THE COCONUT LEAF-MINER BEETLE, PROMECOTHECA 



CUMINGII BALY 



By Charles R. Jones 

 {From the Bureaus of Science and Agriculture, Manila, P. I.) 



Two plates 



The coconut tree (Cocos nucifera L.) is attacked by a com- 

 paratively small number of insects, but the damage due to the 

 ravages of these insects is rather large as compared with the 

 injury of insects to some of the other crops of these Islands. 

 This palm has several insect enemies that feed extensively upon 

 the trunk and leaves, and in seasons favorable to insect develop- 

 ment these entail a considerable loss upon the grower. 



Banks ^ divides coconut insects into two classes — those that 

 attack the trunk and those that damage the leaves. Barrett ' 

 discusses the insect enemies of the coconut. Froggott ' deals ex- 

 tensively with the pests and diseases of the coconut palm. How- 

 ever, none of these papers record Promecotheca cumingii Baly, 

 which in both the adult and larval stages feeds upon the leaves 

 of .the young coconut. I have made several observations on old 

 bearing coconut palms, but have not found them infested by 

 this pest. In all probability they are little affected by this 

 insect. 



This beetle belongs to the subfamily Hispinse of the family 

 Chrysomelidse, which contains our worst leaf-eating beetles. 

 Members of this subfamily are distributed generally throughout 

 these Islands. There is little doubt that this species, or repre- 

 sentatives of this subfamily, occur in all coconut-growing coun- 

 tries. Froggott * reports a species of this subfamily as being 

 the most serious coconut pest of the Solomon Islands. The ob- 

 ject of the present paper is to give an account of the habits and 

 life history of the coconut leaf-miner beetle with methods for 

 its control. 



^This Journal (1906), 1, 143-169, 11 pis.; ibid., 211-228, 10 pis. 

 ^Phil. Agr. Rev. (1912), 5, 254, 3 pis. 



'Sci. Bull, N. S. W. Dept. Agr. (1912), No. 2, 1-47; 7 pis., 10 figs. 

 'Ibid., 24, 26. 



116935 5 127 



