PROCEEDIXGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 329 



450 feet. It is also carried about by game birds, and can be spread from 

 field to field b^^ passing coolies who carry young scales on their clothes. 



The artificial methods of control adopted are the removal of ants' 

 nests, and spraying and brushing with fish-oil-resin soap used at the rate 

 of 1 lb. of soap to 2 gallons of water. Dispersal of the fungi mentioned 

 above is encouraged by tying branches containing them to trees free 

 from them. 



These methods when conscientiously carried out are highly efficient 

 and no fear is now felt of the pest causing the damage to coffee in Mysore 

 and Coorg which it did in the Nilgiris, w^here it was neglected, rendering 

 the cultivation of coffee to be unprofitable and necessitating its replace- 

 ment by tea. 



Saissetia JiemisphcBrica, Pidvinaria fsidii, and other scales are always 

 to be found on coffee estates but these are ea,sily controlled by periodical 

 spraying. 



Pseudococcvs (Dactyhpius) citri, a Mealy-bug scale which attacks the 

 roots of young coffee. is still a bad pest, especially in South Coorg and some 

 parts of Mysore. Tlus scale is also found on the roots of certain shade 

 trees, particularly Erijthrina litJwsperma, and on some weeds. So trouble- 

 some is it in infected land that unless some precautionary measures 

 are taken it is impossible to raise young plants. At the beginning of 

 the dry weather it is usual to see young plants, either in new clearings 

 or supplies, suddenly wilt and die. On pulling them up they are found 

 to have lost all their feeding roots except a small tuft set out at the collar 

 which have kept the plant alive so long as the surface soil was wet, while 

 the bark is also eaten into by the scales. As soon as the surface soil 

 dries out with the advent of the dry weather the plant dies. 



A similar effect is produced by the larvae of a species of Cockchafer, 

 Holotricliia conferta, which in some years is very troublesome and appears 

 in very large quantities. These insects were very prevalent in 1912 and 

 there are signs of their recurrence again on a wide scale now. In such 

 years the soil is full of the larvae and the pits round a dead coffee-plant 

 may contain half-a-dozen of them. 



Against both these pests Apterite has been found effectual. Apterite • 

 was obtained before the war from Messrs. Cooper Nephews and appears 

 to consist of a mixture of crude naphthaline and j)ink carbohc powder. 

 It is a soil disinfectant and was recommended as a top dressing for 

 new land put under the plough in England during the war in the Journal 

 of the Board of Agriculture (England) although the reason was not stated. 

 If this disinfectant is applied at the rate of 2 cwt. per acre, or if a shallow 

 trench about an inch deep is made in a ring round the young plants about 

 six inches to a foot away from the stem and an ounce of apterite is placed ' 



