92 



THE COCO-NUT 



CHAP. 



well defined. It varies in colour from dull horn-yellow to dirty 

 white. The head is small, lobed, with short jaws on the under 

 side of the head ; the small legs are divided at the extremities, 

 forming two rounded feet. The abdominal segments, eight in 

 number, are furnished on the sides with a slender, rounded, 

 fleshy tubercle ; and the anal segment has the tips flattened 

 and produced into a pair of short, incurved, flat, caliper-like 

 processes, which, curving inward, form a perfect crescent 

 between them. They are ornamented with a few warty 

 tubercles and fine hairs. 



The result of the attack is that the leaves are 

 reduced to skeletons connected by dead membranes 

 before they are well unfolded. When the attack is 

 serious, the tree is of course weakened until the pro- 

 duction of fruit is impossible. On the Solomon Islands, 

 gangs of boys are kept at work killing the insects by 

 shaking tobacco and soap wash into the still folded 

 leaves. Preuss recommends the use of nitrogenous 

 fertilizers to help the trees to resist attack. 



Koningsberger reports what may be the same insect 

 and is at any rate nearly related to it as a serious local 

 pest in Eastern Java. It is extremely flat, and there- 

 fore able to penetrate between the leaflets, or the halves 

 of a leaflet, even while the leaf is still tightly folded. 

 It eats the epidermis next it and the green tissue, 

 but not the other epidermis ; the latter soon dies and 

 remains as a yellowish semi-transparent layer. At the 

 same time the females deposit numerous small yellow 

 eggs, from which equally flat larvae develop. These 

 feed like the adults. They pupate in the same place, 

 and a new generation of beetles flies out in eight to 

 ten days. 



A leaf attacked by numerous beetles and larvae is 

 too weakened to unfold ; or, if it still unfolds, is value- 

 less to the tree. By the destruction of many successive 

 leaves the tree may be killed. However, the work of 

 the pest is conspicuous, and if the infested young leaves 

 are removed and burned the trees are easily saved. The 

 beetles are about 9 millimetres long and 2 millimetres 

 wide and, as already said, very flat. The head is 



