SUGAR-CANE INSECTS AND THEIR CONTROL IN 

 BRITISH GUIANA. 



By G. E. BODKIN, B.A., Dip. Agric. (Cantab.), F.Z.S.. 



F.E.S. 

 Government Economic Biologist, British Guiana. 



INSECT pests of sugar-cane have been known in British 

 Guiana for at least the last quarter of a century, but it 

 is only during more recent years that they have received 

 any serious attention or combined efforts been made for 

 their control. 



To-day the injury and financial losses caused by such 

 insects is fully realized, and the control of insect pests 

 on a sugar estate in British Guiana is now a recognized 

 part of the routine. 



Owing to the somewhat peculiar conditions of cropping 

 which are closely connected with the marketing of the 

 product, cane at various stages of growth is to be found 

 throughout the year, there being no recognized regular 

 harvest. This renders the control of pests a particularly 

 difficult matter, for as one area is cut these insects simply 

 migrate to another adjoining area in a younger stage of 

 growth. 



The most injurious pests are those known collectively 

 as "borers," whicfi consist of three species of lepido- 

 pterous larvae, namely, Castnia licus, Fab., a member 

 of the exotic family Castniiadge, which is popularly called 

 the giant moth borer, Diatrsea saccharalis, a member of 

 the Pyralidae, and well known in most of the sugar- 

 growing areas of the world, which is termed locally 

 the small moth borer, and D. canella, Hamps., which is 

 much like D. saccharalis in all its stages, though described 

 by Hampson as a distinct species. 



These three pests pass their larval and pupal periods 

 within the cane itself, thus weakening it and causing a 



