PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 30 
rather doubtful. I started some experiments at Pollibetta in Novem- 
ber 1915 with female beetles caged over young coflee-bushes, which were 
presumably unaffected, to see when the next brood of beetles emerged, 
whether in May or November of last year ; but unfortunately the experi- 
ments were upset by the departure of the planter in whose charge they 
had been placed. It is certainly the case in many of these wood-boring 
longicorns that the length of lifehistory is very variable and it may be 
so with this species. The question of the length of the lifehistory is an 
important one, as we certainly require to know this exactly before being 
in a position to recommend remedial measures. 
Regarding these, so far as we know at present, the most promising 
scheme seems to be to prevent oviposition as much as possible and to 
kill the eggs and young larve off, if eggs have been laid, before the young 
larve have bored into the bushes. This can be done by scrubbing the 
bushes, as described by Mr. Kunhi Kannan, or by scraping off the loose 
scales of bark and so on with flat pieces of wood. It may be possible 
to find some satisfactory deterrent but, so far, nothing seems absolutely 
effective. J am rather inclined to think, from what I have seen, that 
lime-wash is of some use ; if applied at the same time as the bushes are 
scraped, it has the further advantage of marking clearly those bushes 
which have been treated, as they stand out quite clearly and the 
work is easily checked over. For this reason I should be inclined to 
recommend the addition of lime-wash to any deterrent that may be 
applied. Some Coffee-planters have told me that lime-wash binds the 
tree, preventing the formation of new wood ; but other Planters, of equal 
or greater experience, have told me that no such effect is produced. 
One other control-measure, which I personally am rather in favour 
of, is the catching of the adult beetles. As we said just now, each 
female beetle (or, at any rate, each large female ; forthey vary enormously 
in size) may lay one hundred eggs and, even allowing for the fact that a 
proportion of captures will be males and of the females caught many will 
have laid a proportion of their eggs and that many eggs may be laid on 
one bush, we may safely say that every beetle caught and killed means a 
coffee-bush saved. There are, I know, objections to this by the Planters, 
who say that it is not practicable, but it certainly seems to me that this 
should be done. 
The collection of beetles, on a basis of rewards paid for catches, Mr. Kunhi 
has not been found successful on two estates where it was tried in 1915, Kannan. 
The difficulty was to find the beetles. 
Instead of getting these beetles, the boys frequently bring in all Mr. Anstead. 
sorts of other insects. There is also the objection that they will naturally 
collect the beetles where these are most plentiful, so that a Planter may 
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