_ Mr. Fletcher. 
86 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 
Castor (Ricinus communis). 
The seedlings of castor are attacked by Chrotogenus and the attack 
may be serious at times. Bagging is a practicable remedy. 
On the leaves of castor we find a large number of insects, some of 
which may be serious pests. As you know, we grow a good deal of 
castor at Pusa as food for Eri Silkworms, and we are constantly having 
difficulty with leaf-eating caterpillars which defoliate the plants. Of 
course, when the leaves are required as food for silkworms like this, 
it is impossible to use a stomach-poison, but we usually find that hand- 
picking is effective if taken in hand at once, immediately the attack 
starts. The pests on my list are :— 
Achwa janata. 
Prodenia litura. 
Diacrisia obliqua. 
Pericallia ricint. 
Amsacta moorev. 
Trabala vishnu. 
Ergolis merione. 
Altha nivea. 
Parasa lepida. 
Orgyia postica. 
Olene mendosa. 
Euproctis fraterna. 
Euproctis scintillans. 
Clania cramere. 
Myllocerus viridanus. 
Cyrtacanthacris ranacea. 
Acheea janata (Ophiusa melicerta) [“ South Indian Insects,” pp. 386- 
387, fig. 250] is the most common and destructive pest of castor, the 
caterpillars absolutely stripping the leaves when present in large num- 
bers. This is one of the commonest insects that we find on our castor- 
plants here, and prompt hand-picking of the young caterpillars is 
generally effective. 
Prodenia litura [“ South Indian Insects,” p. 377, tab. 19] is also 
common on castor all over India and sporadically destructive. Collec- 
tion of eggmasses and young larve forms an effective check. 
Diacrisia obliqua is also common and sometimes destructive, in 
Bengal and Bihar. Control as in Prodenia. 
Pericallia ricini [“ South Indian Insects,” p. 370, fig. 232], as its 
name implies, occurs on castor but is not often a bad pest. Hand- 
picking of larvee is effective. 
