XXVlll 



species, two-thirds of which had not previously been taken in Morocco, and of these 

 a large proportion were new to Science. 



The Secretary read Reports, dated 2nd December, 1867, 4th January and 22nd 

 April, 1868, by Dr. Bidie, the Government Commissioner for investigating the 

 ravages of the borer (Xylolrechus r/uadripes of Chevrolal) in the coffee-plantations of 

 Mysore and Coorg. (See Tr. Ent. Soc. 1868, p. 105; Proc. 1867, p. cix., 1868, 

 pp. ii., xviii.) The following are extracts: — 



" In the neighbourhood of Mercara, my attention was directed to another insect 

 called the Ringer: it chiefly attacks young plants, and lives in the ground at the foot 

 of the stem, coming up during the night and feeding on the bark. When a complete 

 circle of bark is thus destroyed, the whole of the plant above that point dies, but the 

 root throws up shoots which in time become productive. The Ringer seems identical 

 wiih the black grub of the Ceylon plantations, wbich is the larva of the Dart Molh. 

 I have failed to get the grub to pass into the imago state, the shaking during ray 

 travels having always proved fatal to it, but am quite sure that it is identical with 

 the English Agrotis segetum. 



"In a native garden in Veerajpettah I found twenty-year-old stems iu which the 

 borer had been observed at work for five years at least, and various Coorgs have 

 infurmed me that they have noticed the borer occasionally during the last eight or 

 ten years. Two gentlemen engaged in planting ha\e also told me that they now and 

 again found tlie borer in coffee trees upwards of four years ago. In many of the 

 native gardens I find that some Rodent (probably the coffee rat) has begun to destroy 

 the pupa and beetle, by cutting down and extracting them for food. Red ants also 

 to a small extent prey on the larva and pupa. 



" I am now trying to discover whether the white borer did or does exist in 

 indigenous trees. 



" In Southern Coorg I have inspected thirty-eight estates belonging to Europeans, 

 and a large number the property of natives. The effect of forest clearance on climate 

 and its bearing on the immediate matter of my enquiry have received due attention. 

 I quite agree that the destruction of forests in Coorg has had an influence in making 

 the borer so prevalent and destructive to coffee. In other countries, such as America, 

 as the clearing of the natural forests has gone on, insects destructive to trees and 

 crops have vastly increased in numbers. In dense- primeval woods, the conditions of 

 light, heat and moisture are not favourable for the production of many of the insects 

 injurious to cultivated plants; and besides Nature in such situations maintains 

 enemies sufficient to keep them in check. When man comes in with his axe he 

 disturbs this natural balance, and his fields and gardens suffer in consequence. No 

 doubt also insects often attack cultivated plants when natural ones on which they 

 used to subsist have been exterminated. Forest clearance would also seem to increase 

 the number of many kinds of iusects by jiroducing various changes in local climate 

 conducive to their multiplication. The Coorgs think that the borer used to live in 

 the bamboo, but, owing to the death of that tree throughout the district during the 

 past year, it was no longer able to subsist in it, and has therefore attacked the cofiFee. 

 This general dying out of the bamboo, they say, occurs once in sixty years — that 

 being the term of its existence; but it seems strange that all the bamboos in Coorg 

 should be so exactly of the same age as to perish in a single year. I am investigating 



