kelep" its
usefulness may be restricted to tropical and subtropical regions.

The cotton boll worm (_Chloridea obsoleta_, also known as _Heliothis
armiger_) is a caterpillar. The parent moth lays eggs, from which the
young "worms" hatch out. They bore holes and penetrate into flower-buds
and young bolls, causing them to drop. Fortunately the "worms" prefer
maize to cotton, and the inter-planting at proper times of maize, to be
cut down and destroyed when well infested, is a method commonly employed
to keep down this pest. Paris green kills it in its young stages before
it has entered the buds or bolls. The boll worm is most destructive in
the south-western states, where the damage done is said to vary from 2
to 60% of the crop. Taking a low average of 4%, the annual loss due to
the pest is estimated at about L2,500,000, and it occupies second place
amongst the serious cotton pests of the U.S.A. The boll worm is widely
spread through the tropical and temperate zones. It may occur in a
country without being a pest to cotton, e.g. in India it attacks various
plants but not cotton. It has not yet been reported as a cotton pest in
the West Indies.

The Egyptian boll worm (_Earias insulana_) is the most important insect
pest in Egypt and occurs also in other parts of Africa. Indian boll
worms include the same species, and the closely related _Earias fabia_,
which also occurs in Egypt.

The cotton worm (_Aletia argillacea_)--also called cotton caterpillar,
cotton army worm, cotton-leaf worm--is also one stage in the
life-history of a moth. It is a voracious creature, and unchecked will
often totally destroy a crop. In former years the annual damage done by
it in the United States was assessed at L4,000,000 to L6,000,000.
Dusting with Paris green is, however, an efficient remedy _if promptly
applied at the outset of the attack_. The annual damage was in 1906
reduced to L1,000,000 to L2,000,000, and this on a larger area devoted
to cotton than in the case of the estimate given above. It is the most
serious pest of cotton in the West Indies. The Egyptian cotton worm is
_Prodenia littoralis_.

The caterpillars ("cut worms") of various species of _Agrotis_ and other
moths occur in all parts of the world and attack young cotton. They can
be killed by spreading about cabbage leaves, &c., poisoned with Paris
green.

Locusts, green-fly, leaf-bugs, blister mites, and various other pests
also damage cotton, in a similar way to that