THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 389 



of the destructive species are also well known in America, such as 

 Heliothis ohsoleta, Cirphis unipuncta, Agrotis ypsilon and Aphis 

 hrassiccB, and many others belong to familiar genera, e. g., Diacris- 

 ia obligua, a woolly-bear, which attacks a great many plants and 

 sometimes occurs in very destructive numbers. Among the 

 more important crops cotton suffers from a very long list of pests, 

 including several species of boll-worms {Earias fabia, E. insulana, 

 Gelechia gossypiella) . The American boll-worm, Heliothis ohso- 

 leta, also occurs on cotton but is not destructive, preferring other 

 plants, particularly certain of the leguminous field crops. Rice 

 or "Paddy," the most important of all Indian crops, also suffers 

 from a great variety of pests, of which the most important of all 

 is Schcenobius bipunctifer, a moth whose larva does enormous 

 damage by boring in the stalks. It is estimated that the injuries 

 caused by this one insect in Southern India alone amount to one 

 hundred millions of Rupees annually. Pachydiplosis orysce, a gall 

 midge, is another very destructive enemy of rice. Two of the 

 other pests of rice are not insects but crustaceans, a land crab. 

 Paratelphusa hydrodromus, and a Phyllopod, A pus cancriformis . 

 Wheat and oats are both attacked by the common Army-worm 

 {Cirphis unipuncta) and other species of Cirphis, but the most im- 

 portant pest of wheat seems to be a termite (Microtermes anaitdi), 

 which destroys seedlings and sometimes also plants that are com- , 

 ing into ear. 



Of the numerous fruit-trees, mangos are among the most 

 widely grown and the most extensively attacked by insects. No 

 less than 57 species attack the various parts of this tree. The 

 principal enemies of tlie fruits are weevils of the genus Crypto- 

 rhynchus and three species of fruit-flies, Chcetodacus spp., this genus 

 being the one to which most of the fruit-flies of the region belong. 

 The general question of the control of fruit-flies is taken up at 

 some length under the discussion of insects affecting the peach. 



On account of the fact that agriculture in India is practised 

 chiefly by the natives whose superstitious beliefs and utter igno- 

 rance of the life-histories of insects are deep-rooted and difficult 

 to overcome, the methods of controlling -insect pests must needs' 

 be of the simplest character. Hence we find that the use of iri-^ 



