106 On the Coffee-borer 



{Extract from a letter of Mr. Alexander Vertue, dated 

 OoTACAMUND, 11 June, 1867.) 



" In the neighbourliood of Goodaloor and Duralah, the 

 Borer is making great havoc. As yet we have, however, 

 every reason to hope that the crop from Terriout, South 

 Wynaad, and the Charambady Division of South-East 

 Wynaad will be very good. 



With reference to the Borer, I myself believe that we 

 are now paying the penalty for slovenly cultivation or 

 total want of cultivation, which was generally the rule 

 a few years ago in the coffee districts of this Presidency, 

 and the droughts of three seasons have no doubt assisted the 

 grub materially. On forest estates which from the com- 

 mencement have been kept perfectly clean, or on bamboo 

 estates which have been regularly trenched and kept 

 in good order, I do not think the Borer will ever be 

 very destructive. I may, of course, be in error as to 

 this, but time will show. We hear of many remedies; 

 one man recommends tar, another suggests that the 

 trees should be washed with a solution of various things ; 

 but although these experiments may be tried with success 

 in a garden, it is a very different matter when one has a 

 field of 200 or 300 acres of coffee to work on.^^ 



[Extract from a letter of the Bev. G. Richter.) 



" But what is the meaning of sickly-looking trees with 

 drooping leaves that begin to turn yellow ? We exa- 

 mine them closer. You shake such a tree — it cracks and 

 breaks clean off just level with the ground ! The broken 

 stem betrays the cause of this destruction ; we just see 

 the retreating enemy : a footless yellowish- white larva 

 with a ferocious horny mouth of darker hue. This is the 

 Borer — the coffee-planter's terrible enemy ! We split 

 the stem of a six-years' old tree, and the open halves reveal 

 in every direction a number of intricate passages infested 

 by many larvae. In some instances they are found in 

 company with pupae and perfect insects, ready to escape 

 through the burrows opening outside the bark, and to 

 deposit their eggs upon healthy trees. 



The insect is not a ' fly, ' as commonly called by 

 planters, but a beetle belonging to the section Tetramera 

 of the order Goleoptera, as it has four distinct joints to 

 all the tarsi, and answers best to Cuvier's Platysoma and 



