THE INSECTS. 119 



palms to which it was formerly confined. Unlike 

 the weevil, it eats up the whole crown, leaving only 

 the bare ribs. In some cases, where the larvae have 

 not touched the growing point, the palm may 

 recover, but that this is rarely the case may be seen 

 almost everywhere. However, as their work is not 

 hidden like that of the cane borer there is not the 

 same difficulty in preventing disaster. 



A fair number of the cane pests come from wild 

 grasses, and here we have an interesting fact. To 

 some extent at least the insects are able to dis- 

 tinguish the allies of their regular food plants. 

 They are botanists ; probably, however, the dis- 

 tinction is in the flavour. In some cases a species 

 feeds on any one of a particular genus, in others 

 a whole order may suit their taste. The more 

 specialised the butterfly or moth the more dainty 

 it is. A similar thing is seen in certain wasps ; 

 the mother of one species stores up spiders, 

 another grasshoppers, a third moth larvae, and 

 a fourth cockroaches, but we never see them 

 change their food supplies. Probably, however, 

 they do not distinguish species but families or 

 classes. 



The old saying that " what is one man's meat is 

 another's poison " is conspicuously exemplified by 

 the food of butterflies and moths. Every plant 



