208 DISEASES OF THE COTTON PLANT. 
merely visit sucli places for the purpose of obtaining a 
food suitable to tbeir taste, or a dark sheltered place in ac- 
cordance with their habits. 
The Squaee-necked Sylvanus. — [Sylvmns quadricolUs.) 
The larva and perfect insect of this minute beetle has 
already been figured, in the Agricultural Eeport for 1854, 
where it is described as having been found in Indian corn. 
It also frequents diseased cotton-bolls, most probably for 
the sake of the seed, which is generally exposed to its 
attacks, when the boll has been split open by disease. 
Another Insect 
Was also found very numerous in some of the rotted 
bolls ; but as soon as the latter were taken from the plant 
and opened, the beetles ran off with great rapidity, and 
endeavored to hide themselves imder any substance that 
would serve as a place of shelter. They appeared to dis- 
like the open light, and were generally found in dark and 
obscure places. 
There were likewise several small insects found in 
rotted bolls, such as the Colastus semitectus, and many 
others, which it will be unnecessary to enumerate here, as 
their habits are very much the same as those above men- 
tioned, nearly all of them frequenting such places merely 
for food and shelter, and not causmg the rot in any 
manner. 
The hemipterous insects, heretofore mentioned, cer- 
tainly do pierce the bolls with their beaks or piercers, for 
the sake of the sap ; for they have been caught in the 
very act, and this even before any appearance of the rot 
could be discovered. They might, therefore, perhaps, with 
