176 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



From April to the end of June I saw very few traces of them, 

 owing to the heavy rainfall washing the ground. About the end 

 of June they were found in many places, and because of enquiries 

 I started to use baits composed of short pieces of cane split down the 

 centre and laid flat on the headlands at about one quarter of a 

 chain apart. In the meantime, I cleaned up all broken cane and 

 cane tops from places where trees had fallen over on to the field, 

 for in such places I found that the beetle bred more there; they 

 were much worse in broken cane than in that standing. Cane 

 broken and lying on the ground to rot is infested far worse than 

 standing cane. The borer is also fond of hiding behind top leaves 

 of standing cane and feeding on inside of leaf. During my clean-up 

 I should say that we caught about two quarts of beetles and grubs; 

 the second day caught some three quarts; the third day only a 

 quart; the daily catch for the next week was about fifty borers a 

 day. Since then the catch has been lessening, some days very few 

 being caught. I also noticed that the damage was very much less 

 on the headlands. 



I have found old borers in last year's cane, left on the ground; 

 also in cane that had been burnt last year. The borer works in the 

 centre of the field as well as outside; it prefers Badila to any other. 

 I find fresh, sweet cane 'quite as good for baits as sour cane; 

 molasses darkens the bait and makes it difficult to see the captured 

 beetles. I am quite sure that the borer will not be very plentiful, 

 unless the cane is broken. The eggs laid in cane last April are now 

 coming out in beetle form (last week of July). From June to last 

 of July, I estimate that I have caught about 12,000 beetles and 

 grubs, my outlay, not counting my oAvn and boy's labor, being 

 some £14." 



During the time which I spent in the fields, a small quantity 

 of the adults were collected and sent alive to the laboratory at 

 Nelson (Cairns), N. Q., where they were kept temporarily under a 

 wire cage containing pieces of cane. They fed upon the ends of 

 these pieces, inserting their rostra into the soft pith. They were 

 kept successfully in this cage until August 12, 1912, when they 

 were taken out and counted; there were sixty-three males, fifty- 

 four females — all collected at random in the Innisfail district from 

 cane plants. From the ends of the pieces of cane upon which they 



