PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 39 
even worse in North-Eastern India and Burma by invasion of forest 
and grazing areas. It has become such a nuisance in Coorg that it has 
been found necessary to introduce special regulations for its control. 
I told you yesterday what is being done in India to try to find any insects 
which will keep it in check and Mr. Ramachandra Rao will give us a 
brief account of this work so far as he has gone. In the meanwhile I 
will read out the names of a few inseets which are down on my list as 
attacking Lantana, but this list 1s of cexrse very incomplete in this sense 
that you will find on Lantana a large number of insects which are only 
casual feeders on it. 
The insects attacking the flowers and seeds are obviously of the great- 
est importance, since Lantana is spread, so far as we know, entirely by 
birds, chiefly mynahs, eating the ripe fruits and dispersing the undi- 
gested seeds. So that any insects, which will check the production of ripe 
seeds, will tend to keep in check the spread of Lantana. 
Attacking the flowers we find :— 
Platyptilia pusillidactyla. 
A Eucosmid moth. 
Of these Platyptilia pusillidactyla, which is one of the species intro- 
duced artificially from Mexico into Hawaii to check Lantana there, 
seems to occur already all over India, Burma and Ceylon wherever 
Lantana is found. The eggs are laid on the buds or flowers and the 
whitish, naked larva is found curled up inside the young flowers, whose 
interior is eaten out so that, instead of a large bunch of healthy berries 
being formed, one finds only three or four small, unhealthy-looking 
ones. This little moth is therefore of some use but, although (as I said) 
it occurs commonly wherever you find Lantana, it is not abundant 
enough to form an effective check on the formation of fruits. 
The Eucosmid, which seems to be an undescribed species nearly 
allied to Lobesia wolodes, has been found by Mr. Ramachandra Rao 
around Coimbatore. 
Then there are a few sucking insects which are not confined to Lantana 
but which seem to occur on it in some numbers and may perhaps affect 
its growth by impairing the vigour of the plant, but these sucking in- 
sects are not so useful as those which destroy the flowers. They are :— 
Prezodorus rubrofasciatus. 
Plautia viridicollis. 
Plautia fimbriata. 
and of these the species of Plautia seem especially attached to Lantana 
and may perhaps do a little good. 
The work of investigation of Lantana insects has only been in pro- Mr. Ramachandra 
gress for a very short time, about two months, and it is rather premature Rao. 
