468 Natural History in foreign Countries : — 



96 



! a, Caldndra sfecchari, b, a variety, c, pupa, d, follicle or case, e, larva, 



very ground, voiding its excrements in scarcely discoloured 

 grains, which fill up the passage. 



" But by far the most destructive and common enemy is the 

 smaller grub of the borer moth, Diatra^^a sacchari Guilding, 

 (from diatreo,) to bore [which belongs to that family of Lepi- 

 doptera called by Leach Pyralidse, and is elaborately described 

 and illustrated in the memoir from which this account is tran- 

 scribed.] The sugar-cane, so valuable to man in all its parts, is 

 never exempt from this dreadful pest. Fortunately, in the 

 seasonable climate of St. Vincent, from our improved culti- 

 vation, the animal is not very formidable ; but in some other 

 of our colonies, which, from the absence of mountains, or 

 other causes, are subject to dry seasons, they have been 

 known to blast the hopes of the year, to destroy whole acres 

 of canes, and ruin the unfortunate planter. The Society of 

 Arts has long offered rewards for the expulsion of the borers ; 

 but, I think, will do well in future to omit the premium offered 

 for their destruction, inasmuch as it is to be feared no remedy 

 can be applied on extensive tracts of land, which would not 

 at the same time destroy the plant we would protect, or which 

 would not prove too extensive for general adoption. The 

 object of the planter should be, to prevent the insects from 

 depositing eggs in the plants, rather than to kill those which 

 have already begun their operations. 



" Those animals which the Creator has thought fit to form, 

 and preserve for ages, man will not be permitted to exter- 

 minate : we may, however, with propriety, strive, by all means 

 in our power, to lessen the numbers of those creatures which 

 injure or destroy our property. From long-continued expe- 

 riments, I have at last discovered that they may be almost 

 entirely expelled from any quarter in which the canes are 

 carefully stripped of the dry and useless leaves, under which, 

 as they become loose, the female borer deposits her eggs. 



