The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-11-27
1899, DISEASES OF CANE.

1899, DISEASES OF CANE
Sydney, y. S. w. Oct. 5, 1899.
To The Hawaiian Sugar Planters AS
ISOLATION,
Gentlemen
To my inquiry some months since
DR.. koJtmann, has had correspondence
with the Fijian Sugar plantation man
ayers with reference to the cane bOreT,
SphenOphOruS ObScuruS and as far as
known fer some years past the b0rer
had not been numerous on those ISL
ands; in fact it is said that the beetle
has disappeared entirely from the
cane fields, yet through what cause or
enemy is not known. | shall proceed
to the Fiji Islands at once and investi-
gate the subject thoroughly.
Of the interesting observations. made
on these injurious beetles during the
spring of the present year, a full re-
port will be made later on and | give
herewith some Of the more Important
facts in a concise form. The beetle is
a very long-ived insect. \ number CT
females collected in the field On Feb.
8, 1899, were kept and fed in confine-
ment without males and produced fer
tile eggs daily and continuously up to
June u, and were sill in a good con-
Coast on that date. From two to six
we'll developed eggs are always found
in the Ovarium on dissection; accord
ing to her age, this number may be
put down as daily product of the
female boreT, and we can safely say
that a female bOrer will live and pro-
duce eggs in quantities for at least six
months. This will SHOW us how i'm
pOrtano it is 10 destroy the beetles
wherever found.
On Feb. s. 1899. 4,545 beetles were
brought to the office at the Lihue plan
tation; and, as Mr.. c. VOTERS inform
ed me, these were collected by ten
and ten women, while stripping, on
hats of split cane laid cut for them at
a cost OF about $500. Of these beetles
3.181 proved to be males and 1864 were
females. Placing il at a very low esti-
mate, 200 eggs for each female, it will
give It's 272,S00 eggs, or say fully 200,-
900 larvae which would be able to-
ruin at least $4,000 pieces of cane
The food of the matured insect in
cane fields is the tender sheaths Of
caves; as soon as these separate fr0r.
the plant, the beetles will go behind
and here feed, and lay eggs; yet a IA
vorite and preferred place is the holes
have come out. Wherever the female
can enter plant she will remain Dor
ing along tunnels of old larvae. and. as
has repeatedly been observed, here de-
posilinS her eggs often but One-half|
inch apart and the succeeding larvae
will leave little of the plant, save
flores.
Owing TO the numerous ants which
irritate but do not injure the hard
beetles. the bait-trap Of split cane is
not such success as it proved at the
Fiji Islands: yet large numbers of
them cam be collected by this plan
which should by all means be ad-
hered 10. It has been found that the
cane pieces left in the field in a few
weeks were completely filled with bor-
ings of young larvae, which can not
mature in the dry cane but invariably
perish. For this fact alone the other
wise useless pieces of cane should be
laid out.
In confinement the eggs will hatch
ON the sixth day; the larvae would be-
come full grown in from six to eight |
weeks: the pupa transformation viii |
lake about two weeks, yet the beetle |
will not come out until some time |
a-er.
In nature it will be found that the |
whole duration from eggs to matured |
Insects will take from two to three
according 10 conditions and |
tate of food.