No. 3.] Original Communications. 73 



IMAGO. — When the beetle emerges from the pupal skin it is 

 almost white in colour and slowly turns brown. X. ferforans has 

 a very wide range. It has been found in British India, where it has 

 been reported as burrowing into beer casks (being dubbed in 

 consequence 'Tippling Tommy' by the Commissariat Sergeants), 

 Ceylon, Burma, the Malay Archipelago, Madeira, the Canary Isles, 

 Mauritius, Northern and Central America, Brazil, Peru, etc. 



As I have already mentioned, it has not yet been identified as 

 injuring sugarcane. 



Xyleborus. sp., the beetle which has been reported as injuring 

 the cane, has been forwarded home for identification. Much has, 

 yet to be ascertained about it. Amongst others the following points 

 require further investigation:— 



1. The time of year when the cane is usually attacked. 



2. The capability of the larva to bore and the character of its food. 



3. The time of development of the individual and the time spent 



in the different stages of its metamorphosis. 



4. The number of generations passed through in a year and of 



those passed in individual canes (if more than one). 

 This latter is specially important. 



5. Their ability to lay eggs in the cane without leaving it. 



6. The ability of the beetles to attack or to breed in dead dry 



wood. Very important since it would largely add to 

 their power of destruction, since with a rotation of the 

 cane crop they would be able to remain and multiply on the 

 spot awaiting a fresh crop of the cane. 



Distribution. — This insect has been reported from various dis- 

 tricts and places in the province of Bengal. I have myself noted a 

 species of Xyleborus in the Chittaijong District. 



Reports of bad attacks in the cane fields. — Through the kindness 

 of the Director of Land Records and Agriculture in Bengal, Lieute- 

 nant Gage, I. M. S., Curator of the Herbarium, Royal Botanic Garden, 

 Sibpur, was enabled to study specimens of diseased cane sent him 

 from many districts of the Province of Bengal, and his observations 

 are embodied in a note he has drawn up on the subject. 1 He found 

 that in addition to being attacked by fungi many of the diseased 

 canes were bored into by a small beetle. He describes this attack as 

 follows :— 



" On the surface of the cane there were several small circular openings 

 about the size of a large pin head or small shot hole. The canes were somewhat 



1 Department of Land Records and Agriculture, Bengal, Agricultural Series No. 6, Bulle- 

 tin No. 7 (1900). 



