JAMAICA. 



BULLETIN 



OF THE 



BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT 



New Series.] NOVEMBER, 1895. 



Part 11. 



THE ORANGE TREE IN JAMAICA.— I. 



By J. E. Du ee.de n - , Curator of Museum, Jamaica Institute. 



Complaints have been made to the Botanical Department and to the 

 Museum, that the sweet orange trees ; Citrus Aurantium,JAxm f are being 

 attacked by some insect, the final result being a destruction of the inner 

 wood. Examples of the three stages — larva, pupa and imago — in the 

 life history of the pest have been forwarded to the Museum by Mr. A. 

 Town end, of Devonside, S*. Ann, and Inspector Alexander, and show- 

 that the mischief, in the first instance, is largely due to the borings of 

 the larva of a longicorn beetle. The different stages of the beetle have 

 been sent to Prof. C. V. Riley,* of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, and he has kindly indentified it as Oreodera glauca, Linn., 

 stat ng in addition that it is recorded from Mexico, Nicaragua, Guate- 

 mala, Panama, Guiana and the Amazon, but no one of the thirty seven 

 species of the genus has so far been recorded from the West Indies. 

 It is in accordance, however, with the laws of geographical distributions 

 to find it in Jamaica. 



Investigations carried on in St. Ann and elsewhere, show that a- 

 great number of the orange trees are in an imperfect condition. 

 It is principally the old trees which a e suffering, and to such an extent 

 that nearly one-half of the trees in any orange grove are either hollow 

 ©r becoming so. Further enquiries have elicted the fact that this is 

 the general condition throughout many of the principal orange growing 

 districts of the Island. By direction of the Board of Governors of the 

 Institute of Jamaica, I investigated the district around Laughlands, 

 especially at Devonside and Tripoli, and have obtained for the Museum 

 specimens of the insects, and of the affected trees. Other correspondents 

 have rendered valuable assistance. Inspector Alexander writes that a 

 number of trees are suffering in the Pedro District between Concord 

 and Pedro River. Mr. A. Townend has sent me larvae from Wales in> 

 Trelawny. The Rev. G. E. Henderson records the same hollowness in the 

 orange trees around Brown's Town, and Mr. Hail for Manchester, while 

 I have also seen it at Mountain Spring, St. Andrew. Strange to say, the 



* All entomologists are regretting the losg by death of this celebrated worker- 

 in Economic Entomology, which occurred between the writing and publishing, 

 of these notes. 



