n ,S SOME soil II INDIAN INSECTS, ETC'. [CHAP. XlV. 



pulses in the period from Jul} to ( >ctober, in some places destroying 

 practically the whole of the crops. A large greenish grasshopper 

 (Hieroglyphus banian) is a special pest of paddy, particularly in 

 Malabar and South Kanara, and often does considerable damage 

 to this crop and more rarely to sugarcane and maize. A brown 

 grasshopper (Epacromia tamulus) occurs commonly throughout the 

 plains, feeding on a varii I >1 which we may 



specify ragi, cholam, cumbu and daincha, and is especially a 

 pest of these crops in Madura and Tinnevelly. A small narrowly- 

 built green species ( Atractomorpha crenulata) occurs commonly all 

 over the low-country on various plants and is especially a pest of 

 tobacco, brinjal and Amaranthus. A small, slender, greenish 

 grasshopper (Oxya velox), often with reddish forewings, is found 

 throughout the plains as a minor pest of paddy, cholam anil 



Fig. bl.—Chrotogonus. (Original.) 



ne. Finally, a stoutly-built, flattened, short-winged, earth- 

 coloured grasshopper {Chrotogonus spp.) is found commonly on the 

 ground everywhere and is a minor pest of almost all low-growing 

 crops. 



Detailed descriptions and figures of these various grasshoppers 

 will be found further on. For the ordinary cultivator it is not 

 try to know more than that the insect doing damage is a 

 grasshoppei a tact easily verified 1>> noting that the hindh | 

 much larger than the others and formed for leaping as the habits 

 are much the same m all. as are also the methods to be adopted. 



pt lor their quiescent period whilst in the egg-state, j 

 hoppers do damage throughout their lives, for they eat vegetable 

 matter throughout all their periods of growth and also during their 

 adult condition. The eggs are always laid in masses in the ground 

 and often remain there during definite seasons for months at a time 

 ling, SO that agricultural methods such as ploughing 

 ip tei \li at sui h seasons n i a chance oi 



them before they emerge at all. If. however, the grasshoppers 



