REPORT OF J. P. STELLE. 
[27] 
good fortune to make a discovery which lets them out of the hands of the court with- 
out bail. I was amusing myself one evening trying to induce a colony of ants to re- 
plenish their larder with a well-grown Boll Worm (Heliothis armigera), but they didn't 
seem to want him, so he made his way to the nearest cotton stalk and ascended. I 
kept quiet to see what he would do. Just as the sun was setting he reached a cotton 
boll bordering upon maturity, and fell to work at it after the usnal manner of Boll 
Worms. Its shell proved too bard for his boring machinery at the point where first 
attacked, therefore he changed his location to tbe other side and tried it again. Same 
result ; then he took himself to another part of the plant and s^t to work upon another 
boll. While this was going on I thought I would examine his first job to see if he 
had left any mark upon the surface, when lo! to my great surprise, I saw the identi- 
cal «lull green or bruised spot always taken as an indication of* coming boll rot; and 
on the opposite side of the boll where he had worked was another. There could be 
no mistake about it. I watched his operations till tbe gathering darkness concealed 
them from view, and until he had made eight similar bruises. Tearing my pocket- 
La udkorehief into strips and tying them as marks at the base of the bruised bolls, I 
left him alone in his glory. 
Next day, towards evening, I found the bruises already assuming a brownish hue; 
in thma days more they were dark brown. On the tilth day the bolls began to burst ; 
not ou* upon which I had seen the Boll Worm work that evening escaped entire de- 
bt motion by the " rot." 
Whh the back of my pocket-knife I made similar bruises on other bolls to see 
whetuer or not the effect would !»e the same ; hut it was not — from my bruises the in- 
terior of the boll sustained no injury whatever. m 
Since, on two occasions, I have seen the Boll Worm making these same bruises, ami 
have kept the bolls under mark till i hey roi ted. which they did in every case ; all <>t 
which convinces me that I have found the cause of boll rot, but how the mere nib- 
bling of a worm upon the surface of the boll brings it about is more than I shall at- 
tempt to explain. 
THE FLARE. 
The involucre or 11 square" which surround** the base of the cotton-Mower bud, or 
young boll, is found to have spread out, exposing to view a kind of neck or stem be- 
iow the bud or boll. This condition planters call the " Flare." Upon close examina- 
tion of a specimen we discover that a small hole has been bond into the bud or young 
boll, and that the castings of some inject are deposited upon the involucre just below 
it. Or, if we do not find these, we, upon still clo.se r scrutiny, discover that the "neck" 
of the bud* or boll exhibits a puncture or two so minute as to be scarcely visible to 
the naked eye. In a short time this injured fruit separates from the plant and falls to 
the ground. 
The question as to the cau.se of Flare has been set I led in case of the holes bored in 
the tlower-bud or young boll ; it is the work of young Boll Worms ; but in the case of 
the minute punct tires t he aut hor, so far as I know, has not yet been identified. In 
obedience to instructions I made diligent search for the culprit throughout the sea- 
sou, but was unable to detect him directly at the work, though I often saw certain 
Hcmipterous insects (as leaf hoppers) in such familiar juxtaposition to young cotton 
bolls or llower-buds as to st rough i ,m>c the suspicion t hat t hey knew more about the 
cause of Flare than was known to me. They are a class of insects so shy as not easily 
to be detected at mischief. I tried t he experiment of confining some of them under 
gauze cloth with young squares, but sccun d no results. It is, in my opinion, highly 
probable that several species of llemiptera may have a hand in producing the " Flare." 
OTHER FOOD PLANTS THAN COTTON. 
The woods and prairies adjacent to cotton-fields wero often carefully searched in 
hopes of finding the larva of Aletia feeding upon some other plant than cotton, but 
to me no such " find " ever r< suited. 
Repeated efforts to feed the worms in confinement upon such botanical relatives of 
the cotton as could be found native to Texas were also made. Many species of Mal- 
vacea3 were largely experimented upon in this direction, but, save in one instance, 
there was gained not so much as a single step towards success. That instance was in 
the case of Abutilon tcxensis, the worms having eaten part of one leaf. Beyond this 
they fed no more, though fresh and tender plants were placed at their disposal every 
day; they either "webbed up " or starved to death, depending upon their stage of 
growth when put into confinement. 
With reference to Aletia in the moth state 1 observed the case to be quite different. 
The moths seem to find their natural food upon almost every species of plant yielding 
nectar. Among the cultivated plants outside of cotton the Southern field pea (Doli- 
vlion) appears to rank as a gn at favorite. On several occasions, where patches of 
