THE SUGAR-CANE MOTH BORER. 9 



The West Indian cane borer made its appearance in the sugar-cane planta- 

 tions of Louisiana at an early date. J. B. Avequin, writing in the Journal 

 de Pharmacie for 1S57 (vol. xxxn, pp. 335-337), upon the enemies of the sugar 

 cane In the Antilles and Louisiana, stated that during the two or three pre- 

 ceding years this insect had spread over some of the cane fields of Louisiana, 

 but without having caused up to that time any great damage. He thought that 

 the early frosts towards the end of October or November destroyed great num- 

 bers. It appears to have been first noticed in the Parish of St. John Baptist 

 in the year 1855. 



Since this time the insect must have been constantly present in the Louisiana 

 cane fields, and has probably been reintroduced from time to time with fresh 

 shipments vf seed cane from the West Indies. In the fall of 1878 a few speci- 

 mens were sent to Dr. Riley by a correspondent of Assumption Parish, Louisi- 

 ana, and in the spring of 1879 Mr. E. A. Schwarz sent in a bit of cane containing 

 larvse from the Bahamas. In the spring of 1881, I was sent to Louisiana by 

 Professor Comstock, then entomologist of the Department of Agriculture, to 

 study the sugar-cane beetle {Llgyrus rugiceps), and had the opportunity of 

 studying this borer upon the plantation of Dr. J. B. Wilkinson, some 40 miles 

 south of New Orleans on the Mississippi River. Dr. Wilkinson informed me 

 that in 1857 they were very abundant in the Lower Mississippi, and that the crop 

 upon one plantation was utterly destroyed, the cane breaking to pieces as they 

 attempted to cut it. 



Concerning the date of the introduction of the moth borer into 

 Louisiana, Stubbs and Morgan (152) conclude that it was introduced 

 long before 1857. " How and when the borer was introduced is not 

 certain," they decide, "but the separate corroborating testimony of 

 Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Maurin would rather fix the date at 1857, 

 and as canes in large quantities from South America were that year 

 introduced, it is reasonable to conclude that they came from that coun- 

 try as asserted by Mr. Maurin, and not from the West Indies, as Mr. 

 Chamberlain thinks. However, if Col. Pugh and Mr. Bird are ac- 

 curate in their dates, it was here in quantities before that year." In a 

 footnote to the foregoing these investigators add : " Subsequent in- 

 vestigations have proven that the borer was here in quantities long 

 before the importations of cane described above." 



A little-known book by Champomier (32), who issued a series of 

 statistical reports on the sugar industry of Louisiana about the middle 

 of the last century, mentions the "borer worm" in his report for 

 1856-7. This reference was brought to the attention of the writers 

 by Mr. Edward Foster, of New Orleans. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



The distribution of the sugar-cane borer (Diatraea saccharalis 

 eramMdoides) in the United States coincides rather closely with the 

 area devoted on an intensive scale to sugar-cane growing. It is lim- 

 ited to the southern part of Louisiana, the southern tip of Texas, and 

 the southern part of Florida. The borer does not occur in Rapides 

 Parish of Louisiana and is present in only the southeastern part of 



