AMOUNT OF DAMAGE TO COTTON BV PLANT-BUG 21 
estimated that the damage to the crop for the season 1903-4 was 
between 10 and 15 per cent. This loss on the one plantation accord- 
ing to this estimate was between 1,200 and 1,500 bales. A study 
was made of the losses occasioned by these pests in 1905 on the 
above-mentioned plantation, and the results in detail are considered 
under the subject of " Destructiveness " of the conchuela. Briefly, 
this damage on the entire plantation approximated between 5 and 10 
per cent, and for one section of 120 acres where the bugs had been 
most abundant, the destruction as estimated December 4-6, 1905, 
amounted to 30 per cent of all bolls, including unopened bolls, and 
41 per cent of all bolls open at that time. 
In this country damage by plant-bugs, with the exception of that 
by the cotton stainer, has never attracted so much attention as has 
that by the conchuela in Mexico. Nevertheless, after the character- 
istics of plant-bug injury have been brought to one's attention, a per- 
son is generally impressed with the frequency with which it is met 
in the cotton fields. The appearance of the conchuela as an enemy 
of miscellaneous crops in western Texas, near Barstow, in 1905 led to 
an investigation, in connection with which estimates were made of the 
damage of the insect to cotton in that locality. As has been stated in 
a paper dealing with this outbreak, it was estimated that about 10 
per cent of the cotton was destroyed near Barstow in 1905. In one 
field on August 11, 30 per cent of the bolls had been ruined, but the 
disappearance of the majority of the insects and the continuance of 
the fruiting of the plants resulted in the percentage of injury being 
ultimately reduced by one-half. 
Plant-bugs occur in cotton fields in the northern half of the State of 
Texas in much greater abundance than in the southern half, and in 
1905, special attention having been given for the first time to the 
occurrence of plant-bug injuries, it was evident that the aggregate 
losses from this cause must have been large. It is impossible to ap- 
proximate the total loss chargeable to the work of plant-bugs in 1905, 
but it is almost certain that for northern Texas an estimate of 4 or 5 
per cent of all bolls is not too high. As a matter of fact the writer's 
personal examinations in many cotton fields in the section of Texas 
referred to indicated that this estimate is much too low. Plant- 
bugs (Pentatomids) were especially abundant near one corner of a 60- 
acre cotton field at Dallas, Tex., used for experimental purposes by 
this Bureau. On September 9, 1905, 43 green cotton bolls were 
picked at random in the section of the field referred to, and o( these 
29, or 68 per cent, were damaged by the bugs, about 50 per cent being 
ruined and the others showing badly stained lint. On November 4, 
25 bolls were picked at random in a section of the field where these 
