534 



EscHERicH (K.). Clyhis (Plagionotus) arcuatus, a Coleopteron inju- 

 rious to the Oak in Germany. — MtUy. Bull. Agric. Intell. & PI. 

 Dis., Rome, viii, no. 7, July 1917, pp. 1071-1072. (Abstract 

 from Zeitschrift fiir angewandte Entomologie, Berlin, iii, pp. 388-397, 

 December 1916.) [Received 21st September 1917.] 



The Longicorn, Clytus arcuatus, especially infests felled timber, that 

 stored in the shade being much less attacked than that in full sunlight, 

 owing to the fact that this beetle is particularly fond of light. It is 

 one of the worst enemies of oaks in the Palatinate, where its appearance 

 is an absolute calamity, as it increases rapidly in numbers and also 

 attacks the wood of poorly developed trees, boring long galleries 

 beneath the bark. The natural enemies of G. arcuatus are not very 

 numerous or important ; it is parasitised by an Ichneumonid, and 

 woodpeckers are known to destroy it. To avoid damage, sickly trees 

 should be removed from the plantation ; trunks should be removed 

 immediately after felling (at the end of April at the latest), or, if that 

 is impossible, they should be stored in the shade ; the felled trunlvS 

 might be whitewashed, to prevent the insect from ovipositing. 



HuTsoN (J. C). Insect Pests in British Guiana in i91Q.— Agric. News, 

 Barbados, ivi, no. 400, 25th August 1917, pp. 266-267. 



These notes are taken from the general report of Mr. H. W. B. Moore 

 on insect pests during 1916, as in previous years [see this Review, Ser. A, 

 ii, p. 57, V, p. 148], and includes an account of a new small moth- 

 borer of sugar-cane belonging to the family Pyralidae. It is widely 

 distributed, but appears to have more or less definite times for 

 appearing. Its method of attack differs from that of other small 

 borers, in that it bores straight to the growing-point or heart and then 

 eats out a small cavity, instead of making a longitudinal tunnel. The 

 entrance hole is circular and very small, and the boring has some 

 resemblance to an incipient attack by Diatraea saccharalis. The 

 caterpillar pupates outside the boring, in a slight whitish cocoon. The 

 small moth-borers, Diatraea saccharalis and D. canella, are still doing 

 serious damage and further control work in the early stages of the 

 sugar-cane is necessary, by taking parasitised egg-clusters from canes 

 about to be cut, and distributing them in young fields. Control work 

 against the large moth-borer, Castnia licus, is very uneven, the collection 

 of caterpillars and moths having been neglected on many estates. 

 The small black hard-back, Dyscinetus hidentatus, caused serious 

 damage on two estates, though it was reduced by a systematic 

 collection of the beetles, which destroy the young cane-shoots and 

 often bore into the base of the plant. A closely related species, 

 D. harhatus, occurs in Antigua, St. Kitts, and Barbuda. The Scoliid 

 wasp, Tiphia parallela, was found to be a parasite of D. hidentatus in 

 British Guiana. There was a severe outbreak of this pest on one 

 estate, where over 4,000,000 adults and nymphs were destroyed during 

 the season by sweeping the drains in the worst-infested fields with 

 wide-mouthed nets. The eggs of this pest were found to be deposited 

 in dry grass or cane-blades or between dry cane-blades and the earth. 

 The grass looper, Pelamia {Mods) repanda, attacked the blades of 

 young canes on several estates ; these outbreaks seem to occur 

 annually after the mid-year rains, while in some of the West Indian 



