IXSECTS ETC., INJURIOUS TO VARIOUS CROPS I38; 



TO VARIOUS 

 CROPS 



io^7 - The Successful Treatment with Insecticides of Plants in Flower. — scc xo. 963 



of this Bulletin. 



104S - Insect Pests of the Sugarcane in Queensland, Australia.— jarvis edmuxd, in insects 



Queensland Bureau of Suf^ar Experiment Stations, Division of Entomoloi,y, Bulletin Xo. 3, injurious 



pp. 48, PI. I-IV. Brisbane, 191 6. 



List of insect pests of the sugar-cane in Queensland, accompanied by 

 particulars as to the nature and extent of the damage sustained and the 

 habits and distribution of these insects. 



i) The " noctuid moth borer " {Phragmatiphila truncata Walk. — fani. 

 Noctuidae), caused extensive injury to plantations in October 1914 ; the lar- 

 vae make their waj' into the 3'oung shoots and still tender buds, mine tunnels 

 and partly destroy- the tissues ; they cause a rapid drying up of the foliage. 

 Natural enemies are : Pheidole megacephala ; Apanteles nonagriae v^hich. kills 

 the larvae, and Euplectus howardi which destro^'s a large number of pupae ; 



2) Moth stalk borer [Diatraea saccharalis Fabr. — fam. Crambidae) : this 

 insect, so greatly feared elsewhere, hardly causes any injury in Queensland, 

 where climatic conditions and natural enemies impede its development ; 



3) Beetle borer {Rhabdocnemis obsciiriis Boisd. — fam. Citrcitlionidae), has 

 established itself in the district of Johnstone River, where it destroys some 

 thousands of tons of cane every year ; for control, a tachinid fly, which is its 

 natural enemy, was recently introduced into the region, namely, Ceromasia 

 sphenophori Vil., discovered in New Guinea and already tried with success 

 in the Fiji Islands ; 4) Moth shoot-borer (Polyocha sp. — fam. Pyralidae), 

 which is rather rare ; the writer met with it in November at Pyramid, 

 where it attacked the young shoots in the same way as Phragmatiphila ; 

 5) Opogona glycyphaga Meyr. (fam. Tineidae) occa.sionally attacks the seed 

 beds and sometimes destroys up to 80 % of the buds ; also gnaws the leaf 

 sheaths and the bark, and at times makes its way inside the cane and tunnels 

 its walls ; 6) Loxostoma sp. (fam. Tineidae) and Cosniopterix sp. (fam. Elachi- 

 stidae) are unimportant ; 7) Black ganger [Heferonychus sp., fam. Scara- 

 baeidae) ; set eater {Pcntodon australis Blackb. — sub-fam. Dynastides) 

 and white ant {Ternies meridionalis — iam. Termitidae), only occasional! 5^ 

 injure the sugar cane, which they gnaw, and attack the newl}' opened 

 buds and young plants ; 8) Wireworm {Monocrepidiiis sp., fam, Elateridae) 

 seriously attacked new seedlings on the alluvial plains of Macka}^ and in 

 some other localities of the district of Isis in 1910 ; 9) Yellow winged locust 

 [Locnsta danica Linn., fam. Acridiidae) invaded the western and northern 

 provinces of Qneensland in 1912 in huge swarms ; they devoured the leaves 

 in the plantations and partly destroyed the crop ; among their natural ene- 

 mies there are noted Scelio australis and 5. ovi parasitic on the eggs ; 

 10) Large mottled locust (L. australis Brunner) is, like the last-named species, 

 common in the coast region of Queensland and New South Wales ; 11) Long- 

 nosed locust {Airactomorpha crenaticeps Blanch.) ; short-horned locust {Oxya 

 velox Fab.); Cyrtacanthacris (?) proxima Walk.; C. /j/ag/a/a Walk.; C. gnttii- 

 losa Walk., all belonging to the family Acridiidae ; these insects occur in 

 the cane plantations of Queensland, but so far have not occasioned an}- great 

 damage ; 12) Army worm {Cirphis nnipnncta Haw., fam. Noctuidae), wrought 



