25 



occur in any stage, though in the adult moth they are not readily seen 

 owing to their being concealed by the scales and hairs. These patches 

 seem to be caused partly by the mechanical sucking action of the mite 

 and partly by the poisonous nature of the injected fluid,which is weakly 

 acid. 



Bezzi (M.). a new Australian Species of Rioxa, with a remarkable 

 Life-habit. (Dipt. Trypaneidae.)— £«iL Entom. Research, London, 

 X, no. 1, November, 1919, pp. 1-5, 1 fig. 

 Rioxa musae, Froggatt, is recorded from bananas brought to Aus- 

 tralia from the New Hebrides, and has subsequently been found breeding 

 in both cultivated and native fruits in Queensland and New South Wales. 

 R. termitoxena, sp. n., is described from North Australia, where it 

 has been bred from the galleries of a termite, Mastotermes sp., in tree- 

 trunks. 



Veitch (R.). Notes on the More Important Insects in Sugar-cane 

 Plantations in Fiji. — Bull. Entom. Research, London, x, no. 1, 

 November 1919, pp. 21-39, 8 figs. 



Sugar-cane in Fiji is generally grown on comparatively small and 

 isolated blocks of land, frequently in narrow strips along the coast or 

 the banks of rivers, large compact areas such as exist in Hawaii being 

 practically unknown. The cultivated soils are of various kinds, 

 including alluvial flats, which are the most profitable for sugar-cane, 

 red hill-soils, sand, stiff clay and reclaimed salt-marshes. The most 

 destructive pest of sugar-cane on the island is Rhabdocnemis obscura, 

 Boisd. (cane beetle borer) [R.A.E., A, v, 52-54, etc.]. The life- 

 history and habits of this weevil are described. The percentage of 

 stalks damaged by the borer found in the Fiji mills in 1917 was 14, a 

 high figure when it is remembered that the injury materially reduces 

 the sugar content of the untunnelled portions of infested stalks. 

 Injured stalks are also liable to fall to the ground, where they quickly 

 rot. Remedial measures that have proved of great assistance m 

 Fiji include the use, for seed purposes, of uninfested cane only, the 

 burning of trash on badly-infested fields immediately after cuttmg, 

 the ploughing of fields to be replanted as soon as possible after harvest- 

 ing, and the collection of beetles by means of traps of split canes. 

 For four years attempts have been made to introduce into Fiji the 

 Tachinid parasite, Ceromasia sphenojjhori, VilL, which has proved 

 so successful in Hawaii, but these attempts have been unexpectedly 

 disappointing, the colonies gradually dying out as soon as the breed- 

 ing cages were removed. It is thought probable that the large junip- 

 ing spiders and the small brown ants, combined with peculiarities 

 in agricultural methods and in the habits of growth of the leading 

 variety of cane are responsible for this failure. 



A less important sugar-cane pest is another weevil, Trochorrhopalus 

 strangulatus, Gyl., which is much smaller than R. obscura and not very 

 seriously destructive, as it apparently never attacks perfectly sound 

 cane, but generally breeds in rotten or weak stalks. The remedial 

 measures described above would also be useful against this species. 



White grubs that attack cane on an extensive scale are the larvae 

 of Rhopaea vestita, Arrow, and R. subnitida. Arrow, both of which are 

 natives of Fiji. These beetles never occur together; R. vestita is 



