14 
INSECT NOTES. 
A plentifull rainfall has been detrimental to ants (Techno- 
myrmex alhipes) and to scale insects, the principal injurious 
insects devastating the plantations all over the archipelago. 
Rains disturb ants from their nests and drown a large number 
of mature insects destroying at the same time the immature 
forms (larvae and nymphs). Scale insects in wet weather are 
destroyed much more than during dry weather by fungus 
parasites. 
It was hoped last year that a natural enemy of the small 
black ant could be introduced but expert advice obtained from 
the Director Imperial Bureau of Entomology showed that the 
natural enemy in question (Eciton ants) which are close allies 
of the well known driver ants of Africa, are extremely pre¬ 
daceous and pugnacious in their habits, so that it is quite 
probable that, if they were successfully established, they would 
prove to be even a more serious pest than the species it is 
desired to control. 
Unfortunately in a hilly and precipitous country like 
Seychelles, covered everywhere with boulders more or less 
cracked in all directions where the ants congregate, it is diffi- 
cul t to adopt the measures which have been recommended 
elsewhere. Poisonous solutions are of little use and difficult to 
place within the reach of the ants. They act as repellents and 
not as poisons. Ditches filled with running water to limit the 
spread of the pest cannot be arranged. 
A third method recommended by the United States Ento¬ 
mologists, viz., the use of trap boxes is, pending the discovery 
of a harmless natural parasite, the best method to be used in 
Seychelles, besides the systematic destruction of the nests by 
spraying them with soda resin solutions. 
The banana borer (Sphenophorus striatus) is gaining 
ground every year and as banana cultivation is extending these 
parasites become more and more firmly established. Ah 
bananas are now attacked, varieties like banana Mille, Galega, 
Mignonne, Carre, Monsieur, Rouge, Noire, Blanche, being 
immune while St Jacques, Malgache, Gingeli, &c., are damaged 
to such an extent that suckers of these latter varieties have 
almost to be replanted every year. 
Fortunately in the review of Applied Entomology for 
August 1914 mention is made of a beetle discovered in Java 
which preys upon the banana borer. It will not be difficult 
to introduce this friendly insect when the war is over, as it has 
already been introduced successfully from Java to Fiji. 
From the latter Colony we obtained, as already stated 
last year, a consignment of Gros Michel banana suckers but 
these plants were infested with another banana weavil 
(Sphenophorus sordidus). Great care has been taken to 
remove all larvse of the beetle before setting the suckers out 
and all the plants, except one, were uprooted after six months 
in order to ascertain if none of the insects bad escaped des¬ 
truction. This Gros Michel banana introduced from Fiji 
seems to suffer from a fungus parasite which discolours the 
tissue of the pseudostems and causes the leaves to hang down in 
a characteristic manner. Although apparently the same disease 
is found in the Colony principally on banane gingeli it was 
thought advisable to destroy all the Fiji plants attacked. It 
is worth while ascertaining by experiments if the fungoid 
parasite predisposes banana plants to an attack by the weavils 
as most of the varieties which are attacked by the fungus 
become a prey to the coleopter. 
P. R. DUPONT, 
Curator Botanic Station. 
9th March, 1915. 
