. Agricultural news. Agriculture -- West Indies; Plant diseases -- West Indies. 330 THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. OCTMBB 18, 191S. INSECT NOTES. POPULAR ENTOMOLOGY. LADY-BIRDS. A few months ago a communicated article appeared in one of the Barbaios d<kily papers calling attention to the value of lady-biids in the control of blights of orange trees This article was signed, and its general tone was rather that of finding fault with the Govern- ment because the local ladybird had not been properly utilized for keeping in cbeck the various blights which attack the citrus tees, chieHy i the lime, in Ba
. Agricultural news. Agriculture -- West Indies; Plant diseases -- West Indies. 330 THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. OCTMBB 18, 191S. INSECT NOTES. POPULAR ENTOMOLOGY. LADY-BIRDS. A few months ago a communicated article appeared in one of the Barbaios d<kily papers calling attention to the value of lady-biids in the control of blights of orange trees This article was signed, and its general tone was rather that of finding fault with the Govern- ment because the local ladybird had not been properly utilized for keeping in cbeck the various blights which attack the citrus tees, chieHy i the lime, in Barbados. *vSfe' Now, the intention of the [T^^^ writer of that article was to do good, v4 .'^ he was so uninformed that if any one had paid attention to what he had written, more harm would have been done than go< d. His mistakes were pointed out to him by a friend who was better informed on the subject, atd an attempt was made in a second. Fig 4 —Lady-Biki article to put the matter in a better (a) Larvae, (b) Empty pup» case, (c) Adult, light. Again his grasp of the subject was so faulty that the second article failed of its purpose and rather ten- ded to confuse than to clear the issue. As to the Barbados lady-bird, the case is this. In Barbados the term lady-bird is applied to a large sLowy weevil which is a v' ry serious pest of the sugar cane, while in all other parts of the English-speaking wrld, the insects known as ladj-bird beetles are leneficial insects See Fig 4. The insect which is commonly called the lady-bird in Barbados is more properly known as the root borer of the sugar-cane. The tech- nical name of this insect is Diap- repes abbreviatus, Linn. For mere than ten years it has been the canee of very serious injury to the grow- ing sugar-cane in many localities, and sugar planters have experienced severe los-'es in crop a« a result of its depre datiobs. So serious a pest has this insect become that a Commission has been appointed by His Excel- lency t
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