Asal FIv 



131 KEI'OKT OF THE ENTOirOLOCICAri SECTION 



treated. Poisoned forage should always be applied in the evening, as it will then lie 

 fresher and more attractive to the cutworms than if it has been allowed to dry and harden 

 in the sun. 



There is evidence to prove that in bygone centuries large areas of land in Dongola 

 Province were irrigated by means of Hood canals during high Nile, and by well-sakias 

 during the remainder of the year. On Kerma plain there still exist the remains of sakia- 

 wells showing that at some time the water-level in the soil was sufficiently high to enable 

 cultivation to be carried on. During recent years there has been but a small area of land 

 irrigated in this way, but considerable sums of money have been, during the last four 

 years, and are now being spent in the construction of canals which will result in many 

 thousand feddans of laud being rendered available for cultivation. It is highly important, 

 therefore, that the natives cultivating these basins should realise the necessity of doing 

 something more to the land than merely dibWing in the seed. 



The As.'Vl Fly 

 AiiliM aorijld, Theobald 

 As stated earlier in this report, a considerable amount of time has been spent in 

 endeavouring to trace, the life history of the so-called asal fly and to devise some method 

 for controlling it. It is to bo regretted that up to the present these endeavours have not 

 been crowned with success. Mr. Chas. P. Lounsbury, Government Entomologist, Cape 

 of Good Hope, and Mr. Claude Fuller, Chief of the Division of Entomology and 

 Horticulture, Natal, have very kindly furnished me with what information concerning 

 the bionomics of this aphis they possessed, and my thanks are due to them. The work 

 in this direction will be continued in the hope of discovering some effective and practical 

 remedy for dealing with this pest. 



The Cotton Stem-isohek 



lipheuoptera neylecta, Klug 



Plate VII. 



The Cotton This beetle has been found attacking cotton and garden hibiscus throughout the 



stem-borer northern Nile provinces, and it appears probable that unless measures are taken to keep 

 it in check it will have to be regarded as a serious pest when the area of land under cotton 

 in the Sudan increases. Mr. C. O. Waterhouse, of the British Museum (Nat. Hist.), has 

 determined it to be a member of the genus Sjjhenupfera, probably N. negleota, Klug. 

 A member of the same genus — S. gonfi/pii — is recorded by Lefroy' to attack cotton in 

 Bombay, Central Provinces and the Punjab — possibly the species here noted is identical 

 with the Indian cotton stem-borer. 

 lJescriptiou>i — 



%V (H- !)■ ijtiugth, 1-25 -1-50 mm. The endjryo is enveloped in a thin, transparent 

 to whitish menibrane, which is covered by a dull, greenish-blue, scale-like shell, in shape 

 roughly oval, and bearing a number of irregular crinkles or ridges. 



Larca (fig. 2). Length up to 29 ram. Colour, head brown, mandibles black, 

 thorax and abdomen yellowish-white. The larva is of the typical Buprestid shape, the 

 small head being retracted into the broad, flattened, first thoracic segment, and 

 the abdomen being long and comparatively slender. The first thoracic segment bears 



Ilulletiu Imperial IndUiUe, 1907, Vol. V., No. 2, payc 164 



