122 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 



Mr. Ghosh. 



Mr. Deshpande. 



Mr. Ramakrishna 

 Ayyar. 



Mr. Fletcher. 



shaftal under irrigation over the rice stubble helps to check this pest 

 by rotting the rice stubble. The destruction of stubble by fire after 

 harvest is probably the most efficacious control-measure that can be 

 recommended at present and this should be combined with the control 

 of wild grasses on field-bunds and areas adjacent to paddy lands ; this 

 last measure will also be effective against Lejjfocorisa. 



Our experience is that Schcenobius and other borers of rice occur 

 in large numbers at the time when the plants come into ear. All the 

 borers put together damage rice in this district to the extent of about 

 four per cent. 



At Ratnagiri our chief pest of rice is ScJioenobms and the damage 

 done by this insect is about seventy-five per cent, of the crop. 



In Madras Schcenobius is our chief rice-borer and the damage during 

 its worst attacks is as much as ninety per cent. 



The damage done around Pusa is certainly very low but then this is 

 not much of a rice-growing district. Taking the Indian Empire as a 

 whole I should certainly say that Schcenobius destroys ten per cent, of 

 the whole rice-crop on a general average. I consider it is far and away 

 the worst pest we have so far as loss to the country is concerned. The 

 loss caused by this one insect must run into several hundreds of milhons 

 of rupees annually. I might also draw your attention to the interesting 

 monograph on this species by Dr. T. Shiraki, issued since our last Meeting. 



^ Rayhimetofiis ablutella, Z. 



Hmpsn., F. I., IV, 56 ; I. I. L., p. 512, t. 47, ff. 8, 11 ; Proc. 



Second Entl. Meeting, pp. 146 [Anerastia]. 

 Hmpsn., P. Z. S., 1918, 78. 

 Has been recorded as a cane-pest in North Bihar but is probably 

 sporadic and does not seem to be known as a pest in normal years. 



Only once bred at Pusa from larva boring cane shoots (C. S. 1801). 

 Old records probably refer to E. depressella. Said to have been reared 

 from Cyperus rotundus. 



Saluria inficita, Wlk. 



S. 1. 1., pp. 427-428, f. 304 ; Proc. Second Entl. Meeting, pp. 200, 201. 

 Occurs commonly in ragi-stems at Coimbatore about August, the 

 larvse boring low down in the stem, near the roots. Probably widely 

 distributed but not yet noticed elsewhere. Also bores into tenai. 



