PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 4.9 
and disappearance of this species in large numbers, it would seem that 
it may be a migrant, as we suspect to be the case in Agrotis ypsilon. 
Prodenia litura occasionally oceurs on gram, chiefly in South Bihar, 
but is not a general pest of gram. 
Cirphis loreyi has been recorded as found on gram leaves at Jubbul- 
pur, but apparently nowhere else. 
A Zizera, probably Z. otis, occurs on gram, but is not a pest. It 
is usually found on the flowers. 
Chrotogonus, probably of various species, attack young plants especi- 
ally. Bag-nets provide a simple form of control. 
A few insects attack the pods :— 
Heliothis obsoleta. 
Plusia nagrisigna. 
Inogryllus bimaculatus. 
Of these Heliothis obsoleta is much the worst pest. In some dis- 
tricts in the North-West Frontier i understand that it is impossible 
to grow gram on account of an insect which attacks it and it would appear 
that this insect is H. obsoleta. In the Central Provinces also H. obsoleta 
is especially bad as a pest of gram. We have issued a coloured plate 
showing its lifehistory and this shows not only the various colour forms 
in which the caterpillars may appear but also the peculiar method of 
feeding, the caterpillar biting a hole in the gram-pod and feeding with 
its head inside and half its body outside. As regards control, this habit 
of feeding and the wide range of alternative food-plants make control 
difficult. In the case of young plants, bagging with a bag-net may be 
tried, but it is chiefly on the older plants, in the pod stage, that the 
caterpillars occur. Spraying is hardly practicable on a field-scale and 
is of little use when the caterpillars are eating into the pods. Fields 
which have been badly infested with the larve should be ploughed 
immediately after harvest to destroy the pupe in the soil and prevent . 
the resulting moths from ovipositing on other crops. 
Heliothis obsoleta is a bad pest in the United Provinces. 
In Madras H. obsoleta is an important pest. 
In Assam it occurs in gram-fields. 
In Panch Mahals it does serious damage to gram. 
It is not very bad in the Punjab. 
Plusia nigrisigna is a sporadic minor pest of gram in Northern India. 
We have records of it on gram from Lyallpur, Cawnpur and Pusa. It 
bores the pods occasionally but is perhaps more often found on the 
leaves. 
Mr. David. 
Mr. Ramakrishna 
Ayyar. 
Mr. Gupta. 
Mr. Jhaveri. 
Mr. M. M. Lal. 
Mr, Fletcher. 
