Attack by the Metarrhizium Fungus. 



The only stages of P. portoricensis which have been recorded 

 attacked hy the green miiscardine fungus are the adult and the third 

 instar of the larva. From the rearing jars and boxes have been taken 

 at different times, altogether, thirteen adults and two grubs attacked 

 by the fungus. The infected adults all came from two jars, each 

 of which contained a good number of specimens, which would seem 

 to indicate tliat tlie disease had been communicated from specimen 

 to specimen. The grubs, on the other hand, were from individual 

 boxes, and seem to have contracted the disease from the soil, which, 

 there is reason to believe, contained an abundance of spores of the 

 disease. 



Ot a total of twenty-four grubs reared past the first instar in con- 

 finement, the death of two by the disease represented an infection of 

 8 per cent. This may have been higher, as grubs were often pre- 

 served in alcohol innnediately after their death, giving no chance 

 for possible development of spores of the disease. 



The per cent of infected adults, to the total number kept in con- 

 finement, was still higher than of grubs, but there is no reason to 

 think that such a fatality results from the disease under normal 

 outdoor conditions, since adults showing the disease have been very 

 rarely found in the field. 



THE SOUTH COAST WHITE-GRUB. 



Phyllophaga guankana n. sp.* 



This species derives its name from the locality in which the type 

 specimens were collected, namely, the Guanica District of the south- 

 w^est coast of the Island. So far as observations inform us. to date, 

 the species is peculiar to that district. 



As a cane pest, it is of comparative unimi)ortance beside the larger 

 species (P. vandinei) frequenting that district. Yet it nuist be in- 

 cluded among the pests of sugar cane, since the grubs occur to a 

 certain extent in the cane fields among those of the commoner species. 

 In the nightly collections of :\Iay-beetle adults that are made by boys 

 employed for the purpose there is usually to be found, during the 

 months in which the species is active, a small ]n-oportion of adults of 

 P. gnunicana. Actual counts made l)y the writer in 1914, at weekly 

 or semi-weekly intervals for a period of thi-oe months (from the latter 



* This species was first mentioned in tlie Tliird Report of the Board of Commissioners 

 of Agriculture of Porto Rico (pp. 42-43), under Hie name of "Lachr.nsternu media, and 

 a summary of its life-cycle (except pre-oviposition) given in the Fourth Report ot the Jioara 

 (p. 47) under the same name. 



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