MiNOli IMCiB PESTS. 



131 



and Belg-aiiin. It consists in drag-giny- a net tliroug'li the rice to 

 sweep lip the insects ; the net is 36 feet by 7 feet, weighted at one 

 side, with ropes on the bottom to drag" it by, and a bamboo to hold 

 lip the top. Nino men drag it throug-h the field, the lower edge 

 below Avater sweeping up grasshoppers, caterpillars, and other insects. 

 The method was successfully adopted in Belgaum and, where the 

 cultivators work together, large areas of rice-lauds can be effectually 

 cleared of the pest. 



Attempts to destroy the eggs during the cold weather have failed, 

 owing to the difficulty of finding' the egg masses, which are buried to a 

 depth of two inches in the soil. 



The Rice Grasshopper is common throughout the plains of Bens^al, 

 the Central Provinces, parts of the Bombay Presidency and Mysore. 



Minor Pests. 



A mimber of insects feed upon the rice-plant and it is uncertain 

 which of these can rank as pests. Caterpillars are particularly common 

 and a number have already been reared from rice but only rarely found 

 to be injuriously numerous. An important local pest is the " beddi " ^ 

 insect of Bhandara and Kauara, which is closely allied to the aqimtic 

 caterpillar ^ of Burma. The work of these is apparently identical ; both 

 eat the leaves and live in a case formed of a leaf -blade twisted over and 



Fig. 139. 

 Butterflif of large Rice Caterpillar 



* 38. Nymphula depunctalis. Guen. (Pyralidse.) 

 ^ Nymphula fluctuosalis. Zell. (Pyralidae.) 



