464 



made, and another fruit attacked. Only the kernel of the second 

 fruit is eaten ; when fully grown, after 12-16 days, the larva gnaws 

 a tunnel towards the stem of the fruit, causing it to fall, and then 

 enters the soil and remains in a cocoon until the following spring, 

 when it pupates. H. fulvicornis has also been found in pears. 



The Cultivation of Sugar-cane and Manufacture of Cane Sugar. — Bull. 

 Imp. Inst., London, xix, no. 1, 1921, pp. 26-59. 



In the course of this paper a chapter is devoted to pests and diseases 

 of sugar-cane, and some of the usual remedial measures against them 

 are quoted. The noxious insects are tabulated, the common and 

 scientific names, distribution, part of plant attacked, and preventive 

 and remedial measures being given. 



Departmental Activities : Entomology. — Jl. Dept. Agric. Union 

 S. Africa, Pretoria, iii, no. 1, July 1921, pp. 12-16. 



Drought and other unfavourable conditions have so depleted the 

 apple-tree nurseries that the prohibition on blight-proof stocks has 

 been suspended for the present season, though the introduction 

 permits are subject to certain restrictions. Fruit moths have 

 been unusually injurious, the chief species being Achaea catella and 

 A . lienardi. Fresh hatchings of locusts have been reported during May 

 on a number of farms : it is pointed out that as it is far less trouble- 

 some and expensive to destroy the recently hatched locusts than 

 those more fully grown, it is very much in the farmer's interest to 

 assist the Government with information as to where hatchings are 

 to be expected, and otherwise to carry out his obligations. 



In the Eastern Province it has been found necessary to use spraying 

 as a remedy for Acanthomia tomentosicollis (bean bug), Epilachna 

 similis, and Crocidolomia binotalis (larger cabbage moth). The fruit- 

 piercing moths, Sphingomorpha chlorea and Achaea catella, destroyed 

 as much as half the crop of apples in the Bathurst district during 

 March and April, and the caterpillars were abundant on native bushes. 

 The larvae of Parasa latistriga injured Eucalyptus rostmta and Acacia 

 cyclopis, which is one of the principal trees in the sand belt near Port 

 Elizabeth. Pseudococcus bromeliae (pineapple mealybug) was abundant, 

 but was less numerous in well-cultivated fields where the surface was 

 in fine tilth ; this is probably because ants, which are largely instru- 

 mental in transferring the mealybugs, find it difficult to travel over 

 such soil. 



In Zululand, Zonocerus elegans was very abundant in cotton fields. 

 A poison bait that has been found successful in Portuguese East Africa 

 — banana pulp and sodium arsenite — was employed. After a few 

 days, however, this bait ceased to be attractive and sugar-cane was 

 substituted for the banana-pulp, with very good results. 



Termites of the fungus-growing type are common, and the usual 

 method of dealing with them is to dig out and destroy the queen. 

 When this is done, however, the community does not necessarily die 

 out, as was supposed, but frequently chooses another queen and con- 

 tinues the same colony. Instances are given of this occurring in the 

 case of Macrotermes natalensis and Termes badius, while in regard to 

 T. angustatus, a queen was found in a nest that was known to be 



