1336 The Zoologist— August, 1868. 



the bamboo, but, owing to the death of that tree throughout the district during the 

 past year, it was no longer able to subsist in it, and has therefore attacked the coffee. 

 This general dying out of the bamboo, they say, occurs once in sixty years — that 

 being the term of its existence; but it seems strange that all the bamboos in Coorg 

 should be so exactly of the same age as to perish in a single year. I am investigating 

 these statements, however, and will soon be in a position to say positively whether or 

 not they are founded on fact. Some think that the borer has increased from the 

 destruction or departure of insect-eating birds, consequent on the cutting down of 

 forest. Any one accustomed to jungle life knows that very few birds exist in dense 

 forest, and that if not disturbed they rapidly increase wherever there is a clearing 

 under cultivation. The comparative scarcity of birds in Coorg is doubtless caused by 

 the great amount of dense forest that exists, the severity of the monsoon, and the 

 destructive propensities of the Coorgs. 



" Tn various jungle trees and in the orange I have found larvae which in appearance 

 and mode of tunnelling have a strong resemblance to the coffee-borers, but, as a rule, 

 they differ from them in preferring dead to living wood. These and the coffee-borers 

 are all the larvae of beetles or of moths. The white coffee-borer (now. so destructive) 

 appears to belong to the genus Clylus. 



"Since my last Report, I have found in coffee on native estates growing under 

 shade a small beetle belonging to the genus Toinicus, which bores the young 

 primaries and secondaries, causing them to turn black and perish. The perfect insect 

 is only about the size of a pin's head, and yet it does a great deal of damage to the 

 young fruit-bearing wood. I have also seen on some estates a locust very destructive 

 to the foliage of the coffee, and thus causing a considerable loss iu crop. 



" The discovery of measures to destroy or prevent the appearance of the borer has 

 of course formed the chief object of my solicitude, and although the peculiarities of 

 its natural history are such as to throw serious obstacles in the way, still I hope to 

 atiain ultimately some measure of success. The fact of the insect being found in tbe 

 perfect form in every month of the year neaily precludes the idea of being able to 

 destroy it in the winged state; aud the circumstance of its living as a grub and pupa 

 in the interior of the stem renders it very difficult to attack it in either of these stages 

 without destroying the tree. In the mean time I would recommend the covering of 

 the stems of the plants with clean fresh moss up to the terminal pair of primaries 

 from the surface of the ground. The moss should be about two inches in thickness 

 and secured with several bands of fibre, and if put on about the beginning of the 

 monsoon will live and become firmly banded round the stem in a short period, forming 

 a mechanical barrier that would prevent the beetle from reaching the bark to deposit 

 its eggs. The mossing would no doubt to some slight extent affect the health of the 

 tree, but this would be largely compensated for by the protection that it would afford 

 from so deadly an enemy as the borer. I believe, too, that although the eggs of the 

 borer were deposited under the moss, its presence would prevent them from hatching. 

 The manner of applying the moss here proposed is exactly the same as that recom- 

 mended by Mr. M'lvor for the cinchonas, to increase the amount of alkaloids in their 

 bark. Coal-tar, pure or diluted with fish-oil, applied to the stems will also have the 

 effect of keeping away the beetles, its smell being most offensive to all insects. 

 I lately saw sonic trees to which lar had been applied nine months ago, and although 

 exposed to the monsoon the coating had not lost its odour, and the trees looked very 



