506 MANUAL OF THE NILAGIRI DISTRICT. 



m. XXVIII. its due uevi;Jopment, when, moved by irresistible instinct, it sets to 

 work, and with its powerful iaw cuts a tuixncl through the barrier 



COFKFE It/ cj 



Cultivation. ^^''^^ separates its cell from the surface of the tree. One might 



suppose that in performing this operation the little creature would be 



just as likely to go in the wrong as the right direction, but this is 

 prevented by the larva when about to be transferred to the pupa 

 state always going to rest with its head towards the exterior of the 

 tree. Very often the larva carries on its work of destruction in the 

 root of the tree, and were it to undergo its transformations below 

 ground, the beetle would never be able to escape. With marvel- 

 lous instinct, however, the borer always returns to the stem to 

 prepare the cell for the pupa and beetle, except in some rare instances 

 in which the surface of a root has become exposed to the air by the 

 washing away of the soil. The beetles may be met with at all seasons, 

 but are most plentiful just after the monsoon and throughout the dry 

 season. They live from twelve to twenty days, apparently feeding on 

 vegetable matter, bat are not often seen at large, althoagh sometimes 

 met with on the leaves or bark of the coffee tree. They delight in 

 bright sunshine, and are very active in their movements and not easily 

 caught. At the season when most abundant, they sometimes appear 

 in considerable numbers in the windows of the planter's bungalow, 

 and walking through a field of coffee, it is no unusual thing to find two 

 or three adhering to one's clothes. Trees attacked by the borer always 

 occur in patches, the mischief beginning in one and gradually extend- 

 ing to the others. The females in general select warm sunny places 

 for depositing their eggs, avoiding exposed and shady situations. 

 Indeed, shade seems to be obnoxious to them, and when the ova chance 

 to be deposited in trees protected by it, they do not hatch. The 

 female beetle is much more numerous than the male, and is active 

 during her whole life in depositing ova. When engaged in this 

 operation she moves about briskly on the bark of the coffee tree, 

 looking for a convenient crack or chink in the bark, and having found 

 this, the ovipositer is rapidly inserted and a few eggs deposited and 

 fastened in their place, where they are so securely hidden that they 

 can only be seen by carefully removing some of the outer portion of 

 the bark. In from eight to fifteen days they are hatched, and the 

 young grub, a very minute creature, begins to exercise its mandibles, 

 and derives sustenance from the inner juicy layers of the bark. Its 

 presence there causes the outer portion to ri;3e in a well-defined ridge, 

 as if a wire had been passed between it and the wood. This is an 

 unfailing symptom of the enemy having taken possession of the plant, 

 and enables the planter to detect an infested tree long before any other 

 signs of the scourge have become manifest. As the larva increases in 

 size and strength, it dips into the tender young wood, and at length 

 drives its tunnel in all directions, having, apparently, rather a 

 predilection for the hardest and most sapless portions of the stem. 

 The tunnel pursues a very winding course, but rarely touches thut of 

 another individual, and never emerges on the surface of the stem. 

 The empty part of the tunnel, in which the borer lives, is rather longer 



