PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 153 
would be worth while to examine these wild grasses more carefully in all 
localities so as to find out exactly what insect fauna they support. 
Rice (Oryza sativa). 
Rice is far and away the most important crop grown in the Indian 
Empire and its pests are of great importance, and naturally there is a 
long list of them. We will take first the insects attacking paddy 
seedlings. 
On seedlings we get :— 
Spodoptera mauritia. 
Thrips oryze. 
Paddy Fly. 
Crabs. 
Apus. 
Spodoptera mauritia [“ South Indian Insects, p. 378, tab. 20] occurs 
on paddy, juar, cane and various wild grasses but is particularly a pest 
of paddy seedlings and often does considerable damage. The methods 
of contro! include :—(1) protection of seed-beds, by surrounding them 
with narrow steepsided trenches. If the seed-bed is separated by a ditch, 
a little oil may be poured on this to prevent caterpillars from crossing 
it. Such a method will not prevent the adult moths from reaching 
the seed-beds so we must (2) deal by hand-collection with any egg-masses 
laid. The eggs are laid in batches on the leaves and can be hand-picked, 
although this is not always easy. The larvee usually hide in the daytime 
so that (3) trapping them under planks, sods, etc., might be tried. (4) 
The flooding of the paddy seed-beds, when attacked, and the turning 
in of ducks to eat the caterpillars is actually practised with success in 
some districts. (5) If the attack is very bad and all the seedlings des- 
troyed before measures are taken, ploughing of the affected area should 
be done to destroy the pup in the soil. The moths are attracted 
to Andres-Maire traps at Pusa but we do not know as yet whether 
this method of control can be applied. The trouble with this species 
is that its appearance in destructive numbers is usually sporadic and 
cannot be foreseen. 
In Burma the cultivators attract paddy-birds, crows and mynahs to 
attacked fields by placing cooked rice in trenches. 
Mr. Fletcher. 
Mr. Shroff. 
In Assam last year Spodoptera mauritia came in large swarms and Mr. Gupta. 
the only thing that was done against the second brood was that the 
field-bunds were scraped off and the pupe collected and destroyed in 
thousands. Where there was water in the fields, the caterpillars were 
dislodged by dragging a rope over the crop, the water having been 
previously slightly kerosinized. 
