PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 261 
Pseudaondia trilobitiformis occurred in numbers on coconut at 
Colombo on one occasion. I do not know whether it has been found 
on coconut in India but it is likely to occur. 
A Coconut Aphid was described in “ South Indian Insects,”’ pp. 506- 
507, fig. 393, from specimens found at Coimbatore on young coconut 
palms which had been imported from Colombo. That colony appears 
to have been exterminated by the measures taken at the time and I 
hope that we shall not have occasion to notice this insect in India again. 
The stems of coconut are attacked by :— 
Rhynchophorus ferrugineus. 
Coconut Scolytid. 
Rhynchophorus ferrugineus is described and figured in “ South Indian 
Insects,” p. 343, tab. 14, and the lifehistory is given in greater detail 
in Entomological Memoir, Vol. II, Part 10; so that we need not go into 
that in any detail. Rh. ferrugineus is probably the worst and most 
destructive pest of coconut and palmyra palms in India and its increase 
is rendered possible by the cuts made by toddy-drawers and the borings 
of Oryctes in the crowns of the trees ; for, as I have pointed out before, 
Oryctes and Rhynch: phorus are mutually interdependent and between them 
do a great deal of damage which either insect by itself would be unable 
to accomplish. The adult Oryctes bores into the crown of a palm but 
this is, in the still living tree, an unsuitable situation for its grubs which 
require rotting vegetable matter to live in. Along comes a Rhyncho- 
phorus and oviposits in the burrow made by the Cryctes ; the living 
tissue surrounding this burrow is suitable food for the Rhynchophorus 
grubs, which burrow in it and feed on it and, when full-fed, pupate in 
it and emerge as adults. The tissues mined by the Rhynchophorus grubs 
rot, a process assisted by the lodgment of rain in the crown, and the 
crown, now dead, becomes a suitable place for the Oryctes beetle to 
oviposit in and for its grubs to develop in. So that the destruction of 
Oryctes and of dead trees in which Oryctes can breed will directly lead 
to the control of Rhynchophorus also. All wounds and cuts in the trees, 
which would give an entrance for Rhynchophorus to oviposit, should 
also be tarred over as far as possible or otherwise protected. At Mercara, 
in Coorg, in October 1915, I noticed that numerous specimens of 
Rhynchophorus ferrugineus were attracted to the trunk of a newly- 
felled palm-tree ; possibly it might be possible to trap the adult beetles 
in this way, when palms are being cut for any other purpose. 
An unidentified Scolytid beetle bores in the stems of coconut palms 
at Negapatam and in the Godavari District, killing the attacked trees. 
It is a minor local pest, but we know little about it. 
