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244 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 11 
figures already at hand that the losses resulting from the attacks of this 
insect may be taken at 10 per cent of the total crop of cotton in Egypt 
during the past two or three seasons. If this is calculated on the 
amount and value of last season’s crop (1916) we get the following 
figures: 
The total crop of cotton was about 6,000,000 qantars, 10 per cent of 
which would amount to 600,000 qantars. The average price per 
qantar for the season may be taken as between 30-40 dollars. 1 At 
the former price this would mean a loss of L. E. 3,600,000 and at the 
latter a loss of L. E. 4,800,000. These figures are probably under 
rather than over the amount of this loss, but, whether they are accurate 
or not they indicate, strikingly, the very large toll which this insect 
takes from the cotton industry of the country, and they should serve 
as a warning to any country in which the pink bollworm does not occur 
to take every precaution against its introduction. 
\ 
Natural Enemies 
The natural enemies of the pink bollworm do not occur in sufficient 
numbers or at the right time of the year to exercise any great degree 
of control over this pest in Egypt. 
The insects known to be parasitic or predaceous on the pink boll¬ 
worm are: 
Pimpla roborator, Chelonella sulcata , Rhogas kitcheneri, a Pteromalid 
and Pediculoides ventricosus. 
Pimpla roborator is a general parasite in Egypt. It appears to attack 
the pink bollworm only late in the season, too late in fact to exercise 
any control over the amount of damage to the cotton in that season. 
The practice of burning the bolls left after the cotton is harvested 
destroys large numbers of this parasite. This is the only parasitic 
insect which has been bred in large numbers from the pink bollworm. 
Chelonella sulcata at present is known in Egypt only as a parasite of 
Gelechia gossypiella and has been known in this country only since the 
advent of this pest. Up to the present time, it has not been recorded 
in large numbers. 
Rhogas kitcheneri and the small Pteromalid— Pteromalus sp., are 
general parasites which are known at times to attack the pink bollworm. 
Pediculoides ventricosus sometimes occurs in great abundance in 
cotton seed stores and causes the death of large numbers of Gelechia 
larvae. There is no certainty that this mite is capable of penetrating 
into infested single or double seeds containing resting-stage larvae if 
nothing has happened to render the union between the double seeds 
1 The dollar = 20 piastres tar if = x / 6 of the Egyptian pound (L. E.). 
