29 



atus of Eydoux), while R. pascha, Boehm, and Chalcosma atlas, Linn., 

 are also said to appear occasionally. 



However different their mode of attack, the general result is the same, 

 and their presence may surely be detected by the appearance of deformed 

 or badly misshapen or lacerated leaves. 



The attacks of all species are confined to the growing point and as far 

 downward as the wood is tender and susceptible to the action of their 

 powerful mandibles. 



The black beetle makes its attacks when fully mature, eating its way 

 into the soft tissues and generally selecting the axil of a young leaf as the 

 point of least resistance. Others simply deposit their eggs, which hatch 

 out, and the resulting grub is provided with jaws powerful enough to do 

 the same mischief. Two or three of these grubs, if undisturbed, are suf- 

 ficient in time to completely riddle the growing tip, which then falls over 

 and the tree necessarily dies. 



REMEDIES. 



Eemedies may be described as preventive and aggressive, and, by an 

 active campaign of precaution, many subsequent remedial applications 

 can be avoided. 



Most of the beetles attacking the palm are known to select heaps of 

 decomposing rubbish and manure as their favorite (if not necessary) 

 breeding places, and it is obviously of importance to break up and destroy 

 such; nor can any better or more advantageous way of effecting this be 

 suggested than by promptly spreading and plowing under all such accumu- 

 lations as fast as they are made; or, if this be impracticable, by forking 

 or turning over or otherwise disturbing the heaps, until convenient to 

 dispose of them as first suggested. 



A truly preventive and simple remedy, and one that I can commend as 

 a result of close observation, is the application of a handful or two of 

 sharp, coarse, clean sand in the axillae x>f the young leaves. The native 

 practice is to mix this with ashes, salt, or tobacco dust ; but it is question- 

 able if the efficacy of the remedy lies so much in these additions as in the 

 purely mechanical effect of the sand, the constant attrition of which can 

 not be other than highly objectionable to the insect while burrowing. 



Of offensive remedies, probing with a stout hooked wire is the only 

 form of warfare carried on in these Islands; but, as the channel of the 

 borer is sometimes tortuous and deep, this is not always effective. A 

 certain, simple, and easily applied remedy may be found in carbon bisul- 

 phid. It could be applied in the holes (which invariably trend down- 

 ward) with a small metal syringe. The hole should be sealed immediately 

 with a pinch of stiff, moist clay. 



It is likely that this remedy and probing with a wire are the only suc- 

 cessful ways of combatting the red beetle, whose grub strikes in wherever 



