[70] REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
NOTES ON INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE COTTON PLAJSTT IN THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO. 
As the principal cotton planting districts are at some distance from this capital, I 
Lave not been able to obtain the specimens of insects requested by the Chief of the En- 
tomological Commission, nor can I flatter myself that the descriptive information which 
I have been enabled to collect after much difficult}*- and delay, will be found to be of 
much practical value. I nevertheless present it for what it may be worth. 
1. The most usual and fatal enemy of the plant is a small white worm from 1 to 2 
ceutimeters in length, and in form somewhat resembling a centipede without the feet. 
When in motion this worm shows streaks of light green. It is believed to be inherent 
to the plant, always accompanying it, even in the seasons of the most abundant crops. 
It is usually observed when the plant has attained its full growth and just before it 
blossoms. This worm attacks the leaf alone, and devours it completely. In bad seasons 
it is so abundant that in two days a whole plantation will be entirely stripped of its 
leaves, showing nothing but the bare stalks. 
Various experiments have been tried to counteract and destroy this enemy, but none 
seem to have been attended with good results except the fumigation with sulphur, 
which has been tried on a limited scale, and has been only partially successful. 
2. Another worm somewhat similar in form, but smaller, and of a green color with 
white stripes, makes its appearance at times, but never in such vast armies, and is 
consequently not so much dreaded as the former. 
3. The third insect mentioned is a large bug of a brown color called the " con- 
chuela," which is never so abundant as the Cotton Worm, but inserts itself into the 
bud and prevents the maturing of the blossom, thereby causing considerable damage. 
4. The " chahuistle" is an insect so microscopic in size that it first appears as a dry 
reddish powder covering the leaves and stock of the plant. As it accumulates tfu 
mass seems to distil a gummy substance which speedily destroys every vestige of the 
growth. The chahuistle is common throughout the country, and attacks not only the 
cotton plant, but other vegetables and cereals, such as beans (frijoles), wheat, and 
maize. 
5. In Durango the crops are reported to suffer seriously from "pocks" (viruela), 
and in some seasons are severely damaged by locusts. 
Ever since cotton has been cultivated in Mexico by Europeans or their descendants 
it has been more or less infested with the above-described insects, which, however, 
are not supposed to be indigenous, but to have been imported with foreign seed. 
Whether this opinion is merely conjectural or founded on well authenticated tradi- 
tions, I do not know. Hernando Cortez, on landing, found the natives of the country 
clothed in cotton garments of their own manufacture, but to the best of my knowledge 
neither history nor tradition has preserved us any information in regard to the ene- 
mies of the cotton crop before the coming of the Spaniards. 
In the districts near the Pacific coast, after the before-described insects an eclipse 
of the moon is believed to be the most damaging enemy of the cotton plant. When 
the eclipse takes place at the time when" the plant is in blossom it perishes immedi- 
ately and completely. The only means of saving any part of a crop under these 
circumstances is to fumigate with a certain wood found on that coast, which burns 
slowly and gives out volumes of smoke. The Indians on such occasions imagine they 
can save their cotton by tixing streamers of red or other gay colored rags upon reeds 
and sticking them over their fields. The planters of European stock, however, regard 
this practice as a superstition. 
The information here furnished has been derived principally from planters in the 
vicinitv of Tepee and Durango, no reports having been received from other quarters. 
DAVID H. STROTHER, 
United States Consul- General, City of Mexico. 
