xxu 



bamboos in Coorg have died in enormous quantities. It is believed that they do so 



iu a cycle of sixty years Some planters have noticed the beetles at 



night collect against the windows of their houses, attracted by the light inside. Now 

 insect-traps might be so constructed with lights as to secure great numbers in 

 different parts of an estate during the night. It has occurred to me that a simple 

 contrivance would be a mud hut, lighted up and roofed in, with apertures all round, 

 and the walls inside and out hung with cloth covered with some sticky tenacious 

 substance, with which the floor also should be covered, which would disable the beetle 

 on contact. The natives prepare a capital bird-lime, which would answer the purpose, 

 from the juice of the banyan tree {Ficus indica) A still simpler con- 

 trivance would be a large basket like a common native bird-cage, or a round and 

 more substantial trellis-work might be constructed, open at the top, in any case 

 covered with a sticky substance and a lantern iu the centre. Another plan which has 

 occurred to me for a trap, is a square shallow trough, with a lantern in the centre, 

 filled to about half-an-inch with liquid molasses. It is feared that pitch would not 

 answer, as the smell would deter the beetles from approaching." 



Captain Ralph Taylor, a resident and planter in Coorg (who was present as a 

 visitor), gave his personal experiences of the " white borer," stating that he had known 

 coffee trees of twelve years old destroyed by thousands; that the beetle emerged at all 

 limes of the year, or at any rate in August and from November to February ; and that 

 lime, and light, and other things had been tried, but no remedy had proved effectual. 

 At the same lime he was disposed to take a hopeful view, and believed that the evil 

 was already on the decrease and would soon disappear ; whilst he had last year obtained 

 from 7 to 8 cwt. per acre from a plantation which was attacked by the "borer."' He 

 had himself known the white borer since 1863. 



Dr. Cleghorn said that other trees beside the coffee were attacked by the 

 Xylotrechus, and he thought that drought was a predisposing cause which rendered 

 the trees either more liable to be attacked or less able to resist attack. 



Mr. F. Smith remarked that Col. Taylor's opinion, that the borer larva? would from 

 choice select the trees in which there was most moisture or nourishment, was directly 

 opposed to his own experience of the habits of the species of Clytus found in this 

 country ; he had never found either the larva or perfect insect in any other than dead 

 wood, or in the decaying branches of living trees. The borer had no doubt existed in 

 India long before the coffee-plant was cultivated, and as clearings of jungle were made 

 it naturally resorted to the plantations so admirably suited to its requirements. If the 

 planters abandoned their properties, the insect would have the opportunity of 

 increasing without check and would spread over the neighbouring plantations. Mr. 

 Smith had observed Clytus arietis in this country to be usually very abundant about 

 the same stump or railings for four or five years in succession, when they appeared to 

 move off to fresh quarters, the larvae having, as he supposed, so riddled the posts that 

 little or no wood remained to be fed upon. 



Mr. Janson expressed his conviction that, as in this country, so also in India, it 

 was decaying or unhealthy trees alone that were attacked by Clytus. 



Papers read. 

 The following papers were read : — 



" On the Duration of Life in the Honey Bee," by Mr. J, G. Desborough. 

 "Descriptions of Aculeate Hyraenoptera from Australia," by Mr. F. Smith. 



