i66 
THE Tropical 
AGRICULTaRlST. Sept. i, 189J. 
COCONUT PALM WEEVIL IX BRITISH 
HONDURAS. 
(Coiitinved from pat/e 120.) 
(From Kcv) Bulletin for March.) 
The destrnction of trees on Mr. Baber's plantation 
amonnted to nearly 40 per cent, that on Mr. Phillips'* 
lo be about 30 per cer.t (1,000 out of 3,500;, Other 
owners have lost eqna'ly latf,'fi number". But the 
amount of irjury has not been uniform over the 
different plantations ; Mr. fiabcr bclicvee that although 
the weevil was abundant in Sittee River, they had not 
affected his plantations at Scraugo Bight or False 
Sittee at the mouth of the river. 
» V. — Fever. — The coco-nut palms of Honduras 
appear also to suffer from disease, »)id disease of an 
obscnre kind not dne to iueeots. It is known as /«ii<r, 
and at present no tconrste account has been given 
of its symptoms, nor of its jrovalence, so that it 
cannot jet be acoep'ed »s a cause of the weevils" in- 
crease, but it must bo taken merely as n hypothesis 
to be inquired into. From the littln known about it, 
it appears to b" allied to one or other of the diseasos 
(if, indeed, th< y are not the same) observed in Ueme- 
rara in 1875-6, and in Moi.teRO Bay, Jamaica, in 1891. 
Attention has bee n called to it in Hon iuras in a 
recent comniunir ation by Mr. Seay to the Colonial OflBco 
of whioh the writer has only seen sn abstract. Accord- 
ing to Mr. Honter, 50 to 80 per cent, of the trees 
attaofaed by the weevil show sigis of the dinease at 
the top first. This may be merely a misinterpretation 
of the early signs ofinjurydue to weevil-grubs bt fore 
they have been noticed in the trunk, but thett'temen* 
IB ofimportance and should be cowtirmed or refuted. 
VI. — Other Insects.- Another questitn lor consi- 
deration is the pifsibility of other kinds of instcts 
aiding or preceding the weevil in its work of des- 
truction. There is no evidence whatever that such is 
the oaee in Honduras, if we except another species 
of weevil, but it is not so ehewhere. The Indian 
weevil shares its responsibility with two other beetles, 
Xylotrupes gideon, Linn., ami OrycUif rhinoceros, Linn, 
both quite distinct in appearance and allied co the 
chafers. The latter, the Rhinoceros, Elephant or 
"black beetle " of the Indian planter, is a stout cylin- 
drical ineect abont 2^ inches long; the head has no 
snout whatever, but is short and bread with email 
clubbed antennse, whose ends are formed of several 
flat plates placed side by side. Between the eyes is 
a fixed horn, like that of the rhiuocerop, large in the 
male, small in the female. The legs are very strong, 
with stoat shanks set on the outer edge with three teeth, 
hinder end; they are harmlefs, and live in heaps of 
teeth; and five-jointed fiet. The grubs are lari;e, soft 
and curved, with six stout leys and a baggy 
rotting vegetable matter or the manure-like 
inside of decayed palm trees. The beetles are 
the destroyers, and attack the palm at night bering 
in at the base of the leaf-stalks till they reach the 
cabbage, thus forming holes which attract the weevils. 
Tbsy bite through the young folded leaves which be- 
come oharacteriBtically ragged, and may kill the tree 
by injuring the bud. Treatment consists in the re- 
moval or destruction of the heaps of rotting matter 
in which they breed, and in extracting the beetles from 
the holes in tDe trees with a barbed wire or beetle spear. 
VU.— Methods of Teeatment.— To a certain extent 
reference has been made to measures adopted against 
the ravages of the Palm Weevil. It is now necessary 
to disonts them in detail, and in eo doing to keep 
in mind the atcertained facts of its life history, and 
the records of this and similar infestations. These 
measures will be found, as usual, to fall under two 
heads, those designed to prevent attack upon trees 
hitherto untouched, and those intended to save injured 
plants. The former are more important, for the latter 
in the opinion of many experienced men do not exist. 
1. Methods op Geowth and Cultivation —Care 
should be taken in the choice of sites for new planta- 
tions, and special attention paid to the avoidance of 
undue proximity to a oohoon ridge. 
2. Prevention of Egg-laying.— The trees should 
be left as far as possible in the natural state, and 
UnaecessMy trimming either of fronds or of the fibjs 
avoided. It m^y be neceesary to tie np the older 
fronds, and if they must be removed the ettlk should 
be out through eufficieutly far from the item to 
leave the sheathing base intact. It may be advisable 
to tar the out stamp if it is found to attract beetlec. 
The value of leaving the tree alone is tbowD by a 
passage in Fergusou's All adout ike Coconut Palm, 
which is also quoted by Ridley ; — " Scorea ot 
instauoes might be recordsJ whore, till the treea were 
come into bearing, a red beetle waH never se.-D, but, 
no sooner was the land cleared and the trees trimmed, 
then it made its appearance and te^oie very deetrac- 
tive. Go one property the trimming system had been 
carried on for years till, indeed, more than one-third 
of the original plants perishec^ be ore the ee'ate was 
ten years old, and they were goiijg at the rate of 
three trees weekly. The wcrk of trimming was stop- 
ped for the reasons cffereJ above; the loss of trees 
continued for some time aftemards, but at the end 
of six months it had entirely ceased. Un another 
property beetle men had been employed forti.n year*, 
and treea were beiug constantly lost ; trom the day 
that the beetlers were discontinued two trees jieriihed 
within the month, and not auoth< r was lost io the 
subsequent enven years." And W. B. L. writes 
in the Tropical Agriculturist to the same effect : — 
" The red-beetle [Rhynchophoriu Jerrugineus] cannot 
petetrate the leat imbrication, and, when tbe older 
ones decay in tbe course of na'ure, tbe stem Las become 
too bard for its operations. A tree heie and there may 
bcjlost from an accidental wound or from some deloct 
in the fitting of tbe leaf sheaths, but it is only wheie 
the good taste of tbe planter has impelled him to trim 
the leaves that any serious damage has been done to a 
field. All the lesvea aboald be left on the tree till 
nature disposes of them at her o«n time and io her 
own way. Nothing tbat can be done to a coconut 
tree above groond can be an}tbing but injaiioug." 
All wounds, whether made by aooideot or by 
insects, on the soft part of the stem, leaf sheaths 
or spike, shi aid be at once dressed with a dab 
cf tar mixed with sand. Holes shuold be probed 
with a " beetle spear" or hooked wire to extract 
insects which may have caused them, and then plugged 
with a tuft of fibre o' dry grass dipped in tar. 
The parts selected for egg-layiO(( on the stem may 
be plastered with lime-wash, to whicb, when cold, 
tbere may be added, as an experiment, a small quantity 
of P >ris-green (a deaaiy arsenical poison). 
Tarriug the stem will probably keep off tbe beetles, 
but should be tried with great caution till its effects on 
the tree have been ascena'iied. Mr. C. T. Hunter 
states tbat he has kept away ti e beetless by pouring 
tar on tbe leaf-spike and tbe leif sbeatbe; be claims 
for this method ihatit does not irijure tbe tree and 
that the effects ot it last for soae three years. Appli- 
cation of tar to tbe leat sheatbs would probably do 
no harm, but may not be necessary if they tliemselves 
efford BoflacieLit protection by being le<t iatact. It 
might, however; le!'sen any possibility of beetles 
creeping in to oviposit between lo( sely fitting sheatbe. 
Such a remedy ought only to be tried on a small 
Dumber of treee, eo that ibe loss may not be felt if it 
proves injuriou!). Most disastrous results have before 
now followed the application on a large scale of an un- 
tetted method of treatment to plants. Coatings of 
moist cliy have bean found useful in similar cir- 
cumstances, and a composition which hes met with 
success in Germany is Leinweber's, and is thus pre- 
pared : Five pounds of coarse tobacco are infuseu in 
a bucket half full of boiliog water and allowed to 
stand for 24 hours. The ves'el is then filled with ox- 
blood and one part of slaked lime and sixteen of 
fresh cow-dung are added ('quantity not stated.) 
These are well mixed and allowed to ferment for two 
or three days in an open tub. and then applied to 
the parts requiring protection. It is particularly well 
suited for the lower parts of the stem. 
It is not Bupposei t^<at the above mixture can be sue- 
' cessfuUy employed in Honduras, but iiis given as an ex- 
mple of the c;ass of compositions fcurd to be of sei vioe. 
Coarse soaps sad rank oils (whale oil) have aleq 
been of use. 
