103 



present readers may not have access to the vohime of Insect Life to 

 which we have referred, the illustrations there presented are repro- 

 duced (figs. 8 and 9). Mr. Smith writes substantially as follows: 



I am sending you herewith specimens of the cane-borer which infests the sugar- 

 cane plant throughout the rainy districts of Hawaii. It is quite rare in the dry dis- 

 tricts or in dry years, but is terribly destructive in wet years or on plantations in 

 regions with abundant rainfall. On one plantation on Maui the loss last year from 

 the cane-borer was estimated at between 1,000 and 1,500 tons of sugar — 20 per cent 

 of the crop. At an average price for sugar of $70 per ton it is not difficult to figure 

 up a pretty stiff bill against the cane-borer. 



P^*l!, 



Fig. 9. — Sections of sugar cane showing work of Sphcnophorus obscurus: a, larva, ft, pupa, m silu; 

 c, probably points of oviposition— somewhat reduced (from fnsect Life). 



From its habits I judge there is no hope of trapping, poisoning, or otherwise 

 destroying it, and it looks as though we would have to find a natural enemy for it. 

 The toad has been tried, but the mongoose is too fond of toad for breakfast. 



The eggs are apparently laid in the sheath of the old leaves of the cane a little 

 above its junction with the node. The egg hatches out in the sheath and the young 

 grub eats its way into the cane just above the node. The hole where it enters is 

 very small and hardly visible. Once inside the grub grows rapidly and channels 

 back and forth, rapidly converting the lower internodes into a mass of foeces. The 

 grub pupates in the cane and only emerges from the stalk as a beetle to copulate, and 

 do it all over again. Several of those which I send were caught in the act. The 



