47 



MANGO. 



Phenacaspis eugenise Mask., on Icuvos tmd fiuit; taken also from 

 magnolia. 



On July 5, iUUo, Mr. J. E. Hig-oins handed the entomolotiist s])eci- 

 mens of the seeds of mangoes infested with the larva^ and pupa- of a 

 beetle. Two days later the entomolouist visited a manu-o district in 

 the vicinity of the place where Mr. lliogins found the infested fruit 

 and obtained larvie, pupa?, and adults of the same species. Duplicates 

 of these forms were forwarded on July 11 to the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology of the V . S. Department of Agriculture, and examined and 

 reported upon Ity Mr. E. A. Schwarz under date of July 'i*!. Mr. 

 Schwarz gives the determination of the weevil as Cri/jifor/n/iichNx 

 mangifenv Fa))., originally described by Eabricius in ITTl and says fur- 

 ther: ''Its original home is uncertain, for since many years it has 

 spread (no doubt through the agency of man) throughout the 'Orien- 

 tal Region' from Madagascar through India, Ceylon, etc., to Java and 

 other Malayan Ishmds. It probably occurs now also in many of the 

 islands of the Pacitic Ocean, although I fail to tind any records. The 

 species is not enumerated by Sharp from the Hawaiian Islands and is 

 no doubt a recent intrpduction there. The weevil appears to be 

 extremely injurious to mangoes, and accounts of its ravages are 

 numerous."' 



Since the life cycle is passed within the seed, and the female, as is 

 customary with the species of this family, deposits the egg in the food 

 of the larva, the insect umst have been introduced in fruit or seeds of 

 the mango brought to the islands for propagation from India or pos- 

 sibly the Philippines. It is evident that the fruit is infested in the 

 ver}^ early stages of its development, for the reason t^at there is no 

 indication of the entrance to the seed of the larva through the seed 

 husk. The work of the very young larva is indicated, and since no point 

 of entrance is to be observed it would seem that the length of the life 

 cycle of the insect is somewhat longer than the time of development 

 of the fruit, as shown by the fact that seeds removed from matured 

 mangoes contain the larval weevil. 



In the first lot of mangoes examined it was estimated that about 60 

 per cent were infested— that is, out of 44 seeds examined 28 contained 

 either the advanced larval, pupal, or adult stages. The next lot, exam- 

 ined six days later at the same place, resulted as follows: Sixteen 

 seeds each were taken of the No. 9, the Chutney, and the common 

 "Hawaiian" variety, and of the. No. 9, 11 were good and 5 infested; 

 of the Chutney 6 were good and 10 infested, and of the common 

 variety 8 were good and 8 infested. The following varieties planted 

 in seed beds were examined: Twelve seeds each of the Chutney and 

 the No. 1 were selected at random, and of the former 10 were infested 



