260 COCOA 



CHAP. 



the activity of the insects, for they are wasteful and 

 careless feeders, and pieces of bark are often bitten out 

 and rejected before anything is consumed. 



The beetle is black with whitish-grey or dirty- 

 looking markings ; the head, thorax, and wing-covers 

 have numerous ridges and depressions. The greyish 

 colour is caused by numerous, very small, white, bristle- 

 like scales. On the thorax are three longitudinal ridges, 

 and there are stout lateral projections. The wing- 

 covers are strongly ribbed longitudinally with numerous 

 shiny black, pustule-like spots. 



The ordinary way of combating the enemy, viz. 

 by excising the larvae from the attacked trees, cannot 

 be regarded as satisfactory ; it is often worse than the 

 pest itself, and frequently causes much damage to the 

 trees. 



The practice of catching the beetles by hand, 

 wherever they are to be found, is equally inadequate, 

 for the beetles are so well protected by their greyish 

 colour that many are overlooked. Attracting them by 

 means of the bark of the wild cotton tree (Bombax 

 ceiba) or the ocro-plant (Hibiscus esculentus), as is 

 often done in Surinam, has some success, but even with 

 this method the number of beetles which remain at 

 large is very great. 



Guppy recommends the use of branches of the 

 " chataigne maron " (Pachira aquatica) as traps. 

 Branches of a diameter of 2^ to 10 cm. (1 to 4 inches) 

 are either placed on the soil under the tree in fair-sized 

 heaps (" heap-traps "), or suspended in the cocoa tree 

 ("suspended traps"), or put leaning against the tree 

 (" leaning traps "), or laid in the "fork " or the " jorquet," 

 just where the beetles are so fond of laying their eggs. 

 Especially are these traps put near, and suspended in, 

 those trees which, as can be seen from the scars on the 

 branches and water-shoots, have recently been attacked 

 by the beetles. In order to induce the beetles to lay 

 the eggs in the " traps " and not in the cocoa trees, the 

 trees are sprayed with arsenate of lead. It is, of course, 



