1903.] 37 



were cut off and carried avvaj in saclss, tlie miscliief miglit be lessened. Yet it is 

 not easj to l)iirn green stuff in large quantities, anil the larva? are very tenacious of 

 life. Tliey are now gnawing at dry stalks that I liave had in boxes and bottles for 

 weeks. E. says, " Grive the tops to the horses for green fodder " — which is prac- 

 tical — but think of the labour of gathering the tops in the big weary ' lands,' and 

 how the lazy natives would throw themselves down at the foot of the plants! " 



April 28th. — " Tlio other evening I thought I would go over and see how the 

 niealic-pest was getting on. I wanted to see wliether there were chrysalides or only 

 empty pupa-skins in the stalks. Instead of cither I fountl living plump larva; in 

 the withered canes, and not a pupa at all ; so it seems that they remain in the larva 

 state much longer in the autumn than in the earlier broods." (It should, be re- 

 membered tiiat in this southern region our seasons arc reversed.) " In examining 

 the plants I noticed tliat one, of which the top shoot had been cut off just above 

 the fruit, held a mcalie-cob, firm and good, with its stalk still green ; while those 

 top shoots wiiich had been burrowed by the young larva) hung over withered and 

 partly rotten, full of gnawings like sawdust. I particularly noticed that all the 

 smalt holes, made by young larvso, were at the head of the plant, and continued 

 down the inside of the flower-stalk, which is longer than a joint, and, pci'haps, 

 througli the first joint, which is the most tender ; afterwards they must eat their 

 way out, and then in again below ; some wandering lower down, so as not to crowd 

 usually more than two or three into a space between two joints ; more generally 

 i there is only one. So I reverse my observations about its beginning at the base of 

 the plant, because the infant larva) seem always to be at the top of the cane under 

 the flowcr-hcad. When disturbed by cutting open the cane, the larva makes a 

 scramble to hide itself, and I tliink that the journey externally from joint to joint 

 is always performed at night." 



September 25th. — " I have continued to look after the dead mealie-stalks in the 

 ' land ' which they are ploughing. I want you to note that there are successive 

 crops. The plant comes up in about ten days or a fortnight after sowing. In many 

 cases it is spoiled before tlic mealie-cob has time to form, yet we find living larviB 

 in the stems after all these months ! It must be nearly ten months since I told you 

 about those in Mr. FuUei-'s ' lands.' The plants sown last September and submerged 

 in the flood contained, besides mud, one or two dead larvae, and a few skins of 

 chrysalides, from which the moths had emerged. A later ' land,' a little higher up, 

 and sown in November, but partially flooded, furnished a lot of empty chrysalis 

 skins and one full-grown larva, the stalks being quite dead, many of them lying flat 

 on the ground. In the late ' land ' sown in December, there were empty pupa-skins 

 and living larvae in the same stalk." 



[From the drawings sent the larva appears to bo slender and decidedly elon- 

 gated ; pale pinkish-bufl;, with a shining, semi-transparent appearance, and hardly 

 visible hairs ; head round, dark brown or red-brown, dorsal plate large, anal plate 

 less so, both brown ; spiracles black on the thoracic segments, where parts of similar 

 dots beneath, witii them, form sharp triangles of dots ; on the remaining segments 

 the spiracles are more faint, but one or two black dots lie below them, and a few 

 more about the body, while two conspicuous triangles of the same form a sort of 

 necklace round the twelfth segment. The pupa is short and much rounded j red* 



