45 



have not attacked the berries at all. They are also attacking the foliage of apple 

 and plum trees. I. do not find them on pear. I have been deterred from trying the 

 effects of spraying the vines with arsenites, because of the advanced growth of the 

 berries, but find that the Bordeaux mixture has no eftect on them. Unlike the '' Rose 

 Bug," they make a prolonged stay, and for that reason are greatly to be dreaded. I 

 have destroyed them by thousands, by shaking them off the vines, into pans of 

 water with a little kerosene oil in them. I find no difficulty in doing this, as they 

 let go the moment the leaf is touched. On reaching the ground they burrow like a 

 mole, and as quick as a wink. I have kept all my available force at work for some 

 time destroying them as above mentioned ; but, as they have apparently come to 

 spend the summer, this method, in a large vineyard, is very expensive. Any infor- 

 mation you can give me regarding preventive or destructive agents and their use 

 will be thankfully received— [John K. Hoyt, North Carolina, July 8, 1892. 



Reply. — The insect injuring your grapes and apples is a Scarabseid beetle, Anoma- 

 la marginata, previously mentioned in Insect Life, Vol. i, p. 220, as injuring the Vine 

 in Texas. This species has not hitherto been noticed as far as we know to attack 

 the Apple and Plum. Spraying with one of the arsenicals would be the most certain 

 and thorough remedy, but, as you say, in the case of advanced growth of the berries 

 such spraying might be attended with some danger. If you could spray the other 

 j»lants which are also attacked by the insect, its numbers would doubtless be greatly 

 reduced. You might also try dusting the vines with lime or spraying them with a 15 

 j)er cent dilution of the kerosene emulsion, either of which would i)robably make the 

 vines distasteful to the insects and cause them to seek elsewhere for food. The 

 method of destroying them which you have followed, namely, by shaking them into 

 water with a little kerosene, is a good one, except for the fact that it is a temporary 

 expedient and does not deter fresh hordes of beetles from attacking the vines. — 

 [July 13, 1892.] 



A "White Grub" Pest of Sugar Cane in Queensland. 



It has been in my mind for some time to write you concerning an insect which 

 interests Queensland planters in a very practical way and about which I hope to 

 interest you. Our plantations, particularly those devoted to the growth of Sugar 

 Cane, are just now suffering from the ravages of a dreadful scourge in the shape of 

 a grub, very like the larva of the Lachnosterna fusca of your country. This grub 

 literally swarms in nearly all the cane fields the whole length of the Queensland 

 coast. I can give you many facts to show the extraordinary voracity of this pest 

 and the extent of its ravages. One planter assured me that upon an estate of 1,000 

 acres he has lost 400 acres of cane. Another figures his loss during the past at 

 between £4,000 and £5,000 sterling. Cases of this kind might be multiplied almost 

 indefinitely. 



I may say that the insect itself is known as Lepidiota squamulata. So far planters 

 are powerless in its presence. The only attempt at circumventing it is made by 

 hand picking. In the South Sea Islands a boy follows every plow with a four-quart 

 tin pail, and very frequently he is able to fill this pail in going across a small field. 

 The traveling inspector of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company tells me that upon 

 one of their plantations they have during the past season picked of these grubs no 

 less than 700 pounds weight from a single acre. You do things in a large way in 

 America, but can you beat this ? 



I have recommended the planters to try kainit, which I see referred to in Insect 

 Life as having been useful in the case of cutworms and other underground larvae, 

 bnt so far the kainit has not the slightest influence in checking the ravages of this 

 grub. Can you suggest anything in the way of a remedy? If you can only give us 

 a hint in this direction that is at all workable I can promise you that your reputa- 

 tion in Australia, great as it now is, would be made so far as we could make it. I 

 notice in one of the American papers a statement to the effect that a French com- 

 4388— No. 1 i 



