton are 
very numerous, but most of them are quite small. 
Another Insect — ( Carpophilus ? ) 
Was found in such bolls as were either bored into by 
the boll-worm, or had been split open by the rot, and did 
not appear upon the bolls unless they had been previously i 
injured. I have counted as many as thirty of these beetles j 
in a single diseased boU, and there is scarcely an injured \ 
or split boll in some fields in which one or more of them 
is not to be found. They likewise occur in considerable 
numbers in the tops of such ears of maize as have been 
eaten out by the corn-worm (Heliothes), (see Report for 
1854), and have much of the sap exuding, or are covered 
with a fungoid growth. They appear to dislike light, and 
seek shelter in dark places, secure from the rays of the sun. 
This insect is about the tenth of an inch in length, and 
of a brown color ; the wing-cases are short, covering only 
about two-thirds of the abdomen. The larva is a small 
yellow grub, with six fore-legs and two points at the end 
of the tail, and is often found in the rotted parts of the 
bolls. 
If this insect were to be found in the bolls before they 
were already rotted, or to be seen in the act of piercing 
the outer case, it might, perhaps with reason, be accused 
of causing the disease ; but, as they are never found inside 
before the rot has commenced, it is very much to be 
doubted whether they have any thing to do with it, or 
