MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS 647 



axils. All branches, from soft, herbaceous shoots to 

 those of 2 in. in diameter, are used as food. The shoot 

 is pierced and the sap extracted. The cortex and cam- 

 bium in the area pierced turn brown and die. When 

 young branches are attacked the sucked spots sink 

 slightly, producing a somewhat gnarled appearance. In 

 dry weather, when many wounds have been made, the 

 leaves turn brown and wither, and the branch is easily 

 bent over with the wind. Should the weather be moist 

 very few branches are broken, and the presence of the 

 insects is overlooked until very severe damage is done. 

 The epidermis in a few days dries up round each puncture 

 and splits open. Gumming takes place and may continue 

 for some time. Where many wounds have been made 

 together, but so that small spaces are left between the 

 sucked areas, the work of healing is left to isolated 

 strands of cambium. It is the result of the after activity 

 of the cambium in attempting unsuccessfully to heal over 

 the dead parts, which since 1909 has been described as 

 canker or dry canker. Young trees may suffer so much 

 that all top growth is killed, and has to be renewed from 

 basal suckers, often delaying the fruiting period for as 

 much as three years. Even when the damage is less 

 severe the after crops are much reduced, as there is so 

 much less vegetative activity in the trees, and the dis- 

 tribution of manufactured products impeded, for the 

 punctured sites never completely heal over. Food plants 

 of the insect other than cocoa have not yet been found, 

 nor has any effective natural control yet been hinted at. 1 

 When a farm has successfully reached the age of pro- 

 duction, the so-called " cocoa mosquito," Helopeltis sp., 

 may take its toll. From recent work performed here it has 

 been found that the effect of this insect may be very severe, 

 as one female made eighty-four punctures in a pod in 



1 Since this paper was written Mr. Patterson has found that 

 the kapok tree (Eriodendron anfractuosurn] is a food plant of 

 " Sankonuabe," and in order to reduce the numbers of the pest 

 it is recommended 1 that all kapok trees in the neighbourhood of 

 cocoa plantations should be destroyed. (See Re-p. Agric. 

 Gold, Coast, 1914, p. 22.) [ED.] 



