Boll Weevil

The boll weevil is a species of beetle in the family Curculionidae that feeds on cotton buds and flowers. Thought to be native to central Mexico, it migrated into the United States in the late nineteenth century and had infested every U.S. cotton-growing region by the 1920s, devastating the cotton-based economy and society of the American South. It later became a serious pest in South America as well, though the Boll Weevil Eradication Program in the United States has allowed full-scale cotton cultivation to resume in many regions since 1978.