Mr. Ghosh. 
Mr. Fletcher. 
Mr. Ghosh. 
Mr. M. M. Lal. 
140 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 
The young shoots of sugarcane are attacked by numerous insect 
pests :— 
Gryllotalpa africana. 
Pachnephorus impressus. 
Pachnephorus bretinghame. 
Myllocerus 11-pustulatus. 
Myllocerus blandus. 
Myllocerus discolor. 
Papua depresella. 
Gryllotalpa africana [‘‘ South Indian Insects,’ pp. 534-535, fig. 
438], the common Indian mole-cricket, is common in cane-fields and, 
when abundant, may do damage by eating the young shoots. 
In 1912 mole-crickets were observed to damage sugarcane shoots 
at Pusa in February and March; this cane had been planted in the 
preceding November. The external symptom of damage was a “‘ dead- 
heart,” usually characteristic of damage by borers. The mole-crickets 
had their burrows deep in the ground, and they came up and gnawed 
a hole at the base of the shoot near its junction with the sett, until they 
reached the soft base of the heart, which was eaten. Considerable 
damage was done and, as the crickets were about 1} to 2 feet deep in 
the soil and could not be got at easily, it was hardly possible to do any- 
thing to check the damage. 
In such cases of damage, where it is possible, irrigation will flood 
the crickets out of their burrows, when they are usually attacked by 
birds. But in Bihar cane is not usually grown as an irrigated crop. 
Pachnephorus impressus was common in May 1916 at Peshawar 
on young cane shoots, the adult beetles riddling the leaves with holes 
and doing appreciable damage. The beetles can be collected by hand 
but are not very easily caught, as they drop off the plants and either 
fall to the ground or inside the tube formed by the growing leaves. 
Pachnephorus bretinghami is stated by Lefroy [‘‘ Indian Insect Life.” 
p. 359] to have the same habit, but we do not seem to have any other 
exact record of this species on cane. Probably both species occur 
throughout India. 
The adult beetles of Pachnephorus have been observed at Pusa to 
damage the tender leaves of the young sugarcane shoots. They were 
found in numbers and could be collected easily in a pan of kerosinized 
water by shaking the shoots over it. 
In the Punjab the adult beetles of Pachnephorus are observed on 
the leaves of young cane-shoots, riddling the leaves with holes but 
they do not do any appreciable damage to the crop. 
