133 



was effected, and the shed was then fumigated with sulphur and 

 washed down with a solution of bichloride of mercury in order to 

 destroy any unhatched eggs and to disinfect the building. This 

 treatment has apparently been quite efficacious. 



Patteeson (W. H.). Report of the Entomologist. — Gold Coast Agric. 

 Dept. Rept. for 1916; Accra, 1917, pp. 19-20. [Received 22nd 

 January 1918.] 



Cacao has been attacked by Sahlbergella singularis. Hag., S. tlieo- 

 hroma, Dist., and Helopeltis bergrotJii, Rent, (cacao mosquito), the 

 great increase of the Diplodia fungus being due to the destruction of 

 tissue caused by the poisonous injections of these bugs. 



Coconuts have been badly infested with Archon centauries, Burm. 

 (rhinoceros beetle), 8,165 adults having been captured as against 

 4,033 for the preceding year. This is unfortunate in view of the fact 

 that efEorts are being made to introduce coconut cultivation in districts 

 unsuited to cacao. The beetle breeds in accumulations of organic 

 matter in and on the ground and has been foimd in the masses of 

 decaying debris collected at the base of the leaves of the oil palm. 

 Some 1,300 adults were caught on a small group of Pandanus at Aburi, 

 in which district there are numerous breeding sites. 



The heavy fall of citrus fruits has been proved to be due to the 

 attacks of the orange-piercing moths, Ophideres (Othreis) fullonica and 

 Achaea obvia, which \'isit the trees at night and puncture the fruits 

 before they are quite ripe. These pests are very widespread and do a 

 great deal of damage to the main-season crop of fruits ; it is 

 estimated that three-fourths of the orange and grape-fruit crops at 

 Aburi and the whole crop of tangerines at Assuantsi were destroyed by 

 them. Ceratitis however was not found in any citrus fruits nor in 

 sufficient numbers in other fruits to be of any economic importance. 

 The control of these moths is difficult, since the netting of the trees is 

 too costly, as is also the supervision necessary for maintaining smother 

 fires at night. The use of poison-baits is of doubtful value owing to 

 the vast numbers in which the pest appears, and the provision of early, 

 or artificially ripened fruits as bait is not a safeguard, as the moths 

 utiHse as food fruit that is far from mature. The breeding habits of 

 these insects is unknown, though the larval stage is probably passed 

 upon wild food-plants. 



Homoeocerus sp., the " big bug " of cacao fruits, has been found 

 feeding and breeding to a small extent on the young shoots of Para 

 rubber {Hevea brasiliensis). 



GuNTHER (R. T.). Report on Agricultural Damage by Vermin and 

 Birds in the Counties of Norfolk and Oxfordshire in 1916. — Oxford 

 Univ. Press, 1917, 92 pp. [Received 29th January 1918.] 



In the course of this investigation into the agricultural damage by 

 vermin and birds the author found that starlings are beneficial during 

 the earlier half of the year, their diet then consisting chiefly of beetle 

 larvae, Carabid beetles, milKpedes, crane-fly larvae, Lepidopterous 



