THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [August i, 1893. 
Mr. Hunter belie;ea that there is more than oue 
brood a year, which is probable, and BpeoiuieLs iu all 
stages sre faid to hbve been taken from the same tree 
This woald ^how that eeagonal development is 
not well marked, bat the observer may have been 
lulBtaken as to the identity of some of the younger 
specimens found. 
The American Palm Weevil feeds on several kinds 
of palm, probably on almost any kiad, particularly of 
the soft-alemmed palme ; among the apeoies it is 
known to attack are the coconut palm {Cocoa nmifera), 
the Oohoou palm (Attalea Cohv.ne) the cabbsge palm 
(Oreodoxa oleracea), the Big Thatch p»lm {liahal 
umbraculifera) and the Macaw tree or Gru-gru palm 
{A croeornia sclerocarpa). 
It also attacks sagar-cane. Its range extends from 
South OHlifornia over Central and South America 
ae far as Brazil, and it is found in the West Indi^tn 
Islands. The Indian species occurs throughout the 
Oriental region of naturalists (India, Borneo, Java, 
&c.), and is also a general feeder on palms, particularly 
on the coconut p»hu and the toddy tree (Photnix 
sylvestris) (35.) 
The range of the oocoant palm is therefore wider 
than that of either ineect, and being largely indepen- 
dent of human agency is eo extensive — while its 
oriKinal home, which De Candolle finally coneidered 
as being in the Old World, is so doubtful — that it is 
now impossible to speculate on the length of time 
that the tree and either species of weevil have been 
in association. But whether it has always served as 
food for the American Palm Weevil or not, il is 
now perfeotly clear that tbe insect is not dependent 
on that tree alone, and that " its extirpation could 
not be effected in Honduras by cutting down and 
destroying every single coconut palm in the colony."' 
Honduras possesses as large if not a larger variety 
and number ot palms tban perhaps any other region 
where the coconut is cultivated, and the greater 
proportion of the country is in a wild state and can- 
not be dealt with by any economic measures ; there 
at all events, it would appear that the natural food 
of the insect cousisis of wild palms, from which its 
attention has been diverted to the coconut plantations. 
Of these wild species the chief is the common 
Cohoon or Corczo palm, which does not grow in the 
same situations as the coconut tree, bnt in tbe rich 
alluvial soil of the Corozal, or cohoon ridges. Thtse 
ridges are really depressions between the series of 
quartz elevations running more or less at right angles 
to the seaboard. 
The coconut, a lover of sandy soil near the coast, 
i-j grown in plantations as a rule not nearer than five 
or six miles to the cohoon ridges, but which in some 
cases lie close to them. The land of the ridges is 
valued for banana growing, and for this purpose, and 
not for growiog coconuts for which the soil is un- 
suitable, the cohoon and other palms have been ex- 
tensively felled and allowed to lie upon the ground ; 
this has resulted in a large increase in the numbers 
of the weevils, which have bred in the felled trunks. 
As long as they are feeding on wild plants they are 
not likely to multiply fast, because a balance will 
have established itself between the rate of increase of 
the trees and the causes tending to dimin'sh the 
number of the beetles on the one hand, and the rate 
of propagation and destructiveness of the latter on 
the other hard — otherwise beetles or palms must 
gradually die out ; and observers in Jamaica and India 
have r otictd that the number of wild palms is not 
sensibly affected by the presence of the weevils. 
But it this balance is disturbed by external causes 
such the cutting of cohoon palms, which favour 
the weevils, a large inorease in their numbers will 
result. 
There is good reason for supposing that the exten- 
sive injury to coconut planta'ions is largely due to 
the swarms ot weevils thus bred. In the Commis- 
sioners' rc-pcut Mr. Babtr in kis evidence states 
that he oontiders the prcximiSy of a cohoon ridge 
to be a source of danger ; and Mr. Hunter has in- 
formed the writer that little was known ot the beetle 
until about 1888, a period which coincided with 
wholesale felling of cohoon palms in order to t ring the 
ridges under cultiratiou. 
As there is a particular age when the e^'/conuts 
becomes liable to attack, namely, at the time of its 
first bearing, betneen four anl six year^ old, it ig 
possible that there ismertly a c iucideuce in time and 
uo further connexion between the cleiiring of ihi riilge 
and the damage done to tbe palms on (heir appr< ach to 
maturity, Mr. Scbufield, buwrver, etatrs that amonv 
some /!/)0U trees planted *>>out seven or eight years 
previously only a tew isoUte 1 cases of disease had 
appeared nntil tbe end of 1868, " dome five irees alto- 
gether having saccumbed to the attacks of "thebue. ' 
This lends to negative tbe idea of a ooitciJence fur the 
majority of his trees must have rtaohed maturity 
without being immediately attacked. 
As before mentioned tbe palm does not prove at- 
I tractive to the beetle (ill it begins to oom>' into bearing 
at an age from four to seven years, when tbe terminal 
bud becomes larger and more juicy. At this period 
the tree has some three feet of stem, and itreinaue 
liable to attack until it is about 12 years old and has 
some 12 or 14 feet of stem. If it is free up to that age 
it is rarely attacked afterwards. Thegreat'-st damage 
takes place from tbe middle to the end of tbe dry 
season, that is, about July to September, and perbaps 
corresponds to a period of egg-la jing at the begin- 
I ning of the (cason. It bas been etat dof the la liau 
weevil, "insects of the above c'ass multiply 
rapidly in times of protracted drought, and it is during 
> such periods of abnormal weotber that tbey commit 
the greatest amount cf mischief." 
An iufeslel tree shows at first little or to signs 
of injury, unless the points at which eggs are laid 
are discoverable by a skilful ovseiver. Tbe Commis- 
sioners' repoit says that " by carefol observatic n email 
boles may be discovered with a little gam oozing from 
them, but by that time tbe larvu; Lave attained coo- 
siderable size and have eaten their way far into tbe 
btart of tbe tree." Mr. Ridley says of tbe Indian 
weevil: — "It works entirely inside the tree, and 
makes little or no external marks. By listening at 
the side of the tree the grub cao'be beard {gnawing 
the wood. But usually the withering and fall of tbe 
central shoot is the first sign that sr ytbiog is wrong. 
In some oases a tree exudes a ehiay liquid, btving 
an unpleasant sour smell, which is a sign of serious 
damage." To listen for the grub feeding may be 
more practical than it eoQiids ; the ear should be 
placed against the tree, or against tbe end of a 
piece of seasoned deal, used like a stethoscope, with 
its other end on the trunk. Another account of tbe 
sume insect, evidently from the pen ot a careful 
observer, states that " if the heads of the trees are 
frequently inspected by skilful beetle searchers mauv 
trees may be saved by cutting out the grubs, their 
presence being known by tbe searcher either finding 
a cccoon in tbe tree or, more generally, by noticing 
Eli>:ht wounds on tbe smooth skin (<f I might call it 
(o) of the leaf spike, which are UDinteDtionnlly made 
by the grub in eating tbe soft pithy mass through 
' which it pushes its way." 
The Kangea Valley Tea planters are at last 
becoming alive to the immense value of the water 
power that at present runs to waste at their very 
doois. This has been recently utilized by the 
Manager of the Bundla Tea company Lmifed 
who has erected a 'Herculea' type turbine f'lr 
driving hia tea maohin ry. He is the first to ava 1 
himself ot water power in the Kangra Valley. If 
his example is followed it will, says the Lahore 
paper, almost revolutionise the tea industry and 
save lakhs of rupees to the large concerns which 
at present use steam, firewood for which has to be 
carried on coolies' heads at great expense. More- 
over, the indiscrimate cutting of timber Las a 
direct icfluencc on the rainfall aud nothing whatever 
is being done by goslii or private indi?iduals to 
plant out — Madras Mail, June 13th. 
