=Insect Pests and Vegetable Parasites.=—Wounds, such as those described above, often render the tree more susceptible to the attacks of insect pests; but, although it has been stated that cocoa trees in the Gold Coast are seriously affected in this way, such is not often the case. Beetles of the _Longicorn_ group are found damaging the tree to some extent wherever it has been planted. Two species are recorded from the West Indies: _Steirastoma histrionica_, White, from Trinidad, and _S. depressa_, Linn., from Grenada. On the trees in the Gold Coast _Armatosterna buquetiana_, White, and a _Glenea sp._ have been found doing similar damage. These insects deposit their eggs in crevices of the bark or on wounds, and the grubs which emerge bore into the trunk, living and growing in size in the interior of the wood until mature, when they change into pupæ, and finally into beetles. The presence of these grubs is easily detected by the quantity of fine particles of wood or “frass” which are thrown out of the entrance hole; and, if a flexible wire be inserted until it reaches and impales the grub, it will often prevent the damage becoming serious. The nests of large red ants (_Œcophylla sp._), which feed upon the saccharine juices which exude from the pods, may often be observed on cocoa trees, but as the ants viciously bite any living thing which may venture upon the tree, they are probably a safeguard against the depredations of rats and squirrels that eat out the contents of the ripe fruit while still on the tree. [Illustration: COCOA AT MRAMRA ATTACKED BY BLACK COCOA-BARK BUG. Fig. 16, p. 51.] [Illustration: DRYING COCOA BEANS AT MRAMRA. Fig. 17, p. 53.] [Illustration: NATIVE TAPPING INDIGENOUS RUBBER TREE (_FUNTUMIA ELASTICA_), OBOAMANG, ASHANTI. Fig. 18, p. 61.] In 1909 the writer drew attention to a black hemipterous insect causing destruction to plantations in the Ashanti-Akim region, where careless cultivation prevailed (cf. _Bull. Entom. Research_, vol. i. pt. viii. 1910). This insect, known as the “Black cocoa-bark bug” or “Sankonuabe,” was named _Sahlbergella theobroma_, Distant, and subsists in all its stages upon the sap of cocoa branches obtained through punctures made by its proboscis.[2] The attacked trees are atrophied or killed outright (Fig. 16). Spraying with petroleum-soap emulsion has proved an effective remedy, but native planters do not readily adopt it. Recently the insect has been found sapping the silk cotton tree, and planters are warned against having this tree in their plantations.