42 AUSTEALIAN SUGAR-CANE BEETLES AND THEIR ALLIES. 



plentiful everywhere around Goi-donvale. In the heetle season it 

 harbours the pest earliest, possibly because it is so common on the 

 edges of canefields; the trees are quickly denuded, soon presenting a 

 very bare aspect, and even when separated from cultivated fields by a 

 mile or more of natural bush they are still found loaded with beetles. 

 At Greenhills young Moreton Bay Ashes, reaching a height of 35 feet, 

 fringe the eastern side of the worst-affected fields ; for the first iew 

 days after emei'gence the grey backs were almost wholly on these trees, 

 .straightway devouring the young foliage and then the older leaves; 

 after a week or so. scarcely any greenery was left, and they then sought 

 the Wattles, Bloodwoods, &c. : subsequi ntlv. whenever the afflicted 

 ]Moreton Bay Ashes put forth a few new shoots, they were rapidly 

 revisited, until the end of the aerial existence of the scourge. Probably 

 the Bloodwood (E. conjmhosa) is the commonest tree of the Cairns 

 district ; its leaves are favoured to a considerable extent, but usually 

 only the younger ones. Glochidion fvnlinandi is the scrub tree, referred 

 to by Tryon (19) as '"Fliyllanthus {f ferdinandi) or Wild Nutmeg," 

 where he states that "it was found during the season of 1894, to be 

 more frequently resorted to by the beetle for food requirements than 

 was, perhaps, any other tree ; and, in fact, one of those plants was 

 seldom observed in a district where the grub pest prevailed that did 

 not contain a greater or less number of these insects." Girault and 

 Dodd (66) also mentioned it under the name of ''PJiihnitJius sp." Where 

 it occurs on the edges of scrubs at Gordonvale it is usually sought after ; 

 around Macknade Mill, in the Herbert Kiver district, it is known as 

 "the Beetle-tree," which would serve to show its importance as a feeding- 

 tree. The Candle Nut (Aleurites molnccana) is found sparingly in 

 scrub areas, where it may attain a great height ; both at ]\iossman and 

 Cairns it was noticed to be attractive to the beetles ; a very tall example 

 near Meringa was drastically treated by them. Now^ follow the Figs; 

 the three closely related Strangle Figs (Flcus infectoria, F. nesophila, 

 and F. pilosa) are taken conjunctly, since they are equally infested ; of 

 these the first-named is most frequently met with. A large spreading 

 tree of this species growing near Meringa, and separated from canefields 

 by several hundred yards of bush, was completely stripped. In a patch 

 of scrub a mile from the eastern border of the Greenhills estate there 

 is a huge specimen of this parasitic fig; its aerial roots have enclosed 

 several trees, forming a buttressed trunk many feet through, while the 

 spreading head towers over its surroundings; in January. 1921, the 

 branches of this giant were almost bare, Avhile the ground beneath was 

 covered with the excreta of the beetles. The ornamental Weeping Fig 

 {F. henjamina) and the Rubber-tree (F. ('lastica). which are cultivated 

 in parks and gardens, are also highly favoured. The Cluster Fig 

 (F. glomerata) occurs near scrubs or along streams, and is a favourite 

 food plant, being swiftly almost entirely denuded. Its ally, F. 

 ehretioides, is a rare plant around Gordonvale, but has been recorded as 

 a feeding-tree wherever it was recognised, and has been observed strongly 

 attacked. The foliage of another cultivated tree, the Jack-fruit 

 {Artocarpus intcgrifolia) , readily entices the beetles. Bananas, too, are 

 greatly damaged, and Coconut Palms are almost invariably stripped bare. 



Little need be said of trees in the second class, but ji few words on 

 those of the third category may l)e worth wliile. The ]\Iango has been 

 recorded (66) as a food plant, and though this may happen occasionally 

 our evidence is negative ; trees have been watched where the beetles 

 swarmed and mated night after night, yet it could not be discovered 

 that the foliage had been at all consumed; on account of its dense 



