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THE YELLOW-HEADED COFFEE BORER {DIRPHYA 

 (NITOCRIS) PR INC EPS, JORD.) 



By C. C. Gowdey, B.Sc., F.E.S., F.Z.S., 

 Government Entomologist, Uganda. 



The first time that this beetle proved itself to be a pest of coffee to any great 

 extent in this country was on native coffee, Coffea robust a, in the Chagwe 

 District, in 1910, at which time I began to investigate it. Since the first out- 

 break it has been found attacking C. arabica on several estates. Some of the 

 estates have suffered serious damage, especially the older ones which are badly 

 affected by the coffee leaf-disease, Hemeleia vastatrix. With a single exception, 

 I have been able to trace the origin of the outbreak to plots in which leaf- 

 disease was already present and in which, consequently, the trees were the least 

 vigorous. 



Dirphya prhiceps, Jord. 



I have called the beetle the Yellow-headed Coffee Borer, to distinguish it from 

 the other coffee borers of the family BoSTRYCHIDAE. It belongs to the family 

 CerambyCIDAEj subfamily Lamiinae, division PhytoeCIIDES. Dirphya 

 (Nitocris) is an Ethiopian genus well represented in Uganda, where there are 

 at least eight other species ; but the only common species is D. delecta, Gahan, 

 from which, however, D. princeps can be easily distinguished. I do not know 

 the food-plants of any of the other species of Dirphya. In German East Africa, 

 according to Morstatt,* D. usambica, Kolbe, is also responsible for great injury 

 to coffee. 



Description. 



The egg is light brown in colour, 3*2 mm. in length, 1*1 mm. in breadth. 



The larva is ivory-coloured ; head well formed, wider than the body, dark 

 brown, with sharp black mandibles ; segments of the body with protuberances 

 on the dorsum, last segment sparsely hirsute. Length 30 to 33 mm. ; breadth 

 4*2 mm. 



* " Der Pflanzer," 1911, No. 5. 



