66 



THE COCO-NUT 



CHAP. 



fresh cabbage of the tree. If it is true that they 

 live only in more or less decayed wood, then the 

 larva itself is not to be regarded as directly injurious 

 to the coco-nut, but merely as a thing which should 

 be got rid of because of the damage which it might do 

 in the future in another form or in other generations. 

 The grubs are found in a great variety of decaying 

 substances beside the decaying coco-nut wood or refuse. 

 Favourite places of these grubs are decaying manure 

 and decaying sugar waste, but wherever there is any 

 considerable mass of decaying vegetable material there 

 are likely to be a large number of Oryctes larvae 

 growing in it. It is a common thing to find scores 

 of these larvae in a small pile of rotting manure ; and 

 the manure dump from a large stable is sometimes 

 found fairly filled with these larvae in all sizes. The 

 following quotation from the Tropical Agriculturist, 

 22 (1902), 258, shows how readily the black beetle 

 will breed in any kind of waste matter : 



Mr. E. V. Carey writes from Klang to the Malay 

 Mail as follows : 



As instancing the danger of having any sort of rubbish 

 lying about an estate, or in private compounds, the following 

 little anecdote may be of interest. Some four months ago 

 I had to discard a number of old sacks ; these were thrown 

 in a heap on the ground, covering a space just six feet square, 

 and left there. Last week I had happened to notice them, and 

 stood by whilst they were being removed. From this one 

 little heap no less than 201 larvae of the rhinoceros beetle 

 were collected. . . . Moral: Let every one keep his grounds 

 scrupulously clean, and have even the insignificant and 

 harmless-looking collections of rubbish promptly burned. 



The cocoons are found in any places where the 

 larva can live. In going from the larval to the pupal 

 stage, the insect shrinks greatly in size so that the 

 length of the entire cocoon is likely to be rather less 

 than that of the larva, the pupa itself being not more 

 than half as long as the larva was. The cocoon is 

 made of different substances. The cocoons whose larvae 



