PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING Al 
Prickty Pear (Opuntia sp.). 
Prickly Pear comes in much the same category as Lantana as it is Mr. Fletcher. 
liable to become a weed-pest when it gets out of hand. It is not looked 
on as a nuisance, however, in most parts of India, so that we are not 
concerned with it to any great extent, but, as you may remember, the 
Queensland Government sent out a special Commission about five years 
ago to investigate the possibility of introducing insects into Australia 
to keep it in check there. I tell you of this just to remind you that, 
if you should come across any insects killing back Prickly Pear, they 
are of some economic interest and we should like to know more about 
them. We do not seem to have any insects checking Prickly Pear to 
any great extent in India, and about the only ones I know of are Meloid 
beetles, which eat the flowers, and a Scale-insect, Diaspis echinocacti, 
which occurs in Bombay. There are also a few other Scales to be found 
but they seem to exercise no check on the plant. 
We will now go on to the 
LEGUMINOUS FIELD-CROPS, 
under which we will discuss the various Pulses and Green-manure crops 
and also Indigo and a few other cultivated plants. It is, I think, most 
convenient to take these together, as their pests are very similar in many 
cases. 
CAJANUS INDICUS (Tur, Arhar, Red Gram). 
A very large number of insects are found on this plant and undoubtedly Mr. Fletcher. 
they do a great deal of damage in the aggregate although there are few 
which occur in destructive numbers as a rule. We will take the Leaf- 
eating insects first of all. Of these I have on my list :— 
Eucosma eritica. 
Astycus lateralis. 
Myllocerus 11-pustulatus (maculosus). 
Gracillarva soyella. 
Cyphosticha coerulea. 
Monolepta signata. 
Stauropus alternus. 
Episomus lacerta. 
Megachile anthracina. 
Megachile disjuncta. 
Solenopsis geminata. 
Meranoplus bicolor. 
We will take these one by one. 
