95 



THE LARGER CORN STALK BORER.* 



( IHatrwa nacvhtu'dlix l\ ) 

 Ry L. (). HoWAiii.. 



The attention of Enjilisli-speakiny- people was liist called, in ascientific 

 way, to the iitva,yes of a lepidctptenms l)orev in snj^ar-eane by the Kev. 

 Lansdown Gnilding in his account of the insects infesting- the sugar- 

 cane, in the Transactions of the Society of Arts, 1828, vol. XLVi, pp. 

 14;i-153. He described the insect as Diatrwa sacchari, and for liis 

 paper, which comprehended also an account of the sugar-cane and iialiu 

 weevils, he was awarded the gold Ceres medal of the society. His 

 studies were made in the island of St. Vincent in the West Indies, and 

 from its occurreiu-e there at this early date, and from Guilding's state- 

 ment that it had been long known, there is reason to suppose that the 

 insect may be an indigene of South America or of the West Indies, 

 where the cultivation of sugar-cane was first begun in America. 



In IHoO ii select committee, appointed to investigate the damage 

 caused by the cane borer in Mauritius, reported through W. Bojer, aud 

 the insect, which is called in the 

 i'(^poit Prttcern .v sa cch a ripkiuj us , 

 was treated at some length, ami 

 an acc<mnt was given of its intro- 

 duction into the island. In the 

 same year W^estwood reviewed this 

 report at length in the Gardenern'' 

 Chronicle of July 5, gave a wood- 

 cut of the insect, and i)ointed out 

 that it was probably identical with 

 the species described by Guilding 

 at St. Vincent. He also called at- 

 tention to the fact that the si)ecies 

 named many years i)re\iously by 

 Fabricius as Phahena saccharalh 

 is probably the same thing. This insect was described by Fabricius 

 {Entomologia systematica, vol. iii, part 2, p. 238), from South America, 

 no more definite locality being given. The probabilities are, how- 

 ever, that he refers to Dutch Guiana on account of the early settle- 

 ment of that country and from the fact that he refers to a figure of the 

 larva by Myhlenfels. He makes the statement that it feeds in sugar- 

 cane, perforating and destroying the stalks and becoming a i)est in 

 plantations. He describes the larva as six-footed, of a pale hyaline 

 color, and with the head aud eight spots brown. The larval descrip- 

 tion, however, is drawn u}) from a figure by Myhlenfels, which may have 



Fio. 2. — Diatrcea aaccharaliii: a, female; h. wings 

 of male: c. pupa — enlargcil (original). 



Read before the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science, Washington, 

 AufT. 17, 1891. 



