a 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 95 
. 
control-measures, beyond of course such general methods as grubbing 
up the caterpillars. 
Perigea capensis [“‘ South Indian Insects,” pp. 376-377, fig. 239] of 
which a coloured plate is now in the press, has been reared on Niger- 
seed at Pusa and in Madras, but is not much of a pest of this crop. We 
shall come to it again presently under safflower. 
Plusia orichaleea has been found on Niger-seed at Pusa but is not a 
regular pest of this crop. 
Chrotogonus attacks young plants especially and the ordinary control- 
method by bagging is applicable. 
In the Punjab Chrotogonus and other grasshoppers do considerable Mr. M. M. Lal. 
damage to Niger-seed. 
A small beetle, which is probably a Pachnephorus, is also reported Mr, Fletcher. 
from Nagpur as eating the leaves, but we do not seem to have much , 
information about it. 
SUNFLOWER (Helianthus annuus). 
Sunflower was grown experimentally at Pusa some ten years ago 
but apparently was not a success. We have records of a few insect 
pests which attacked the plants then. That was before my time here 
and I do not quite know why the experiments were given up. Sunflower 
is grown extensively in some places, as in the South of Russia, for oil 
derived from the seeds, and I should have expected that it would do 
well in some parts of India. It is not grown, so far as I know, except 
as a garden plant but, if it should be taken up on any scale as an oil- 
seed plant in India, it will be as well to know what to expect in the 
pest line. You will find a short account of its pests in Pusa Bulletin 
No. 10 (“ Treatment and Observation of Crop Pests on the Pusa Farm ”’), 
pp. 10-11, but we can add a few other insects to the list. On the leaves 
are found :— 
Diacrisia obliqua. 
Estigmene lactinea. 
Amsacta lineola. 
Tanymecus indicus. 
Myllocerus 11-pustulatus. 
. blandus. 
Diacrisia obliqua attacked sunflower very badly at Pusa in 1905. 
‘The plants were sprayed with Lead Arsenate with rather bad effects 
but later on the caterpillars were hand-picked with better results. The 
first lot of caterpillars are stated to have come onto the sunflower 
plants “ after leaving the wild nettle on which they had been breeding ” 5. 
the moral of which would seem to be Clean Cultivation. In the case 
