June 15, 1914 
Feeding Habits of the Boll Weevil 
2 45 
Table III. —Summary of longevity of boll weevils on various Malvaceae tested —Contd. 
Period of 
experi¬ 
ment. 
Sept. 9 to 
Oct. 18. 
Sept. 1 to 
Oct. 18. 
Sept. 9 to 
Oct. 18. 
June 18 to 
July 20. 
June 9 to 
July 24. 
June 5 to 
Oct. 10. 
June 22 to 
July 2. 
! 
Food plant. 
Series and remarks. 
Hibiscus syriacus. 
.do. 
Boll weevils reared from cotton 
squares and fed on buds, blooms, 
and fruit; fall series; boll weevils 
still alive at conclusion of experi¬ 
ment. 
Boll weevils reared from squares 
imported from Tallulah, La.; fed 
on blooms only; still alive at con¬ 
clusion of experiment. 
Anthonomus grandis thurberiae 
reared from Thurberia bolls and 
fed on buds, blooms, and fruit; 
still alive at conclusion of ex¬ 
periment. 
Bolls only... 
.do. 
Cotton. 
Leaves only. 
.do. 
Squares only. 
Unfed.... 
On moist sand. 
Longevity. 
Maxi-! 
mum 
[ 
Average. 
j Male. 
Fe¬ 
male. 
Weighted. 
Days. 
i 
Days. 
Days. 
Days. 
35+ 
\ . 
33- 5+ 
33 + 
29- 7 + 
34+ 
26. 6+ 
32 
24.0 
12.6 
17. 2 
45 
15- 2 
8.8 
12. 0 
74 
35- 3 
41.4 
40. O 
6 
3-4 
3- 3 
3-3 
1 
The averages of the three unfinished series are included in Table III 
for comparison. From these it is seen that the record for native Texas 
boll weevils on Hibiscus is very little short of the final average for cotton- 
square-fed boll weevils, although the latter were continued to death. 
Eggs were deposited in only two plants, Callirrhoe involucrata and 
Hibiscus syriacus —5 in the former and 71 in the latter. By series those 
in Hibiscus were divided as follows: 
Field-collected female, x egg; spring series, 15 eggs; fall series, 19 
eggs; and Anthonomus grandis thurberiae series, 36 eggs. 
All experiments were performed under cage conditions, but these were 
made as nearly normal as possible. No boll weevils have been found 
breeding in plants other than cotton and Thurberia under field con¬ 
ditions, and only one case of feeding under such conditions has been 
observed. This was in the case of a single boll weevil found feeding on 
Hibiscus syriacus , at Victoria, Tex., on June 16. 
