SUGAR-CANE INSECTS. The principal enemies of the sugar-cane in the 'United States are the sugar-cane beetle (Ligyrus rugiceps) and the sugar-cane borer (Diatran saccharalis). The former belongs to the family Scarabxithe. and breeds in the ground. The adult beetles make their appearance in early spring, bore into the stubble or into the young cane, and also work into the seed cane; the top leaves wither and the stalk is finally destroyed. The borer is the larva of a crambid moth which lays its eggs upon the leaves of the young cane near the axils, and the young borer, hatching in the course of a few days, penetrates the stalk at or near the joint and tunnels, usually 'upward, through the soft pith. It matures in thirty (lays or less, and there are several generations each year. It hiber nates in the larval state in the lower part of the stalk or in the tap root. Burning the tops and volunteer cane, and laying down the seed cane in trenches beneath the surface of the ground, keep this insect in check.
In Hawaii there is a weevil borer (Spheno phorus obscures) which does considerable dam age. Stalks of the cane are frequently riddled with the galleries of the larva, and the galleries are filled with macerated fibre which the larva apparently pushes behind itself. When ready to
pupate the tunnel is somewhat enlarged and a cocoon is formed of coarse fibre in which trans formation takes place. In Australia there is a noctuid larva which bores downward from the tips of the plants. Certain scarabreid larvae feed upon the roots, and the young plants are destroyed by wireworms. In the West Indies a bark-boring beetle (Xylcborus piccus) sometimes riddles the canes by its minute burrows, the larva working into the young sprouts from the stumps of previously cut canes. In Java there are three lepidopterous borers and a mealy bug which do some damage, and in Mauritius a some what troublesome scalp insect known as Iccrua sacchari. Consult various volumes of Insect Life (Washington, 1SSS to 1S95) : Comstock, Report on. Insects Injurious to Sugar-Cane (ib., ; Morgan, "Sugar-Cane Borer," in Bulletin 9, Lou isiana Agricultural Experiment Station (Baton Rouge, 1891).