Ho 



SOME SOUTH INDIAN INSECTS, ETC. [CHAP. XIII. 



Chapter XIII. 

 CATERPILLAR PESTS OF CROPS 



As caterpillars do the- tender leaves,' 1 



bereaves, 



Shakespeare— Sonnets. 

 " Thus arc mj blossoms blasted in the I .u< i, 

 And caterpillars eat my leaves away." 



Shakespeare. 



THE great Order of Lepidoptera, comprising the butterflies and 

 moths of which upwards of ten thousand different species occur in 

 Southern India, is the most important of all groups of insects from an 

 economic point of view and includes about forty per cent, of all our 

 insect pests of crops and stored produce. With rare exceptions 

 it is only in the larval stage that these insects do damage, the adults 

 feeding on the juicy excretions of plants, although a few groups 

 especially amongst the butterflies have depraved tastes for animal 



Fig. 58. — Ailanthus excelsa defoliated by caterpill ! \nia narcissus, 



Di embei • Vuthoi 's original photo.) 



food and in some moths the mouth-parts art' rudimentary, the adult 

 insect not feeding at all. A few moths (Ophideres) have the tip of 

 the tongue provided with teeth b) means of which they are able to 

 penetrate the outer skin of fruits whose juices they suck, and both 

 the Indian Deatl ontia styx and A. lacliesis) are 



