Sources of Resistance of Cotton Strains to the Boll Weevil and Their Possible Utilization1

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Abstract
For many years attempts to control the cotton boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis, were confined to chemical methods. Recent reports of the development of strains of weevil resistant to chlorinated hydrocarbons make it evident that a search for other methods of control is long overdue. The fact that the weevil is practically confined to the cotton plant for food and oviposition suggests that it may be vulnerable to changes in certain characteristics of the host plant which are associated with the insect''s specific reaction pattern. Preliminary evidence that the weevil does in fact exhibit preferences for different spp. of cotton and for different morphological variants within 1 sp. (Gossypium hirsutum) is reviewed. The possibility of using such morphological variants as plant color, hairiness, and absence of stem glands - all of which are controlled by single gene mutations, and which preliminary evidence indicates affect the weevil''s reaction to cotton - as sources of resistance is outlined.

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