ENEMIES AND REMEDIES. 85 



The Coffee Borer. — This pest, formerly known as 

 the " worm " and " coffee-fly," is most troublesome in 

 the East, where in former years it destroyed whole plan- 

 tations. It has been identified as the Xycotrcchcn qiia- 

 dmcpes, and in its complete stage the insect appears as 

 a winged beetle, having from one-half to three-quarters of 

 an inch in length, rather finer in shape than a wasp, with 

 hard, shiny coat, red and black in color, but in some 

 cases yellow and black in alternate transverse lines, 

 boring a passage into the stem of the coffee tree usually 

 a few inches above the ground. 



The Coffee-fly. — This disease has been known for 

 many years in San Domingo and Brazil, having also 

 spread to Venezuela, the Antilles, Porto Rico, Mar- 

 tinique, Mexico, and all down the Atlantic coast of 

 South America. It is caused by the larvae of a moth 

 scarcely half an inch long, named Comistana coffcalaun, 

 the color of the insect being dull-white or pale-gray, 

 with a bar across the posterior end when quiet. Its 

 motions are very active and it readily takes alarm. This 

 insect prefers young and delicate leaves, and is most 

 active about the commencement of the wet season, when 

 demolition spread over the leaves, which then drop off, 

 leaving the trees unable to produce any crop, or to bring 

 to maturity that which may have already been produced. 

 In districts affected by the northwest winds, the fungus 

 generally exists as an external parasite, in the form of 

 long, filamentous threads, covering every part of the 

 back of the leaves, but so minute as to be invisible to 

 the naked eye. Of the many remedies experimented 

 with for the suppression of this disease, one only is 

 invariably effective — that is a mixture of the best quality 

 of flowers of sulphur and caustic lime. 



