BORER. ENG. A name given to the larva of coleopterous beetles which injure coffee trees, though the Casuarina and the Cinchona are alit() at. tacked by insects which have not been deternined. There are two, the white and red borer, and the former and chief of these is the Xylotrechus quad ripes of Chevrolat. The white borer has been likewise named the Sirex gigas, and popularly the worm or coffee fly. Whole estates in Coorg have been entirely destroyed by this scourge. In its complete stage the insect appears as a fly or winged beetle from 6 to 9 lines in length, with a hard slimy coat, in colour red and black, or yellow and black, in alternate transverse lines. It bores a passage into the stem of the coffee tree, generally a few inches above the ground. This passage, at first horizontal, soon takes an upward or spiral direction, and after a little a retreat is formed in which to deposit its larva. The tree soon begins to droop, and in a short time dies down to the point where the entry was effected, at which part it can be easily broken off by a sharp pull at the upper part. The large and rapid introduction of
coffee-growing into Ceylon and India has shown that the plant is liable to be attacked by ninny enemies, and ignorance of that has been the cause of much loss. Coffee trees in Coorg have also been injured by the rot, a disease resulting from im proper pruning. The rot attacks and decays the centre of the stem. In Coorg, when the tree is attacked by the borer, the leaves become yellow and droop. The insects are generally about the diameter of a small quill, aro always confined to the wood, and never enter the bark until the larva has done its work, passed through the pupa stage, and is about to escape in the form of a beetle. The eggs are deposited by the females near the root of the tree, and the pupa borers tunnel up the heart of the plant.—Dr. Billie on Coffee Plant ing. See Bug.
MAL. Croton seed.