238 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1891. 



anything that tends to check the healthy flow of sap in the tree, and 

 especially any mechanical injury to the stern, must tend to render 

 the tree suitable as a residence for the caterpillars. This fact we 

 find clearly indicated by the comparative freedom from attack which 

 is enjoyed by the shoots thrown out from the roots of trees that have 

 lost their stems. The explanation being that these shoots have a 

 large amount of root upon which to draw for nourishment and mois- 

 ture, so that the caterpillar tends to get swamped with moisture in 

 its burrow. 



llicroglphn.s furcifer. — This insect did a good deal of damage in the 

 latter part of the rains last year by eating up paddy plants in several 

 pai-tsof the Bombay Presidency (Broach, Thana, Panch Mahals, and 

 Rajpipla State), also in the Sambalpur district in the Central 

 Provinces. It is related to the insects which are known as locusts, 

 and no doubt has a very similar life -history, though so far as we at 

 present know it does not migrate to any considerable extent in nights. 

 The injury done by the insect must have been very considerable, 

 for the loss it occasioned in some of the villages of the Panch 

 Mahals is estimated at ten per cent, of the crop, whale the area over 

 which it extended was a large one. The insect is said to lay its 

 eggs in the ground in the early part of the cold weather, the young 

 hatching out in the beginning of the following rains, but this requires 

 confirmation. Little seems to have been done by the cultivators to 

 combat the pest, but it was noticed in Broach that heavy rains 

 cleared it off the fields. 



Anjoumois moth. — The slide now before you shows the various 

 stages of a moth which has recently been reported as destructive in 

 Kulu granaries. This insect proves to be the grain moth {Gelechia 

 cerealeUa) of Southern Europe and the United States, where it attacks 

 stored wheat, barley, maize, and other grain. It is usually known as 

 the Anjoumois moth, owing to its having first attracted attention in 

 the old Province of Anjou about a century ago. According to the 

 observations of European and American entomologists, the first eggs 

 of the year are generally laid in grain standing in the fields. The 

 eggs are then laid on the ears, and the larvae tunnel into the grain. 

 The second and subsequent generations are spent in granaries. The 

 normal number of generations being two, though further generations 



