339 



also bores a small hole in the pod for this purpose. The ants, Mono- 

 morium hicolor, Em., and Dorylus fulviis, Westw., do not attack nuts 

 the pod of which is intact, but eat up the seeds in perforated ones. 

 Another ant, Euponera sennaarensis, Mayr, is associated with Coccids 

 on the young pods. 



The remedy suggested for all the foregoing attacks is the prevention 

 of the loss of water from the subsoil by keeping a few inches of the soil 

 at the surface in a loose and powdery condition in order to reduce 

 evaporation. 



As regards the insects which attack the nuts after they have been 

 gathered, injury may be inflicted at various times. The pods are 

 gathered, stacked in ricks, threshed and after separation from 

 the leaves are exposed to the air in large heaps. During these 

 stages they are attacked by the Tenebrionid beetles, Pimela angulosa, 

 Oliv., P. se negate nsis, Oliv., Homala politu, Sol., Zophosis elineata, CI., 

 which attack only those seeds of which the pods are bruised or broken. 

 Obviously this damage may be reduced by substituting the method 

 'of hand-picking for the destructive but easier process of threshing. 

 While in the ricks, enormous damage is done by Rhynchota which suck 

 out the oil from the nut. The most important is Aplianus sordidus, F. , 

 the ground-nut bug of Senegal, a Lygaeid, also recorded from India, 

 China and Guinea. The insect bores invisible holes in the pod, and 

 sucks out the oil from the nuts, leaving them wrinkled and withered. 

 The attacks of this pest could be reduced, if not prevented, by the 

 removal of all vegetation in the neighbourhood of the rick, and the 

 covering of the latter at night with an awning. Other Rhynchota 

 attacking ground-nuts are Aphanus apicalis, Dall., Dieuclies armipes, 

 F., and Dysdercus spp., especially D. super slitiosus, F. 



In the closed storage sheds the nuts are attacked by the beetles, 

 Tenebroides mauritanicas, L., and Sylvanus mercator, Fauv., which is 

 perhaps only a form of S. surimimensis, L., and is important on accoimt 

 of its rapid reproduction, and power of existing without moisture ; 

 Tribolium confusum, Duv. ; T. castaneum, Hbst.; Alphitohius dia- 

 ])erimis, Panz., and A. piceus, 01. ; Lepidoptera : — Plodia inter- 

 pmictella, Corcyra cephalonica, Staint., and Ephestia cautella. Walk., 

 the larvae of which are, however, controlled by the Braconid, Habro- 

 bracon hebetor, Say ; Orthoptera : represented by one species of 

 Forficula ; Thysanura : Thermobia domestica. Pack. The Bruchid, 

 Pachymerus acaciae, Gill., is the only pest that attacks and perforates 

 the sound pods. 



Control of these pests must be effected by fumigation, though none 

 of the usual fumigants, carbon bisulphide, chloroform, hydrocyanic 

 gas and cresol are suitable, owing to their dangerous nature, their 

 expense, or the fact that they affect the oil in the nuts. The only gas 

 suitable is the sulphurous vapour produced by burning sulphur 

 or by means of the Clayton apparatus ; this is cheap, easily applied, 

 and has no injurious effect on the oil. 



Feytaud (J.). La Defense de la Vigne contre les Insectes. [The 

 Protection of the Vine against Insects.] — Bull. Soc. Etude Vulg, 

 Zool. Agric, Bordeaux, xvi, no. 5, May 1917, pp. 33-42. 



This paper contains a resume of the hfe-histories and habits of the 

 principal vine pests in France, and the methods of their control. 

 (C381) a2 



