INSECT PESTSp J 



In a state of nature they might live a little longer, but as 

 they have not been kept alive with a plentiful supply of 

 food for longer than seventeen weeks, it is not thought 

 that without food they will live longer than about four 

 months. A rotation of crops which would prevent bananas 

 being grown on the same ground for the space of at least 

 a year after the harvesting of the last crop would probably 

 rid the land of many of these insects. Care should, how- 

 ever, be taken to see that no stumps are left rotting in the 

 soil, except as " traps " to attract the beetles. These 

 should be destroyed periodically by burning or burying 

 with carbon bisulphide. Mr. Jepson, the Government 

 Entomologist, proposes to visit certain islands in the East 

 Indies with the object of endeavouring to discover some 

 efficient parasites of this borer which are supposed to 

 exist there. 



H. Tryon * states that weevil borers belonging to this 

 genus are found in various tropical countries. S. sordidus 

 is found also in the Straits Settlements. The common 

 species of the West Indies is usually named S. sericeus, 

 though the Martinique species is S. lyratus. S. obscurus 

 is found in Papua and the Sandwich, Solomon, and Society 

 Islands, attacking the banana as well as other plants ; in 

 Queensland, so far, it is only found in connexion with 

 sugar-cane. S. muscecola occurs in Madagascar ; S. striatus 

 in Guinea and Madeira. 



THE BEETLE BORER (Tomarus bituberculatus) 



The larva damages the banana bulb in the West Indies 

 much in the same way as that of the weevil borer, and its 

 attacks should be met in a similar manner. The adult 

 insect is a large, shiny, black beetle of the typical hard-back 

 form. 



* Queensland Agric. Journ., xxviii. 287 (1912), 



