No- 1. ] Miscellaneous Notes. 



all kinds where the insect is likely to breed ; and, secondly, to pack the 

 cheroots in as air-tight a manner as possible, so as to prevent the mother 

 beetles getting into the boxes to lay their eggs. The insect is known to 

 attack stored rice, opium, and other vegetable substances, as well as 

 tobacco, so the cleaning up of the manufactory should be as thorough as 

 possible. The figures show the various stages of the insect, also a cheroot 

 tunnelled by it. The size of the insect is indicated by hair lines. 



In May 1891 speciinensof scale insects, destructive tococoanut treesin 



the Laccadive Islands, were forwarded to the 



Cocoanut blight. A/r i. at t? i nvL l i i i 



Museum by Mr. Edgar lnurston, who had 



received them from Mr. W. Dumergne. Mr. Dumergne found the 



cocoanut (Cocos nucifera) trees at Aucutta attacked by what was thought 



to be a disease. Some years previously the same disease was said to have 



carried off thousands of trees in the Laecadives, thus seriously damaging 



almost the only product of these islands. Mr. Dumergne was told that the 



first symptom of the disease had been an army of ants. The leaves, when 



attacked, were said to turn a sickly brownish-yellow and gradually shrivel 



up, the tree itself succumbing altogether in a very short -space of time. 



The leaves furnished were found to be thickly beset with Coccidae 

 (scale insects) which would be quite sufficient to account for the injury 

 reported. The ants no doubt merely attend the Coccidse for the sake of the 

 secretion yielded to them by so many species of this group of insects, and 

 they have therefore nothing to do with the injury to the cocoanut trees. 



With regard to remedies, the most successful method of destroying 

 scale insects on trees is generally agreed to consist in spraying them 

 with the kerosine and soap emulsions described in earlier numbers 

 of these Notes. It is difficult, however, to say to what extent such treat- 

 ment would be practicable in the present instance; especially as experi- 

 ments, recently made in the United States, have shown the extreme diffi- 

 culty in completely eradicating scale insects from palm trees, on account 

 of the large amount of shelter wliicji is afforded to the insects in the 

 crevices between the folds of the leaves. 



With a view to obtaining the identification of the scale insect 

 concerned, the specimens were submitted to Mr. W. M. Maskell, who has 

 kindly examined them and furnished an interesting note upon the 

 subject. Mr. Maskell found that the leaves were infested by two 

 distinct insects belonging to two different genera — Dactylopius and 

 Aspidiotus. The former, in which each insect has white cotony secretion 

 is so near to Dactylopius cocolis Maskell, that Mr. Maskell considers 

 it identical or at most a variety (see p. 6b'). The latter was found 

 by Mr. Maskell to be undoubtedly Aspidiotus destructor Signoret, in 

 which a distinguishing character is the comparative smallness of the two 



