Mr. Ghosh. 
Mr. Ramachandra 
Rao. 
Mr. Fletcher. 
Mr. Anstead. 
Mr. Fletcher. 
40) PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 
to say much about it as yet. I have made a start at this work at Coim- 
batore and have examined Lantana and collected and reared out the 
insects found on it at and around Coimbatore. A very large number 
of insects are found on Lantana, and of these Platyptilia pusillidactyla 
and the Hucosmid seem at present the most promising. 
[| A colowred plate showvng the lifehistory of Platyptilia pusillidactyla 
was exhibited. | 
Will any of the indigenous insects be able to exercise any more influ- 
ence, than they are at present, in checking Lantana ? 
Probably in some unknown corner of the country are some insects 
which form an efficient check. The question certainly requires investiga- 
tion and, if anv such insects are found, we can introduce them to other 
localities. 
That is of course the object of the present investigation. 
At Bangalore in my compound I found an isolated plant of Lantana 
badly affected by a white Scale-insect. This Scale kills back the shoots 
on which it occurs. 
I expect the Scale you refer to is Orthezia insignis. I have not seen 
this in India, but I have seen it in Ceylon and it certainly does kill back 
the Lantana. The affected shoots die back and become black, as if 
scorched, but the Scale seems to occur only in patches and can hardly be 
looked on as an effective check. Besides, it is not confined to Lantana 
but has a very wide range of food-plants, and is often a very bad pest of 
cultivated plants. I have here Essig’s “ Injurious and Beneficial In- 
sects of California”, in which you will see figures of this Scale, and 
I will just read out what he says about its food-plants :— 
“Is especially destructive to Coleus spp. It also attacks Amar- 
anthus sp., Chrysanthemum, Lantana, Verbena, I pomed, 
Thunbergia, Strobilanthes ”’ [there are plenty of wild species 
of Strobilanthes in the Hills of South India], “‘ Achillea, 
Salvia, Cuphea, Capsicum, Ageratum”’ {the common “‘ White 
weed” of the Planting Districts], “ Vernonia, Gardenia, 
Lonicera, Citrus sp., tea, strawberry and tomato ”’, 
so I don’t think that is an insect to be encouraged in any case. 
In connection with Mr. Ramachandra Rao’s work, I think it will help 
us considerably if all the Entomological Assistants in the Provinces 
will gather together any information they can about Lantana in their 
several Provinces—its present distribution, whether it is spreading or 
decreasing in any areas, and any facts about insects found on it. If 
you will make a start now and get this information together, it will 
be available when Mr. Ramachandra Rao comes around later on to 
make his investigations locally. 
