JAMAICA. 



BULLETIN 



OF THB 



BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT. 



New Series.] OCTOBER, 1900. 



MOTH-BORER IN SUGAR CANE.** 



By H. Maxwell-Lefroy, B.A. 

 Entomologist, Imperial Dept. of Agriculture for the West Indies. 



Our knowledge of the attacks of inscscts on sugar oane dates from 

 about the beginning of the 18th century, when Sir Hans Sloane men 

 ti^-ned a " worm eating the sutrar canes" in Jamaica. This insect is 

 supposed to have been the same aa th ut studied by the Rev. L. Guild- 

 ing in St. Vincent in the year 1828, called by him Diatreea sacohari.* 

 Smoe that time a considerable amount of literature has accumulated 

 with regard to this pest, now known as the moth-borer, B'atrcea 

 (Chile) saccharalii. The moth-borer of the West Indies is widely 

 distributed in the New World, and extends ev^n to India f Its place 

 in the Old World is taken by other closely allied moth borers, where 

 ever sugar cane is cultivated. In the " Kew Bulletin''^ there are 

 many referenct s to this insect and a complete account has been given 

 by < 'ockerell in the Jamaica Bullet n tor April, 1892. In America, 

 Professor J. H. Comstock, the Ute Professor Riley and Dr. Howard 

 and other writers have described the attacks of moth-borer on Indian 

 Corn. Daring recent years, a considerable amount of attention has 

 been paid to this pest in the West Indies, but, with the exception of 

 thoae mentioned already, no (^mplete study of the attack of moth- 

 borer in any West Indian Col(i3y appears to have been made. Though 

 the eggs have been described, no remedies based on egg collecting can 

 be found in the available literature. The recommendations made by 

 many observers have been based largely on the accounts of this in- 

 sect^s ravages on Indian Corn, or on methods recommended in other 

 localities where the conditions, climatic and otherwise, are not the 

 same as those obtaining in the West Indies. 



From the time the young shoots show themselves above the ground, 

 the moth-borer commences its attack, and unless measures are taken to 

 check or entirely destroy this insect, it will continue to grow and mul- 

 tiply at the expense of the sugar which should be obtaiued when the 

 cane is reaped. If sugar planters wish to get the full amount of sugar 



* * This paper is reproduced with the permissiou of Dr. Morris, 0. M. G,, Oora- 

 missioner of the Imperial Dept. of Agriculture. 



* " Transactions of the Society of Arts," vol. XL 71. 1828, p 143. 



t Cotes, * 'Notes on Indian Insect Pests,' " Indian Museum Notes," part III* 

 t " K»w Bu.letin," 1892, p. 153,^ (with plate) ; 1894, p. 109. 



Vol. VII, 

 Part X 



