INSTITUTE. PUSA, FOR 1918-19 93 



generally, nibbling holes in the leaves and doing con- 

 siderable damage, being present in very large numbers. 



Dyscerus malignus, Mshll. MS. (Curculionidse), was 

 found at Shillong in June 1918. It is brownish-black with 

 a conspicuous grey patch on the posterior portions of the 

 elytra. The adult weevils feed on apple fruits, eating small 

 punctures into them, and oviposit in small (excavations 

 along the edge of such patches. The eggs are large for 

 the size of the insect, ajbout 1-25 mm. in diameter, and are 

 pearl-white in colour. The grub bores about in the interior 

 <)f the fruit and damages it considerably. Pupation takes 

 place inside the attacked fruits, which in the initial stages 

 of attack are externally scarcely distinguishable from 

 healthy fruits, but the invariable presence of a number of 

 small whitish dots on the surface of the infested fruits 

 marks these as attacked. These small dots are really holes 

 through which the tunnels of the grubs communicate with 

 the open air, and as a rule these tunnels originate at the 

 apical end of the fruit, somewhere near the flower-scar, 

 whence they ramify throughout the interior, branches being 

 given off at intervals towards the surface where their ter- 

 mination is marked by the small dots mentioned above. In 

 the later stages of attack, these holes become much larger 

 and often exude a frothy liquid which attracts Sarcophagid 

 flies. 



This weevil was also found breeding in the fruits of 

 Prunus nepalensis, a wild indigenous plum whose fruits 

 are edible when ripe. 



Dyscerus fletcheri, Mshll. MS., was also found at 

 Shillong, the larva boring in apple fruits. The adult 

 weevil is a reddish-brown species with scattered patches 

 of greyish scales. It is rather larger than D. malignus 

 but attacks apple fruits in exactly the same way, but pupa- 

 tion seems to take place sometimes outside of the fruit. 

 The egg is about 1 mm. in diameter and rather dull-brown 

 in colour. The larva seems quite similar to that of D. 

 malignus. The adults appear to be long-lived, as an 



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