14 



adult female secretes "honey dew" profusely, and that together with 

 the exudations from the cane caused by the irritation of the sucking 

 tubes forms a sticky mass between the leaf sheaths and the parent 

 cane. When such infected canes were crushed at the factory the 

 resulting fluid gave a much lower sugar content, and if the sticky 

 exudations in the fluid extracted from the canes exceeded a certain 

 percentage (as it did on one or two occasions) crystallization could 

 not be effected at all. The lowered sugar content of attacked canes 

 was most marked and the Sugar Company estimated that the loss 

 for the season would exceed L.E. 100,000. 



Nothing could be done with the growing crop, and it seemed 

 to me that the only possible way to gain control of this pest was t', 

 ensure that clean "sets" were planted out. The growers were advised 

 to strip the sets completely of all leaf sheaths and to immerse in 

 a dilute paraffin emulsion in the field before planting. A dilute 

 paraffin emulsion (1 in 30) was found to be quite effective if the " sets " 

 were immersed for two minutes. They were also advised not to 

 ratoon the canes more than once and to burn over the land very 

 carefully after removing the crop each year. It is early yet to state 

 the results of these measures, as it was too late in the season to put 

 them into effect except in one or two very small areas. 



An inspection carried out at the very end of last year revealed 

 the fact that the insect attack was about the same but that a fungus 

 had made its appearance and was actually assisting very materially 

 in the control. As many as fifty per cent of the insects on a cane 

 were frequently found dead as a result of this fungoid activity. 



It was also observed that some animal, almost certainly the rat, 

 was eating the insect, a hole or " window " being made in the leaf 

 sheath immediately below the node where the insects always con- 

 gregate. The leaf sheaths of uninfected canes were not touched, but 

 on a heavily infected cane as many as ten " windows " were frequently 

 seen always in the same relative position as regards the node, i.e. 

 just beloSfr it. 



A further paper is in course of preparation on the ravages of 

 Pseudococcus sacchari Ckll. on the sugar cane crop of Egypt which 

 will deal fully with the whole outbreak. 



14. Sphserococcus marlatti Ckll. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY: "Injurious and Beneficial Insects of California," 



p. 123. 

 Debski.,'Mem. Soc. Ent. d'Egypte, 1918, p. 11. 



The adult female is generally round, but sometimes oval, dark 

 waxy brown with a fringe of white waxy secretion round the margin, 



