98 SCIENTIFIC REPORTS OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 



following year an^d to rear out any parasites. No pupa lay 

 over and no parasites were reared. 



Fruit Pests. Special attention was paid during the 

 year to the pests of Citrus spp., jak (Artocarpus integri- 

 folia), apple, pear, peach, nectarine, grape, guava, custard- 

 apple and plantain. A large amount of information on 

 Indian Fruit-pests has now been accumulated, and it is 

 hoped to write this up when opportunity admits- The 

 Gracilariad found on apple in North-West India and 

 Assam has been identified as Gracillaria zachrysa, Meyr. 



Life-histories of Insects. In the Insectary, besides 

 the rearing of the various borers and rootfeeders of cane 

 and rice already mentioned and which constituted about 

 100 lots, some 200 other lots of insects were reared and 

 observations made on their life-histories and habits. 

 Amongst these at least five new pests have come to light, 

 viz. : — 



(1) An unidentified Longicorn borer, C. S. 1(345 

 (i.Nwpserha sp.) (Plate XIV, fig. 1), found in stems of 

 Vigna catjang in August. It bores in the main stem and 

 may attack the young plants. The bored stem swells to 

 some extent, and, although in the majority of cases the 

 plants are not killed, they are stunted and bear no fruit. 



(2) A caterpillar found boring into young coconut 

 fruits in the bunch on the tree and causing the young fruits 

 to drop off. An accumulation of f rass webbed up with silk 

 indicates the presence of the borer. This insect is 

 apparently an undescribed species of Tirathaba (Pyralidse) 

 (Plate XIV, fig. 2). It is interesting to note that Tirathaba 

 tricho gramma, Meyr., is also known to attack young 

 coconut fruits in Fiji, 1 but this type of damage has never 

 been noticed before in India so far as we are aware. 



(3) Calandra stigmaticollis (Plate XV, fig. 1) is reported 

 to kill large coconut trees in Ratnagiri by boring into the 

 stem in which it breeds in large numpers. This is an 

 interesting confirmation of a former record of this weevil 

 attacking coconut in Malabar. In confinement it has been 



1 Novitates Zoologioa, XXIV, 32. 



