LEPIDOPTERA. 385 



Lifehistory. — The eggs arc laid singly on shoots, flowers or 

 young bolls. Larva bores in the shoots before bolls are formed but 

 alter that is found only in the bolls in which it bores. Larva pale- 

 greenish with short spinelike hairs, and 'lotted with black and with 

 a row of short yellowish spines along either side of the back. Pupa 

 in a tough cocoon of silk spun either on the foodplant or in the soil. 



Foodplants. Cotton, bhindi (Hibiscus esculentus) and other 

 Maboacea. 



Status. — A destructive pest of cotton. 



Control — (1) Hand-picking of first-attacked shoots which are easi- 

 ly seen and, later on, picking and destruction of all attacked bolls. 



(2) Removal of all cotton-bushes from the field after the crop is 

 picked so that no harbourage may be left fortius insect to live 

 over until the next season. 



(3) Bhindi and other similar plants should not be grown in the 

 neighbourhood of cotton-fields, at least when cotton is not in the 

 ground. 



EARIAS FABIA, Stoll. 



Noctuafabia, Stoll, Pap. Exot., IV, t. 355 H (1782). 



Earias fabia, Hmpsn., Faun. Ind. Moths, II, 133, Cat. Phal., XI, 

 507; Lefroy, Ind. Ins. Pests, pp. 89—93, figs. 98— 103, Ent. Mem. Uept. 

 Agri., Ind., I, p. 183, figs. 52, 53, Ind. Ins. Life, p. 456, t. 38, f. 8. 

 (See Plate XXIII.) 



Distribution. — Throughout the Plains of Southern India all the 

 year round. 



Lifehistory. Quite similar to that of E. insulana. The larvae are 

 practically identical, those of the present species often a little 

 darker in colour. 



Foodplants. — Cotton, bhindi I Hibiscus esculentus), hollyhock and 

 various other malvaceous plants. 



Status. — A destructive pest of cotton. It seems rather more 

 common in Southern India than E. insulana. 



Control. Similar to that of E. insulana. 



\( ONTIA GRAELLSI, Feist. 



I '(".- Acontia graellsi. 

 Acontia graellsi, Feisthamel, Ann. S-E.Fr., VI, 300, t. 12. f. 3(1837); 



Hmpsn., Faun. Ind. Moths. II. 324. Cat. Phal., XI, 660, f. 272. 

 Distribution.— Throughout the Plain- of Southern India. 



2 5 



