The Mexican cotton-boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis Boh.) . efore a lesser spreadfrom the localities of successful hibernation. NATURAL HISTORY AND HABITS. The insect passes the winter in the weevil state. It can be found on December, and, in fact, as long as any the cotton plant until late mportion of the plant is green. Itis found most abundantly in theearly winter hidden between theinvolucre and the boll, and laterit frequently works its way downinto the dry and open the specimens found by in such situations inthe late spring of 1895 weredead; but Mr. Townsend founda few
The Mexican cotton-boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis Boh.) . efore a lesser spreadfrom the localities of successful hibernation. NATURAL HISTORY AND HABITS. The insect passes the winter in the weevil state. It can be found on December, and, in fact, as long as any the cotton plant until late mportion of the plant is green. Itis found most abundantly in theearly winter hidden between theinvolucre and the boll, and laterit frequently works its way downinto the dry and open the specimens found by in such situations inthe late spring of 1895 weredead; but Mr. Townsend founda few living in March. Thedry boll is probably not a fre-quently successful hibernatingplace. Judge S. G. Borden, ofSharpsburg, however, writingunder date of January 27,1896,states that the weevil at thattime was being found nearlyevery day in the dry bolls; butthis statement lacks the sig-nificance which it might other-wise have had as bearing onthe question of hibernation from the fact that no heavy frost had probably occurred up to that time at Fig. 3.—a, newly hatched larva in young square: full-grown larva in situ; c. pupa in young hollpicked from ground. 4 With the cutting of the plants or with the rotting or drying of thebolls as a result of frost, the adult weevils leave the plant and seekshelter under rubbish at the surface of the ground, or among weeds andtrash at the margin of the fields. Here they remain until the warmdays of spring, when they fly to the first buds on such volunteer plantsas may come up in the neighborhood. They feed on these and lay theireggs on the early squares, and one, or perhaps two, generations aredeveloped in such situations, the number depending upon the characterof the season and the date of cotton planting. By the time the plantedcotton has grown high enough to produce squares the weevils havebecome more numerous, and those which have developed from the gen-eration on volunteer cotton attack the planted cotton, and thro
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