INSECTS IN SHIPMENTS OF SUGAR CANE. 3 



introducing the eggs. Any trash accidcnitally accompanying imported cane plants 

 should be rigorously burned. 



Control. — No satisfactory system of control has yet been devised for the larger moth 

 borer. Collecting the moths by means of nets in the hands of children has given 

 better results than any other direct measure of control that has been tried. Flooding 

 the fields after the removal of the crop has had a good effect in certain instances, 

 but this practice could not be carried out in most localities in the Lesser Antilles. 



THE WEEVIL BORERS. 



Next in importance come the weevil borers, of which there are 

 several species. They are known in Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii, the 

 British West Indies, and probably in South America and Mexico. It 

 seems that one or two species may be recorded as rare in the United 

 States. A note in the possession of the writer records a weevil as 

 having been reared from young shoots of sugar cane which were col- 

 lected at Fairview Plantation, Berwick, La., on April 28, 1910, by 

 Mr. D. L. Van Dine. Mr. Van Dine found the larvae just above 

 the surface of the ground. Mr. E. R. Barber of this office states that 

 he found pupa? of weevils in the sugar cane at Audubon Park, New 

 Orleans, in 1911. During the early summer in 1912 the writer found 

 weevil borers in the young sugar-cane plants at Audubon Park and 

 at the experiment station at Brownsville, Tex. The weevils found 

 at Brownsville were in the larval stage in dying plants of stubble 

 cane, below the surface of the ground and near the point where the 

 young shoot left the old stubble. In plant cane at Audubon Park 

 the weevil larvae were also found below the surface, and near the 

 point where the young plant joined the seed cane. The larvae were 

 from one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch in length. Sometimes a 

 borer was found in the middle of the stem, while in other cases the 

 borers were near one side of the stem. The injury to the plant is 

 like the "dead heart" caused by our moth borer. It seems probable 

 that the moth borer is blamed for some of the injury caused by the 

 weevils. 



Very hkely these borers have been introduced in shipments of 

 sugar cane from the Tropics. They are small and their work is 

 hard to find, so that they might easily have escaped the eye of the 

 average person. So few of the weevils have been found up to date 

 that there may be no occasion for alarm, while on the other hand 

 they may increase in numbers so as to become a serious pest. 



THE FROQHOPPERS. 



Probably the greatest damage from froghoppers or spittle insects 

 is suffered by the cane planters of the Island of Trinidad, near the 

 coast of Venezuela. Froghoppere suck the juice from the cane 

 plants. Remaining in one place on the plant they surround them- 

 selves with a coating of white froth, and because of this habit the 

 popular name of spittle insects has been given to them. They are 



