ROYAL GARDENS, KEW. 



BULLETIN 



MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 



Nos. 74-75.] FEBRUARY and MARCH. [1893. 



CCXCV.— PALM WEEVIL IN BRITISH HONDURAS. 



{With two Plates.) 

 I.— Introduction. 



The industry of cocoa-nut palm growing, established within recent 

 years in British Honduras, has been seriously discouraged during the 

 past five or six years by the attacks of the insect commonly known as 

 the Palm Weevil on the trees, a large proportion of which have been 

 killed. 



In the year 1888, the Government of Hritish Honduras recognised 

 the fact that the annual loss thus incurred menaced the prosperity of 

 the Colony, and therefore appointed a Commission to examine into and 

 report on these attacks. 



The Commissioners issued their rep-i! ,L'fi, eaiiy in 1 s^>. :l n ; the 



Government, acting upon the recoim ■ it, issued a 



: . e. ' This ordinance, which was designed to enforce under 



penalties the destruction of attacked tree-, and was of a very stringent 



character, was not persevered in and did not become law. 



A defect in the Commissioners' report was the absence of any 

 evidence of steps having been taken to identify or describe the insect 

 concerned, or to submit it for the purpose of being examined by a com- 

 petent entomologist. In order to remove all possibility of doubt as to 

 its identity, the Government, of ]>riti.-l Honduras sent j\er a series of 

 specimens. These consisted of the cocoons and of the pupa- preserved 



In the 

 received 

 from Mr 



,f perb'Cl iiiM-cts they could 



i autumn of 1892, specin 

 at the lloval Gardens, Kew. 

 . C. T. Hunter, of Belize, 



s 



exactly d« 

 is largely 



Government 

 interested in 



the 



"'"n;:;\ 



355, 



It WHS 



pecimens belonged to two 

 then decided to publish an 



specie 

 mid b. 



s of weevils, 



of w hich 



the 



► This and similar figures in the text refer to the bibliography at the e 



