April, '13] URICH: MEXICAN SUGAR CANE INSECTS 247 



NOTES ON SOME MEXICAN SUGAR CANE INSECTS FROM 



SANTA LUCRECIA, STATE OF VERA CRUZ, INCLUDING 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE SUGAR CANE TINGID 



FROM MEXICO 



By F. W. Urich, Entomologist Board of Agriculture, Trinidad 

 and Otto Heidemann 



The sugar plantation on which I spent the months of August, Sep- 

 tember and October last year is situated about twelve miles from 

 Santa Lucrecia on the Coatzacoalcos River. There are about 3,000 

 acres of canes under cultivation which were growing in a most luxuri- 

 ant way and most of which were ratooning for the seventh time. 

 (See Plate 7.) The climate of that part of Mexico was quite tropical 

 and the fauna and flora reminded me often of those of Trinidad and 

 northern South America. On the whole there were few insects that 

 did much damage to the canes, in fact there was only one that called 

 for serious attention and that was the Cercopid, Tomaspis postica 

 Walk. It is reported that this insect has been known as a pest to grass 

 lands of the State of Vera Cruz since 1880 and in 1903 was observed 

 attacking sugar cane at Tantoyuca. The natural food plant of To- 

 maspis postica consists of grasses of several species, especially those 

 growing in damp clay soils; from the grass it has spread to canes 

 and there by the combined activity of the nymphs on the roots and 

 the adults on the leaves, causes considerable damage when numerous 

 and unchecked. Luckily it is controlled naturally by a parasitical 

 fungus which also attacks ^Tomaspis varia Fabr. in Trinidad, and 

 which has been determined as Metarrhizium anisoplice Metschnikoff. 

 In some places a species of Empusa was also killing a good many of 

 the adults. Unlike Fulgorids these Cercopids do not appear to have 

 any egg parasites or parasites on the nymphs, at least I did not find 

 any and have not been able to discover any records of such. A Re- 

 duviid bug, Castolus plagiaticollis Stal. (det. Heidemann) was very 

 common in the fields where T. postica was numerous and many adults 

 were to be seen carrying around these Cercopids impaled on their 

 proboscis. Unfortunately the eggs of Castolus were attacked by a 

 species of Telenomus (det. Crawford). The old cane pest, Diatrcea 

 saccharalis, was not wanting and there was a second stalk borer pres- 

 ent which Dr. H. G. Dyar has determined as Diatrcea grandiosella 

 Dyar. It cannot be said that either of these were very serious pests. 

 It was not an easy matter to find egg masses of these moths in the 



iln my "Notes on some insect pests affecting the sugar cane" Journal of Ec. 

 Ent. Vol. 4, p. 225, I refer wrongly to this insect as T. postica. 



