PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 135 
An attack of mites was reported one year from Purnea. Mr. Ghosh. 
Graptostethus servus has been noted on jute capsules but is not a pest. Mr. Fletcher. 
The capsules of jute are also bored by Harias cupreoviridis (chroma- 
taria), which occurs fairly commonly on jute in Bengal and Bihar but 
is scarcely a pest. 
ALOE (Agave americana). 
Aloe is fairly free from pests but in Madras one often sees leaves 
bored with large holes, evidently the result of attack whilst the young 
leaves were still unexpanded, and this is generally supposed to be the 
result of attack by the adult of Oryctes rhinoceros, although I do not 
think that this insect has ever been caught in the act. When aloe 
plants have flowered, the central flower-spike often falls down, or is 
removed, leaving a sort of hollow basin which catches rain-water. This 
collection of rain-water is a common breeding-place for mosquitos and 
incidentally I may mention that the aloe leaves themselves often hold ~ 
rain-water and thus serve as breeding-places for mosquitos. By the 
effect of the rain-water, the central part of the plant rots away, and this 
mass of rotting vegetable matter is rather a favaurite breeding-place for 
Oryctes rhinoceros grubs. I just mention this now, whilst we are dealing 
with aloe ; we shall come to Oryctes later on, under Palms, but this 
is the sort of place in which Oryctes grubs may be breeding in numbers 
and which is very easily overlooked. 
CaLorropis (Calotropis spp.) 
[| Akh, Madav—Hind. | 
Calotropis is rather a good instance of the difficulty in defining the 
limitations within which lies the subject of the control of insect pests, 
primarily of crops. Calotropis is not cultivated as a crop in any part 
of India so far as I know although it has been suggested as a fibre crop. 
In Southern India we get Calotropis gigantea and in the drier tracts of 
Northern India this is replaced by C. procera but both are very similar. 
Both species grow wild, in waste lands and on field embankments, and 
in most districts they are looked on as weeds. In some localities, 
however, they are put to considerable use. At Coimbatore, for example, 
the plants are carefully collected and are used as green manure in the 
preparation of rice-fields and the plants are so esteemed for this purpose 
that a cartload of Calotropis plants will fetch as much as Rs. 3. In 
Rajputana the plants are used for fibre, prepared from the stems, and 
in Bengal and in most districts the floss of the seedheads is greatly 
