. Agricultural news. Agriculture -- West Indies; Plant diseases -- West Indies. 346 THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. OOTOBEK 26, 1912. INSECT NOTES. A SUGAR-CANE PEST IN ST. CROIX. Dr. Longfield Smith. Fh D., Director of Agiijullure, St. Croix, Danish West Indies, in corrospnndence with the Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture, given a brief account of an insect which occurs in that island as a pist of .-sugar-cane. The insect is a large, biown beetle the name of which Dr. Smith gives as Sfrafegus titantis; it belongs to the same family as the common hardback {Ligi/ms tid/iulosus). The larva of Str
. Agricultural news. Agriculture -- West Indies; Plant diseases -- West Indies. 346 THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. OOTOBEK 26, 1912. INSECT NOTES. A SUGAR-CANE PEST IN ST. CROIX. Dr. Longfield Smith. Fh D., Director of Agiijullure, St. Croix, Danish West Indies, in corrospnndence with the Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture, given a brief account of an insect which occurs in that island as a pist of .-sugar-cane. The insect is a large, biown beetle the name of which Dr. Smith gives as Sfrafegus titantis; it belongs to the same family as the common hardback {Ligi/ms tid/iulosus). The larva of Strategus titanas is in shape and general appearance similar to the typical larvae of insects in this group, but it is much larger than the common hardback larva, attaining a length of over 2 inches, while it is about .|-inch in thickness. The insects of this group, Dynastides, are more often scavengers, feeding on decaying organic matter, than actual pests feeding on the living tissues of plants of economic importance. When however, they do occur as pests the injury to plants is usually the result of the feeding of the grubs on the fine roots after the manner of the related insects of the Melolonthid group, of which the brown hardback (Phi/talus sinithi) and the .\tay beetles {Lachnosterna ixUens' in St. Vincent and L. jMtrnelis in St. Kitts) are examples. In the case of the sugar-cane beetle {Ligiirua rugiceps) of the United States, however, the injury is reported to be due to the adults tunnelling into the base of the stem The injury to canes in St. Croix by Strategus titanus is different from both these. The habits of this are stated by Dr. Smith to be as follows: 'It occurs very abundantly, much to our disadvantage. It [the larva] eats the roots of canes, sweet potatoes and other plants, and burrows into the basrs of the cane shoots, eating its way upward, and turning the cane into a hollow tube. The insect is saprophytic as well as parasitic. I have found it living i
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