10 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



January U, I90r>.. 



INSECT NOTES. 



Crustaceans from Trinidad. 



Specimens of a stalk-eyed Crustacean received at this 

 Office from .Mr. J. H. Hart, F.L.S., Superintendent of the 

 Ivoyal ]?otanic Ciardens, Trinidad, referred to in the Afifi- 

 cvlfiiml Xeirs, (Vol. Ill, p. •■?80,) have been identified at the 

 I'.ritish ^luseum (Natural History) as Ifij>pft emeritus, Linn. 

 Mi: Calmon, replying to the letter of the Imperial Commis- 

 sioner of Agriculture, states that the species 'is -nidely 

 distributed on the coasts of North and South America.' 



Mr. Hart in a letter acconipauying the specimens wrote 

 that they were brought in by :Mr. H. A. Nurse, Agricultural 

 Instructor, trom Cedros, and it is reported that the peasants 

 use them for food. They are about If inches long and 

 resemble the prawns and shrimps in the ajipearauce of the 

 carapace {cej'lin/ot/iiri.i), and the crabs in the structure of 

 the tail (abdomen). The species live in the sand of the 

 shore. One American .species is called the Sand bug, from 

 its habit of liurrowing in the sand. 



An Orange Pest. 



It is reported that a serious attack of a scale in.sect 

 {Aspidiotus limonii') has broken out in the orange orchards 

 of Seville, which at present imperils the very existence of 

 marmalade. This is a newspaper report and the real 

 condition of the orange orchards may not be nearly so 

 unfavourable as the rei'ort would indicate. The scale insect 

 reported to be the cause of this injury {A:'j>i(liotiis h't'ionis) 

 is probably the one that is now known as Asjiidiofiis Iiedevae, 

 the Oleander scale. This insect is reported from many ^larts 

 of the world and is known to have a great range of food 

 plants, and is therefore not so likely to become a serious 

 l^est as one which had been known in a limited locality and 

 with only a few food plants. The great outbreaks of scale 

 insect attack.s, as well as other insect attacks, have generally 

 occurred when an insect with a limited geographical range 

 and very few food plants has been transported to a new 

 locality, away from its accustomed environment and the 

 natural enemies that had held it in check. 



A long time is reijuired for the growth of the larva, .sometiraes. 

 two or three years. This is followed by a short pujial stage, 

 after which the adult emerges to provide for another 

 generation. 



The adult beetle is greyish brown with slender antennae 

 about twice as long as the body which measures about ^g 

 inch in length. On the back there are several small 

 dark spots. When the wing-covers are clo.sed together there 

 is seen an imperfect \V formed by the angular dark mark on 

 each wing-cover coming together. Farther back are two 

 irregular light bands edged behind with dark, while the- 

 posterior part of the wing-covers is pale Ijrown. The legs are 

 slender except the femora which are swollen. 



While some of the long-horned borers attack healthy, 

 living wood, many attack only such trees as are dead or 

 dying, or at least have spots of dead wood or bark where- 

 the tree has been injured. The habits of the lime-tree bark 

 borer are not well known, nor are the details of its life-history, 

 but it is likely that the egg is deposited on dead bark or 

 exposed wood, from which the liorer may [lenetrate living 

 wood and increase the injury and hasten the death of the tree. 

 The larval stage occupies more than a year, and 

 the presence of the larva can often be detected by the 

 chips, etc., thrown out through an opening in the bark. 

 The.se habits suggest as remedies the careful pruning 

 away of all. dead branches, scraping away dead bark from 

 any wound, and covering all exposed wood with tar or other 

 substance for preserving the wood and preventing decay. 



If the tunnels of the larva are discovered, they may be 

 probed with a wire to kill the larva, and the bark of the tree 

 may be covered with some material to prevent the laying oF 

 the egg or the emergence of the adtilt. For this [lurpose the 

 following is recommended : '2 lb. of whale oil soap dissolved 

 in 1 gallon hot water, to which 1 pint of crude carbolic acid is 

 added, and thoroughly stirred in. .\dd 10 gallons of 

 water and stir in enough clay to make a thick paste. 

 This is smeared or painted on the trunk and when 

 dry makes a hard crust which the adult female cannot 

 penetrate for the purpose of depositing eggs, and which the 

 newly emerged adult will not be able to break through and 

 escaije. The girdle paint made of linseed oil, resin and tobacco 

 tea, the recipe for which was given in the Agriculfurnl Ketvs, 

 (Vol. Ill, p. 282,) would be a useful substitute for tar, and 

 may- jierhaps be used for coating the trunks instead of the 

 mixture of whale oil soap, carbolic acid a)id clay given above. 



Lime-tree Bark Borer. 



Dead or dying lime trees are frequently found to have 

 a borer under the dead bark, and sometimes several of the 

 same kind are in the stem and larger branches. The most 

 common of the.se is a slightly flattened, whitish grub with 

 small, browni.sh head, and a tapering body, the first body 

 segments being much larger than the head and larger also 

 than the succeeding body segments. This is the larva of 

 a long-horned beetle technically known as Leptoifylus 

 2)>riemo)si<f, Fab. All the long horned beetles are borers in the 

 larval condition. They are called long-horned beetles because 

 the adult has very long antennae, always longer than the 

 body and sometimes two or three times as long as the body. 

 The beetles of thi> family lay the eggs on the bark of trees 

 and woody plants, and the young larvae eat their way through 

 the bark to the cambium and young sap wood lieueath. 



EXPORTS OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 



.\mong e.xports, increases in coffee and rice indicate new 

 progress in agriculture and colonization. Rubber is by far 

 the most important article of export, though its predominance 

 has fallen slightly in the last two or three years, the deficit 

 being compen.sated for, however, by an increase in the export 

 of other vegetable products. The sales of ivory decreased by 

 GI,.3.j3 kilogrammes. Ground nuts arc diminishing similarly, 

 the efforts made to develop the cultivation of this product not 

 producing the results expected ; it .should be added, however, 

 that the exports of ground nuts increased considerably last 

 year, and that, cf>mpared with 1901, there was an appreciable 

 increase in the value of the exports. The following are the 

 quantities and values of the principal exports of Congo 

 l)roducc : Ground nuts, 328,46:^ kg., £2,627 ; coffee, 

 1.36,U8 kg., £.5,173; rubber, .5,117,983 kg., £1,89.3,754; 

 palm oil, 1,647,434 kg., £38,879; ivory, 184,954 kg., 

 £151,662 ; palm nut.s, 4,957,635 kg., £59,491 ; cacao, 

 89,365 kg., £.5,004 ; lice, 33,654 kg., £673. {Clximher of 

 Commerce Journal.) 



