234 



THE AGRICULTUEAL KEAVS. 



July 28, 1906. 



INSECT NOTES. 



The Date Palm Scale. 



A new ami very interesting species, the first 

 African representative of the genus Sphaerococcus, 

 has been discovered by Mr. Walter Draper, F.L.S., 

 who for the last ten years has been in charge of 

 the Government Gardens, Delta Barrage, near Cairo. 

 This new species of scale insect, which is extremely 

 common on date palms in Egypt, occurs in the form of 

 white patches on the base of the leaf-stalks immediately 

 below the head of the palm. It has received the name 

 SplMerococcus Draperi, Newstead. 



!Mr. Robert Newstead, the expert on Coccidae at the 

 Liverpool University, to whom specimens were sent for 

 identification, states that ' the female of the new species is 

 distinguished chiefly by the minute rudimentary antennae, 

 the entire absence of legs, and the character of the waxdike 

 covering. The larva is also characterized by the antenna 

 which has the first segment unusually broad. There are also 

 other minute diflerences.' 



The diagnostic characters of the genus are : Adult 

 females, naked or producing cotton or wax ; anal tubercles 

 absent ; anal orifice without hairs ; antennae usually of le.ss 

 than seven joints, but sometimes atrophied ; legs present, 

 atrophied or deformed. 



Eighteen species are recorded from Australia, nearly 

 all of which inhabit galls on various species of Eucalyptus, 

 etc. ; two are described from the United States of America, 

 one from Japan, and the newly-discovered one in Egypt, 

 which has been dedicated to the discoverer, makes a total of 

 twenty-one species. 



We understand that Mr. Draper, who has had 

 some considerable experience with scale and other 

 insect pests in Egypt, is about to publish a small work 

 on Egyptian coccids. 



Butterflies of British Guiana. 



Mr. James Rod way, F.L.S., contributes to the 

 Demerara Argosy (June 30) an interesting article on 

 the larger butterflies of British Guiana ; he deals with 

 those found in the neighbourhood of Georgetown and 

 treats them from the standpoint of enemies of culti- 

 vated plants. 



The first butterflies mentioned by Mr. Rodway are the 

 yellow Callidryas {Catopulia) mlnde and the white Pontia 

 mimuste, which are the most common. Reference to the 

 paper ' Notes on West Indian Insects' in the West Indian 

 Bidletin (Vol. Yll, no. 1) will show that these are also 

 common in Barbados, St. Vincent, Grenada, and other 

 islands. In British Guiana the former lives on yellow- 

 flowered species of Cassia, with which the pale, greenish- 

 yellow colour of the larvae and pupae harmonizes. The 

 insect is never, however, such a pest as to destroy the tree. 

 The white butterfly, which belongs to the same family as the 

 cabbage butterfly of England, feeds on a plant {Cleome 



speciosa) of the faniil}' CapiKrideae, which is very closely 

 allied to the order Cviiciferae, to which the cabbage belongs. 

 The larva of this butterfly is green with dark lines and 

 dots, and the pupa white with touches of black. ' Its 

 food plant (Cleo7>ie sjjeciosa) is not uncommon in gardens, 

 where it is cultivated for its mauve flowers. The plant 

 is often eaten to the root, but as it seeds freely, this 

 destruction is only a temporary check.' Another common 

 .species, known as the passion flower butterfly, Aijrauli^ 

 {Dione) vaniUae, is also found in several of the West 

 India Islands. It is of a brick-red colour with dark 

 markings : the larva is dark coloured with numerous black 

 spines. ' It feeds on the siuiatou, water lemon, and other 

 plants of the passion flower family, eating leaves and young 

 stems often down to the root. Immediately on discovering 

 that the larvae are at work, they should be picked oft" and 

 destroyed with the single eggs from under the leaves, as well 

 as the pupae found in the neighbourhood on posts and 

 sticks.' 



Anosia 2}!exip2ms, very common in British Guiana, and 

 found also in the West India Islands, is known as the wild 

 ipecacuanha butterfly, its food plant being the common weed 

 Asdejwis cui-assavica. 'It is a very handsome insect, the 

 ground colour of a rich buff', broadly bordered witli dark brown 

 variegated with white dots and spots ; the veins of the same 

 dark colour, much broader in the female ; tlie under surface 

 paler with silvery markings.' 



The lovely Fapilio poli/damus is to be found wherever 

 the ' Dutchman's pipe ' (Aristolochia irilohn) or other species 

 of the same genus is growing, ilr. Rodway says : ' If I want 

 to get flowers, I have to destroy the eggs, larvae, and pupae 

 in great numbers.' 



'The last to be mentioned is the palm butterfly 

 (Brassolis sophorae), a pest to our cocoa-nut and cabbage 

 palms. I am afraid that I cannot say a word in its favour, 

 for it is not even beautiful. Like some other wrong-doers, 

 it hides from sight in the day, coming out at dusk to lay its 

 eggs on the pahn leaves. Its colour is a dark brown banded 

 with dull orange on the upper surface, and a paler brown 

 with white dots underneath. The larva is also dull coloured, 

 reddish with pale yellow lines. Soon after coming from the 

 egg, they form hiding places by bringing together the edges 

 of the palm leaves, from whence they issue at night to feed 

 upon the whole crown. If all the leaves are eaten, or if 

 they attack the centre of the crown, there is no hope of 

 recovery, but if they can be picked off before they get too 

 far, little harm is done. It follows, therefore, that immedi- 

 ately the grower sees his cocoa-nuts attacked, that is, when 

 even a single leaf has been eaten, he should send up and cut 

 oflf every leaf where there is the least sign of folding or bare 

 midribs ; siiecial attention should also be paid to the eggs, 

 which are conspicuous enough as they are pinkish, and laid 

 in clusters of about a hundred.' 



DEPARTMENT NEWS. 



The degree of ]\Iaster of Science (M.Sc.) has 

 recently been conferred by the Massachusetts Agri- 

 cultural College upon Mr. Henry A. Ballou, B.Sc, 

 Entomologist on the statf of the Imperial Department 

 of Agriculture for the West Indies. 



Mr. Ballou is expected to return to the West Indies 

 about the middle of August, resuming the duties of 

 his office at St. Kitt's. He will spend some time in 

 the Leeward Islands inspecting the Botanic Stations 

 and investigating the insect pests of sugar-cane, cotton, 

 limes, rubber, etc. 



