452 
SPANISH-TOWN. 
by worming its way from the verge of the footstalk 
where it had been hatched, into the very body of the 
succulent and vegetating shoot, where it grows with 
its growth, and strengthens with its strength. It 
then occupies the centre of the plant, making its 
way upward through the growing cane, but remaining 
within the sweet and perfected joints, and never 
ascending to the greener tops to devour the germ 
and destroy vegetation. It entirely exhausts the 
saccharine fluid in those joints in which it has 
lodged, — Ailing the excavation it makes with an 
excrementitious deposit, extremely injurious to the 
cane liquor from the mill ; deteriorating it rapidly if 
it remain untempered while running into the pans. 
When the canes are cut, the grub-worm has already 
arrived at its second transformation. It has en- 
veloped itself, within the gallery it has bored, in a 
shroud of decayed trash wrought with curious neat- 
ness ; the shreds being plaited and wound together, 
and so closely fastened at the ends, that the air is 
excluded ; and if exposed to the weather, no weather 
could injure it. I have watched the grub in the act 
of making this cerement. It first wraps itself all 
over with such of the rotting fibres of the cane as 
are near it. It tears the strips asunder with its for- 
ceps, and matting the pieces one within the other, it 
completely conceals itself within that kind of case 
usually called a cocoon, where it remains dormant 
for a little interval of time. It has now assumed its 
third or beetle state, and emerges from the excavated 
cane a weevil, bearing a rostrum or snout charged 
with fracticorn feelers, and wearing a splendid livery, 
