^ 



151 



in the Philippines, India and the Dutch East Indies. In Panama, 

 another butterfly, Brassolis istJimia, G. & S., does great damage and 

 defoliates the palms in large numbers ; the larvae feed at night and 

 at dawn retire to a tough nest shaped like a narrow bag, from li inches 

 to 2 feet long, in which 700 or more are often crowded together ; as 

 many as four nests are sometimes found in one tree. In Trinidad, 

 B. sophorae, L., does a great deal of damage by skeletonising the leaves 

 [see this Review, Ser. A, ii, p. 569 and iii, pp. 175, 368 and 591]. The 

 Pyralid, Nacoleia (Omiodes) blackburni, Butl., has been reported on 

 coconuts in Hawaii and is also known in New Guinea. 



Locusts will attack coconuts when other food is not available and 

 sometimes do great damage. Graeffea cocophaga, Newp., a large 

 Phasmid, which occurs from New South Wales northwards and east- 

 ward across Polynesia, feeds on coconuts and has done great temporary , 

 damage in Samoa and on Hervey Island. Among scale-insects, the / 

 worst pest is Aspidiotus destructor, Sign., which has caused great loss 

 in the Caroline Islands and in the Philippines ; drought favours it 

 and at the same time weakens the trees, while ample spacing, 

 water and cultivation and manuring of the trees limit its ravages. 

 No less than 31 species of scale-insects attack and damage the coconut 

 palm to a greater or less extent. Ahurodicus cocois. Curt., the coconut 

 whitefly, has been long known in the West Indies, and A. destructor, 

 Quaint., has recently been reported as a serious pest in a limited area 

 in the Philippines. A table is given of 70 insect pests of the coconut, 

 the countries in which they are found, the nature of the damage done, 

 and the treatment required, but, as the author says, this by no means 

 exhausts the enemies of the coconut. References to these and many 

 others occur in papers alreadv abstracted [see this Revieiv, Ser. A, i, 

 pp. 129, 285, 425 ; ii, pp. 2, 26-28, 29, 98, 490, 689-691 ; iii, pp. 13, 

 27, 83, 315, 439, 492, 558, 591, 679, 690, 695, 713, 724]. 



Fawcett (W.). The Banana, its cultivation, distribution and 

 commercial uses. London, 1913, Duckworth & Co. x + 287 pp. 

 8 plates, 10 figs., price 7s. 6d. 



This comprehensive monograph contains a large mass of useful and 

 well arranged information. The commercial aspects of the banana are 

 very fully dealt with, and in the 80 pages devoted to general infor- 

 mation, details are given as to the cultivation and handling of the 

 banana in every country in which it is grown. A short description 

 is given of no less than 66 species of Musa and there are chapters on 

 bananas as food, on alcohol and wines derived from bananas, and the 

 methods of drying the fruit for flour. Sixteen pages are devoted to 

 fungus diseases and half as much to insect pests. 



The banana weevil borer. Cosmopolites {Sphenophorus) sordidus, is 

 said to cause an annual loss in Fiji of many thousands of pounds and 

 is most difiicult to deal with, as its whole life is spent in the underground 

 stem or in the soil. Young suckers wither and die, and the first evidence 

 of attack is the death of the young leaves while still unrolled ; when 

 cut open, the "bulb" is found to be riddled by the larvae ; older plants 

 do not seem to be so seriously affected. The adult weevils are found 

 in quantity in the soil round the roots and also sheltering under dead 

 leaves at the base of the stem. The eggs are believed to be deposited 



