XX XIV 



saccharij^hariiis, which is described as making a silken cocoon amongst the 

 cane-leaves, and a single chrysalis of a moth was found in a living state in 

 one of the young cane-shoots among Mr. D'Urban's specimens. 



This moth causes injury by attacking the young canes, and the 

 treatment applied is to cut back the cane below the surface of the ground, 

 covering the plant with mould and adding a handful of lime. The amount 

 of injury is the cost of cutting the canes, and throwing back the crop 

 a month or more, and also the damage both to the quantity and quality 

 of the juice from the tainted larval gallery. This injury, however, is said 

 by one of the chief planters in the Demerara district to be as nothing 

 compared with the effects of the Calandra sacchari, the orange-brown weevil, 

 about half-an-inch long, with darker streaks on the thorax and elytra, of which 

 specimens, together with the larvaj and pupal cocoons, are now shown, 

 corresponding with the description of this weevil given by Gyllenhal 

 (Scboenk., Gen. et Spec. Curcul., iv., p. 891), from a specimen from 

 St. Vincent. The history of this weevil has been given by the Rev. L. 

 Guilding with. that of the Calandra palmar um in the ' Transactions of the 

 Society of Arts.' 



The larva of this beetle is said in the notes now received to riddle the 

 heart of the matured canes to an incredible extent, destroying a large 

 portion of the substance so as to leave only the outside rind, without, 

 however, absolutely killing the leaves at the head of the cane, so that in 

 cutting away suspected plants manj^ escape notice. On opening a fair- 

 looking cane, the contents would be found to be a mass of decayed and 

 decaying matter, the greater part having been converted into excreta 

 resembling sawdust, with the pupal cocoons lying in the mass, these 

 cocoons being formed by the Calandra sacchari grub twisting the fibre of 

 the cane round and round till it makes a kind of winding-sheet enveloping 

 it during the pupal changes. Quoting from Mr. D"Urbau's letter, he says, 



" The weevil-grubs have the power of turning themselves 



round and round, and so making a sort of cocoon by rolling themselves up 

 in the fibre of the cane." Various stages of development are found in one 

 cane. The perfect weevil is described as running with great swiftness as 

 well as flying to an immense distance, and is attracted at once and in great 

 numbers by the exposure of putrid cane or cabbage-palm. Tiie injury 

 caused by this weevil is very serious, not only from the destruction of 

 the cane, but also, notwithstanding the care used to remove suspected 

 specimens, some escape notice from the insect presence not always showing 

 externally ; and the result from their decayed contents is a discoloured, 

 stickv, and very disagreeably smelling syrup, instead of the clear yellow- 

 juice usually delivered by the rollers. 



The third enemy, the great black cane-weevil, known in its larval state 

 as the " groo-groo worm," eaten by the natives, and now exhibited, with its 



