THE PALM WEEVIL. 455 



tion, may be added to the temper lime commonly- 

 used in plain tempering. Such a measure of this 

 mixture should be added to the liquor in the pan as 

 would be deemed sufficient to correct the prevailing 

 acidity. When the liquor has been boiled into what 

 is called first syrup, it should be racked through the 

 cock. By this timely remedy I have secured well 

 grained sugar which has not deliquesced during the 

 voyage to Europe, even when I had had the misfor- 

 tune to have ground tainted canes." 



The Rev. Lansdown Guilding, of St. Vincent's, 

 who was honoured by the Society of Arts of London, 

 with the Gold Ceres Medal, for his memoir on 

 Insects which infest the sugar-cane, describes the 

 Calandra palmarum, a gigantic weevil, known as 

 the parent of the palm worms (the Gru-gru of the 

 negroes), as a pest in sugar plantations, as well as its 

 congener, the Calandra sacchari, the subject of 

 Mr. King's description. The Palm Weevil, he says, 

 is principally injurious to the cane-plants lately stuck 

 in the ground, to which the female is allured by the 

 juices which are exuded. These they sometimes 

 attack so vigorously, that a fresh planting becomes 

 necessary. They do not, however, seem to deposit 

 their eggs in full grown canes, when palms are 

 abundant in the neighbourhood. 



The same zoologist also describes the Borer-Moth 

 {Diatrcea sacchari). " By far the most destructive 

 and common enemy," he says, " is the smaller grub 

 of the Borer-moth," belonging to the pyralidcB of 

 Leach. " The sugar-cane is never exempt from 

 this dreaded pest. " " Li the seasonable island of 



