COCOA-GROWING COUNTRIES 461 



number of dead branches, for it chooses by preference 

 the place of insertion of small or large branches and, 

 boring in several directions in the young wood and the 

 bark of the branch, it practically rings the branch and 

 kills it. 



Especially in places where the cocoa has suffered 

 from wind, from drought or otherwise, or where the 

 growth has been rather weak, the trees are affected 

 by another enemy, the thrips. Sometimes the trees 

 attacked by these insects are to be found scattered here 

 and there in the fields ; often, however, rather large 

 areas are attacked at the same time. The leaves get 

 yellowish and fall off, and for some time the trees stand 

 almost leafless. New leaves are made again ; but when 

 the thrips again attacks the new leaves, often the tree 

 is much weakened and dies. This pest must have been 

 present for some time in Surinam ; before the cause of 

 the disease was known planters called it "leaf-disease." 

 The " leaf -disease" is nothing else but the "thrips 

 disease," the same which damages the cocoa trees in 

 several West Indian islands (Grenada, St. Vincent, etc.). 



When the cocoa tree makes new leaves, the young 

 leaves are often attacked by caterpillars belonging 

 to a small moth of the family of Geometridae. Some- 

 times very little of the leaves, only the nerves, are left ; 

 but, though such an attack weakens the tree, the results 

 are not serious. 



The "parasol ant" exists in Surinam, as it does in 

 all other tropical lands and islands of South America ; 

 but the damage done to the cocoa in Surinam is 

 unimportant unlike Trinidad, where the parasol ant is 

 regarded as one of the worst cocoa enemies. In Surinam 

 the nests found in the plantation are carefully destroyed 

 by means of carbon bisulphide. The coffee trees, and 

 especially the orange trees, also the mango trees, are 

 preferred by the parasol ant to the cocoa tree ; and while 

 of the former sometimes a great number of trees are 

 defoliated in one night, this is very seldom the case 

 with the cocoa trees. 



