126 THE DATE PALM. 



The red weevil or Indian Palm weevil. 



(Bhynchophorus ferrugineus. ) 



93. As far back as any one can remember both adult and 

 young country date palms in the Puniab have 



First sign of the 



disease among date occasionally been seen to die from some disease 



trees in the Punjab. . ' . 



which caused their tops to wither up (see illustra- 

 tion No. 43 opposite), and in the case of adult palms, the stem to 

 sometimes bend or break over in a characteristic manner (see 

 illustration No. 44, page 1266). 



Before the trees break over, a 'dirty resinous juice which 

 has leaked from the tree is sometimes to be seen on the stem. 

 On the imported Arabian date palms the disease was first noticed 

 at Muzaffargarh in 1913. 



In the case of small palms the tops of which could be closely 

 examined by one standing near them the first indication of the 

 coming death of the plant was the appearance near the terminal 

 bud of a considerable quantity of chewed fibrous material 

 evidently thrown out from the interior of the stem near the growing 

 point through a burrow 1 inch approximately in diameter, made 

 by some animal. In some young trees the stems of which were 

 not over 2-4 feet high, similar burrows were found almost 

 at ground-level. Usually such plants then gradually dry up and 

 die some weeks or months later, depending on the severity of 

 the attack and on whether it is on a vital spot. Sometimes 

 apparently healthy trees suddenly collapse. Attacked trees 

 seldom recover if untreated. 



A number of both desi and imported Arabian date palms 

 similarly affected have been examined, and in all cases insects 

 in the iorm of either grubs (the worm-like stage) and pupse (the 

 dormant stage) or as images (the adult insect stage), or in two 

 or all of these stages, have been found together inside these 

 trees. 



In very developed cases the inside of the stem was frequently 

 completely eaten out and contained a lot of decaying rubbish 



