414 



with the Savastano formula for lime-sulphur [see this Review, Ser. A, 

 ii, p. 412] is advised. At the strength of 1-5 per cent, it was found 

 to be harmless to the plants and very efficacious against the Eriophyes 

 if applied three times, at the beginning, middle and end of May. A 

 4 per cent, solution is the best. Spraying must be done for 2 or 3 

 consecutive years and the affected buds must be collected and 

 destroyed during the autumn and up to the following April. 



Ballou (H. a.). Report by the Entomologist on a Visit to the Northern 

 Islands (St. Kitts-Nevis, Antigua, Montserrat). — MS. received 

 from Colonial Office 6th August 1919. 



Hardback grubs still continue to be a serious pest of sugar-cane 

 and other crops in Antigua. The grubs feed most actively from 

 July or August to January and February, pupate about March or 

 April, and emerge as adults with the early rains of April or May. 

 Oviposition probably occurs from May or June to July or August. 

 The preferred food-plants are newly- planted sugar-cane, maize, 

 onions, sweet potatoes and yams. The insects do not remain in the 

 same field year after year, but migrate to others ; as a rule ratoon 

 crops are more severely attacked than plant canes. The beetles 

 upon emerging from the soil appear to be attracted to trees or bushy 

 plants where feeding and mating take place at night, and if they 

 emerge in a field from which the canes have been cut, they will fly 

 off to another field, while if canes are stiU standing they may stay 

 and reinfest the same field again. This would explain why the attack 

 is experienced in different fields in different seasons, and also why 

 certain fields from which canes have been reaped are so badly infested 

 that it is most difficult to establish the next crop, whether of cane, 

 maize or onions. The numbers of grubs in the soil can be much 

 reduced at this time by hand-collection, which may be greatly 

 facilitated by the use of a trap-crop, such as maize, that will attract 

 them to its roots which lie near the surface. 



In Mauritius Phytalus [smithi] is captured by means of traps 

 consisting of leafy branches of bushes or trees stuck in the soil from 

 which the beetles are emerging. Having climbed up on these branches 

 to feed at night, the beetles can be searched for with lights and 

 captured in enormous numbers. P. smithi is also collected in 

 Barbados in very large numbers on canes, pigeon peas and other 

 plants. 



In Antigua, the scarcity of bush would render this practice difficult, 

 but if maize were planted in an infested field as soon as the canes 

 were cut and early enough to be well estabhshed by mid- April many 

 beetles might be collected on the plants. Beetles emerging from 

 early-cut fields, reaped about April, generally fly away from that 

 field, and crops planted in the following months should be free from 

 infestation ; while if the canes are reaped in June or later, the crops 

 following them will be liable to attack. If this proves to be correct, 

 it would be a good practice to aUow canes to stand until after 

 emergence of the beetles, so that they may deposit eggs in the same 

 field. The canes might then be cut and the land worked and planted 

 with maize ; when this is attacked it should be pulled up, the grubs 

 collected from the soil and maize planted again. If the second crop 

 is attacked the pulling up and collecting should be repeated. These 



