270 SPICES 



CHAP. 



large, dirty; white, fat grubs, sparsely covered with 

 brown hairs. In burrowing through the ground at the 

 foot of the pepper vine they bite through the roots 

 with their powerful jaws. The application of lime-water 

 in the neighbourhood of the roots is considered effectual 

 in driving them away. 



Bosscha mentions another insect of the Lamelli- 

 cornia group which attacks the roots in much the same 

 way, but is apparently a kind of cockchafer. It flies 

 at night in great numbers together, and Mr. Hewitt 

 suggests might be caught by light-traps. The larvae 

 attack the roots underground in some numbers, and the 

 leaves turn yellow and fall off. Traps for this class 

 of insects are made by filling a large pan of metal or 

 earthenware with water, to which a little kerosene has 

 been added. A lamp is placed above this, and the 

 insects flying to the light fall in the water and the 

 kerosene which floats on the top kills them. An im- 

 provement is to put a sheet of glass vertically below 

 the lamp over the water, as the insects strike against 

 this in their flight and readily fall into the trap. 



Grasshoppers, and the big yellow and green locusts 

 with pink hind wings, Cyrtanthacris varia, also attack 

 the shoots of the pepper and devour them or bite them 

 through. The smaller grasshoppers are difficult to 

 catch, but -the locusts can easily be destroyed by children 

 chasing them and knocking them down with sticks or 

 wooden bats. Spraying with tobacco water will kill 

 the smaller grasshoppers. Insects of this group usually 

 spend the earlier stages of their life in low herbage or 

 grass, and the cutting down and burning of this in the 

 vicinity of the plantation will cause a great diminution 

 in the numbers of grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets. 



Leaf -eating Caterpillars. Mr. Hewitt mentions 

 the attacks of the caterpillar of a Limacodid moth, 

 which, however, he only met once devouring the leaves. 

 He describes it as an oval green caterpillar, disk- shaped, 

 beset laterally with stinging hairs or processes, and 

 indeed covered with these hairs. A similar insect, if 



