80 



THE COCO-NUT 



trimming was stopped for the reasons offered above ; the loss 

 of trees continued for some time afterwards, but at the end of 

 six months it had entirely ceased. On another property, 

 beetle-men had been employed for ten years, and trees were 

 being constantly lost ; from the day that the " beetlers " were 

 discontinued two trees perished within the month, and not 

 another was lost in the subsequent seven years. 



2. In spite of Vosselers doubt, 1 the general feeling 

 must be taken as correct, that the red beetle commonly 

 makes use of the holes made by the rhinoceros beetle, 

 in securing a proper place to lay eggs. Where both 

 kinds of beetles occur, the adults of both can often be 

 found in the same holes. Even if the red beetles enter 

 these holes for the sake of shelter, it is hard to imagine 

 that, finding themselves in a suitable place for laying 

 eggs, they refuse #o deposit them. I have seen groves 

 in which both beetles were too common, but in which 

 practically no trees not attacked by the rhinoceros 

 beetle contained any adults or larvae of the red one. 

 As the rhinoceros beetle can enter a sound tree, but the 

 red one cannot, the conclusion forces itself that injury 

 by the former is a necessary condition for any attack 

 by the latter. Oryctes, the rhinoceros beetle, is not 

 itself as dangerous or destructive a pest as is Rhyncho- 

 phorus ; but, where both are present, the campaign 

 should be directed first against the former. While it 

 remains common, the Rhynchophorus will be beyond 

 our reach, and when it has been disposed of, if other 

 conditions are as they should be, Rhynchophorus will 

 disappear. 



Small insects, making holes too fine to permit the 

 entrance of the red beetle, might still furnish places for 

 the latter to lay their eggs ; but I have not known of a 

 case in which this happened. 



3. Storms do not, in themselves, do as much injury 

 to coco-nuts as is often supposed ; in fact, it would be 

 very difficult to find another crop as little liable to 

 damage by them. But by breaking the petioles, tearing 



1 Der PJlanzer, 3 (1907), 304. 



