452 spAXisn-TOwx. 



by worming its way from the verge of the footstalk 

 where it had been hatched, into the very body of the 

 succulent and vegetating shoot, where it grows with 

 its growth, and strengthens with its strength. It 

 then occupies the centre of the plant, making its 

 way upward through the growing cane, but remaining 

 within the sweet and perfected joints, and never 

 ascending to the greener tops to devour the germ 

 and destroy vegetation. It entirely exhausts the 

 saccharine jEluid in those joints in which it has 

 lodged, — filling the excavation it makes with an 

 excrementitious deposit, extremely injurious to the 

 cane liquor from the mill ; deteriorating it rapidly if 

 it remain untempered while running into the pans. 

 "When the canes are cut, the grub-worm has already 

 arrived at its second transformation. It has en- 

 veloped itself, within the gallery it has bored, in a 

 shroud of decayed trash wrought with curious neat- 

 ness ; the shreds being plaited and wound together, 

 and so closely fastened at the ends, that the air is 

 excluded ; and if exposed to the weather, no weather 

 could injure it. I have watched the grub in the act 

 of making this cerement. It first wraps itself all 

 over with such of the rotting fibres of the cane as 

 are near it. It tears the strips asunder with its for- 

 ceps, and matting the pieces one within the other, it 

 completely conceals itself within that kind of case 

 usually called a cocoon, where it remains dormant 

 for a little interval of time. It has now assumed its 

 third or beetle state, and emerges from the excavated 

 cane a weevil, bearing a rostrum or snout charged 

 ■with fracticorn feelers, and wearing a splendid livery. 



