The Zoologist — August, 1868. 1387 



vigorous. I mention these facts because it has been said that the tar soon loses its 

 smell, and is also fatal to the coffee-tree. Lime-wash has been used on some estates, 

 but the great objections to its use are that it is washed away by the first showers and 

 scales off when the tree is shaken by the wind. I believe a mixture of cow-dung and 

 clay, like that used by the natives for the walls and floors of their houses, would be 

 more permanent and perhaps as effectual, while it would be much cheaper. 



" The coffee crop has turned out better than was anticipated, and this agreeable 

 surprise has led most planters to take a much more hopeful view of the future. I am 

 happy to report, too, that the borer does not seem to be on the increase in South 

 Coorg, but rather on the decline, as in most bored trees about five per cent, of the 

 insects found are dead. Still it is very difficult to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion 

 as to the slate of the pest at present, as the insect is for the most part in the winged 

 state and not easily seen, and it is only as the dry weather begins to tell on the trees 

 that those tunnelled will show symptoms of the injury they have sustained. The 

 Rodent alluded to in my last continues to prey on the insect, cutting a hole in the 

 wood so as to reach its tunnel. It does not appear, however, to frequent estates of 

 large extent and free exposure, but to live in native gardens of limited size, in which 

 there is some shade and abundance of cover in the shape of under growth." 



" There is a very destructive insect called by planters the charcoal borer, as it 

 frequently destroys the charcoal trees which are reared to give shade to the coffee. Its 

 presence in a tree is indicated by a lump on the stem of sawdust-like wood-powder, 

 matted together by silky fibres. On removing this the hole through which the insect 

 enters and ejects the morsels of wood will be seen, and it is generally large enough to 

 admit the tip of the little finger. If the tree be now cut down and split open, tunnels 

 of the same size will be found running upwards and downwards from the external 

 opening, and the grub lying snug in the bottom of a burrow at the base of the stem. 

 The larva is from three to four inches long, thick, fleshy, and of a pale red colour. It 

 has six pectoral, eight ventral and two anal feet, and is a very powerful creature, 

 struggling violently in the hand, and attacking vigorously with its powerful jaws the 

 cork of a bottle in which it may be confined. The chrysalis is smaller and of a darker 

 red colour than the caterpillar, and rests about three months. Its abdominal segments 

 are furnished with transverse rows of minute reflexed spines, and some weeks before 

 the moth emerges, moved by some wonderful instinct, it pushes itself up by means of 

 these, and clears away the debris of the wood from the external opening, so that there 

 may be nothing to prevent the escape of the perfect insect. Having completed this 

 task it once more descends to its former place, and rests until the moth arrives at 

 maturity, when the same contrivance is made use of again to enable the moth to 

 escape from the tunnel, within which it could never wriggle out of its case or develope 

 its wings. The moth measures about three and a half inches across the upper pair of 

 wings, which are much larger than the lower. Both pairs are of a grayish brown 

 colour, and the upper ones are clouded with brown. The antennae of the female 

 (I have not seen a male) are very short and filiform. The wings are deflexed in repose, 

 and furnished with a complicated series of strong nerves. The abdomen is elongated, 

 and the female, when touched, discharges with considerable force immense numbers 

 of minute white round eggs, which shortly turn black, when they have the appearance 

 of very fine gunpowder. This moth belongs to the family Hepialids, and is closely 

 allied to the Hepialus hurauli, or ghost moth of England. It is very common in the 

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