CHAPTER X. 



PESTS OF CANE, MAIZE, AND SORGHUM. 



THESE plants are so closely related that the same insects in some 

 cases attack all of them. When this is the case, treatment of the 

 pest in one crop is insnfficient, so that it is necessary to consider carefnlly 

 in Avhich crop and at what time of the year the insect can be most easily 

 destro^^ed. This is especially important with the Moth-borer, which is 

 the most serions insect enemy of all three plants. Cane is also attacked 

 by the White-borer, the Cane-fly, the Cane Mealy Wing ; the Maize-fly 

 attacks sorghnm also. 



Moth=borer in Sugarcane, Maize, and Sorghum. i 



The most abundant and serious pest to sugarcane, maize and 



sorghum is the cater- 

 pillar known as the 

 moth-borer. It is 

 found in the cater- 

 pillar form, a slender 

 caterpillar, not more 

 than one inch in 



Fm. 143. length, of a dirty 



Motn-lorer. {Magnified three times.) ^^.^^ ^^^^^^^ ^.^^ 



dark spots and a black head. It is not possible from the caterpillar 

 to be certain of the identity of the pest, as there are other caterpillars 

 which closely resemble it in form and colour. The moth can be 

 identified, but it also is similar to other moths Avith similar habits : it is 

 advisable, if caterpillars such as that described below, are found destroying 

 these crops, to assume the insect to be the borer, until caterpillars or 

 moths have been sent to an entomologist for accurate identification. 

 Specimens are required from all parts of India to ascertain exactly 

 where the borers occur and whether one or more species are thus 



found. 



Life Eistory. — The female moth flies about the field after dusk and 

 lays eggs on the leaves of the plants. The eggs are very flat, oval in 

 outline, about one twenty-fifth of an inch across. They are laid in a 

 cluster, one partly overlapping another, the number in the cluster varying 



' "^ 11, CliiJo simplex. Butl. (Pyralidae.) 



