127 
The presence about the breeding jars of flies belonging to species of 
Sarcophagid^e was frequently noticed throughout the summer, but only 
once were any adults bred from jars containing boll worms. In this 
case some living pup« had been buried in finely sifted earth in a glass 
jar covered with cheese cloth to determine the ability of the emerging 
moths to pass through a stratum of loose soil. One morning after 
several moths had appeared, three small specimens of Helicobia helicis 
Town, appeared also. On exhuming the remaining pupae the fly 
puparia were unearthed close to an empty bollworm pupa case. 
Whether the eggs of the fly were in the soil, whether they were laid 
through the cloth, or whether the eggs or young larvae were already 
on one of the live pupae, would be impossible to say. Hubbard ^^ 
records an almost exactl}^ similar instance. Whether this is a case of 
true parasitism remains very doubtful. 
Larvae of another fly, Exixesta annonae, Fab., were obtained by Mr. 
Jones at Wharton, Tex., on July 20, 1904, feeding on the juices of a 
dead bollworm, and from them adults were bred out in the laboratory. 
The flies are often to be seen about corn plants during the earlier part 
of the season, and no doubt their larvae also feed on decaying vegeta- 
ble matter, like the other species of the genus. 
The other small muscid flies, 3rosojMla j)unGtulaUt Loew and D. 
ampelophila Loew, were bred from cotton bolls decaying as the result 
of bollworm injury. 
Monocrepidius vesjyertinus Fab. and another larger click beetle also 
act as scavengers after the bollworm. 
A small nitidulid beetle {Conotelus obscurus Er.) is very common in 
ears of corn which have been previously injured by the bollworm. 
In a badly damaged ear often as man}^ as thirty or forty of these 
little black beetles may be present when the corn is nearly ripened. 
The}^ do not attack the corn unless it has been already injured by 
the bollworm. Several other species of Nitidulidae also frequent the 
damaged ears and bolls. 
METHODS OF BOLLWORM CONTROL. 
CULTURAL METHODS. 
By reason of its feeding habits, the control of the cotton bollworm, 
as compared with many insects, presents unusual difiiculties. On cot- 
ton, corn, and tomatoes, particularl}'^, it feeds on the interior plant 
tissues, and is therefore not amenable to such insecticidal treatment as 
is efi'ective for many related species. Further, it is much less subject 
to the attack of parasitic and predaceous enemies than insects feeding 
« Fourth Rept., p. 110. 
22051— No. 50—05 9 
