84 SCIENTIFIC REPORTS OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 



REPORT OF THE IMPERIAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



(T. Bainbrigge Fletcher, R.N., F.L.S., F.E.S., F.Z.S.) 



I. Administration. 

 The Imperial Entomologist held charge of the Section 

 throughout the year ended 30th June, 1918. The post of 

 Supernumerary Entomologist remained vacant throughout 

 the year owing to the difficulty of obtaining any suitable 

 candidate under present conditions. Mr. Y. Ramachandra 

 Rao, M.A., Entomological Assistant in Madras, was on 

 deputation throughout the year to work under the Imperial 

 Entomologist on an investigation of the insects which occur 

 on Lantana in India and Burma. 



II. Training. 

 One student, V. G. Deshpande, B. Ag., deputed by the 

 Bombay Department of Agriculture, was received on 1st 

 June for a special short course in Entomology. 



III. Insect Pests. 



The numerous observations made on Insect Pests during 

 the year under review cannot be given in detail here, and a 

 Report of this nature is necessarily restricted to inclusion 

 of the more important or interesting facts elicited anent 

 the more important pests dealt with during the year- A 

 summary of our knowledge of Indian Crop-pests up to. 

 practically the end of the preceding year has been published 

 in. the " Report of the Proceedings of the Second Entomolo- 

 gical Meeting," to which the following observations may be 

 regarded as supplementary. 



Cotton. Work on Cotton Bollworms was continued 

 throughout the year. From the data available it is found 

 that at Pusa, at the beginning of the cotton season, espe- 

 cially from July to the middle of October, Earias fabia and 

 E. insulana are the bollworms mostly present, but later on, 

 from the middle of October to the end of January, the Pink 

 Bollworm, Platyedra (Gelechia) gossypiella, is mostly 



