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well known insect pests, such as the true bugs, lice, aphides or plant 

 lice, and scale insects. They all gain their livelihood by piercing and 

 sucking the sap of plants or the blood of other insects, their jaws form- 

 ing a special sucking beak. In the stink-bug family the insect has a 

 nauseous taste and odour, the latter being caused by a fluid excreted 

 through two openings situated near the attachment of the middle pair 

 of legs. 



Spartocera batatas, Fabr. is a member of the family Coreidae and is 

 closely allied to the squash-bug, Anasa tristis, well known as a pest in 

 America. The present species is a dark brown insect with bright yellow 

 spots around its posterior lateral margin, acd is about three quarters of 

 an inch in length. The earlier stages of development display the 

 bright yellow spots more distinctly than the adult. Both in the larval 

 and adult condition the insect is to be feared, as by sucking the sap of 

 plants they soon cause the death of the latter. 



The remedies recommended for such insects as suck their food are the 

 contact insecticides, kerosine emulsion or whale-oil soap. Where these 

 can not be applied, it will be found best to institute a thorough picking 

 of all the insects. They are large enough to be readily seen and handled 

 and are sluggish in their habits. All the rubbish should be cleared off 

 the ground and burnt. 



The Sweet Potato. 



Mr. J. Y. Calder, Malvern, St. Elizabeth, has forwarded to the Agri- 

 cultural Society samples of badly diseased tubers of the sweet potato, 

 Ipomcea batatas. The tubers are found to be tunnelled throughout by 

 a small footless grub or larva, about a quarter of an inch in length, 

 while here and there are specimens of the quiescent pupal stage, and 

 also of a Curculionid beetle. Examples of the larvae have been kept 

 and develop into the weevil This is dark blue, metallic looking, spin- 

 dle-shaped behind, narrow and brownish in the middle, and the head 

 terminates in a long beak. From all accounts the disease extends over 

 a wide area, and the damage caused by the ^rub is very considerable. 



At the United States ^^ational Museum, the weevil has been deter- 

 mined by Mr. W. H. Ashmead as Cylas formicarius, Fabr. Mr. 

 Ashmead further adds that the species is a well-known pest of the 

 potato and was imported from India, and is now found infesting the 

 sweet potato in Florida and Louisiana. 



It is very necessary that steps should be at once taken in Jamaica to 

 check or thoroughly eradicate this pest of one of our important articles 

 of lood. The tubers are quite useless as food when infested with the 

 grub. It is strongly recommended that all diseased tubers should be 

 at c nee burnt, or in some way destroyed, so that no possibility remains 

 of the larvae attaining the adult condition and so continuing the species ; 

 all rubbish on the ground should also be burnt to destroy whatever live 

 weevils may be hiding amongst it. 



Further, a rotation of non-tuberous plants, such as corn or cane, 

 should be grown in order that the ground may become thoroughly clean. 

 A somewhat similar disease amongst the sweet potatoes is known in the 

 other West Indian Islands, and the rotation of crops has proved a most 

 effectual remedy. 



