The tobacco budworm causes extensive damage to cotton during the fruiting cycle. The high cost of pesticide use, coupled with increasing instances of resistance in Heliothis to the pesticides used, is increasing the need for cultivars resistant to H. virescens. The Asiatic cotton germplasm collection represents a diverse genetic resource in which to search for specific resistances. In vitro screenings of a portion of the Asiatic collection were conducted in 1988 and 1989. Larval growth and survival of H. virescens fed excised squares for 6 days were measured. Of the accessions screened, five had significantly reduced larval growth in both years, and another three had significantly lower survival in both years. One accession, A(2) 80, showed consistent significant reductions in weight and survival. These Asiatic accessions have potential in developing breeding lines with resistance to H. virescens, and introgression into tetraploid lines has begun.