36 THE SUGAR-CANE INSECTS OF HAWAII. 
by feeding on the interior cause great destruction to the plant. Com- 
paratively, the Hawaiian borer is more destructive and, because of the 
habits of the adult, a more persistent species to combat. The adult 
beetle of the Hawaiian borer is a stronger flyer than the adult moth 
of the mainland borer and therefore has a wider range over any 
infested territory. As the adult of the Hawaiian borer, too, can 
emerge from any reasonable depth when buried in the soil, this 
renders the question of infested seed cane a serious one in Hawaii, 
while on the mainland the careful covering of infested seed cane is 
effective in preventing the emergence of the adult moth. These 
points are mentioned to bring out the fact that we are discussing 
here a species in no way related to the cane borer of the Southern 
States and in many ways not subject to the same means of control. 
[Sphenophorus] Metamasius sericeus Oliv. is a species injurious to 
cane in the West Indies, being recorded from Jamaica, Barbadoes, 
St. Kitts, Antigua, St. Lucia, and British Guiana. 
In Porto Rico Sphenophorus sexguttatus Drury is recorded by Busck4 
as boring in the stalks of sugar cane. 
DISTRIBUTION. 
The sugar-cane borer of Hawaii is recorded also from Fiji, New 
Guinea, New Ireland, Tahiti, Queensland, and the Malay Archipelago 
and probably occurs pretty generally throughout the islands of the 
southern Pacific. 
OCCURRENCE IN HAWAII. 
This species is a pest of long standing in the islands. The insect is 
recorded from the Island of Oahu in 1885 by the Rev. Thomas Black- 
burn,? who found the species breeding in the stems of bananas in the 
mountains, and the files of the Bureau (then Division) of Entomology, 
record the receipt of the borer from the Hawauan Islands, as early as 
1888.° It is believed that the sugar-cane borer was introduced into 
the islands from Tahiti in the stems of the banana plant during the 
early communications between the Hawaiian Islands and those of 
the South Seas. Hon. H. P. Baldwin, of Puunene, Maui, informed 
the writer that to his personal knowledge the beetle was injurious to 
sugar cane in the vicinity of Lahaina, the ancient capital of the 
islands, as early as 1865. 
Aside from the banana plant and sugar cane, the beetle infests the 
coconut palm, the sago palm, the royal palm, the wine palm, (Cary- 
ota wrens), and the papaia (Carica papaya). 
aU.S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Ent., Bul. 22, p. 89, 1900. 
b BrackBurn, Rey. T., Aanp SHarp, D.—Memoirs on the Coleoptera of the Hawaiian. 
Islands. <Sci. Trans. Roy. Dublin Soc., 2 ser., vol. 3, pp. 119-290, pl. 1, 1885. 
¢ General Notes, Bureau of Entomology, No. 4332b. 
