46 SPICES 



CHAP. 



irregular marks on the pod which spoil this, or lower 

 the value of the product. 



The caterpillar is black with ash-grey spots, and 

 hardly 7 to 8 millimetres long. It runs with remarkable 

 rapidity. If the eggs are laid on the flower just after 

 fertilisation has been effected, the pest can be destroyed. 

 Another moth caterpillar, Plusia aurifera, common in 

 Reunion, Madagascar, Africa, Saint Helena, Teneriffe, 

 and even southern Europe, is troublesome in eating the 

 buds of the plant. The caterpillar is pale green, about 

 3 centimetres long, with few hairs. The moth is reddish 

 brown, with a broad band of gold across the upper 

 wings ; the lower wings are grey, the head and collar 

 red, thorax and body grey. 



The caterpillar of Simplica inarcualis is also re- 

 ported as occasionally attacking vanilla. 



A small lamellicorn beetle, Hoplia retusa, and an 

 ashy-grey weevil, Cratopus punctum, bite holes in the 

 flowers and often destroy the column. But the most 

 destructive is a weevil (Curculionidae), Perissoderes 

 ruficollis, which inhabits Madagascar. The grub burrows 

 up the stems of the vine, completely destroying it, and 

 all the parts attacked turn black and die. The grub 

 pupates in its burrow in a cocoon of dried fibres of the 

 stem. The branches affected should be at once cut off 

 and destroyed. 1 



Large and small snails (Achatina and Helix) and 

 a slug in Tahiti attack all parts of the plant, and a 

 green dove in Tahiti eats the flower -buds. These, 

 however, do not appear to be very destructive, and are 

 easily dealt with. 



FERTILISATION 



In its native country of Mexico the flowers of the 

 vanilla are naturally fertilised by small bees of the 

 genus Melipona, and also by humming-birds. But, 

 although there are plenty of bees in other parts 

 of the world where the vanilla is cultivated, for some 



1 E. Bordage, Revue des cultures coloniales (1901), July, p. 50. 



