PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 165 
not always advisable from a cultural viewpoint nor is it generally pos- 
sible in the case of low-lying lands, which are usually attacked most 
badly. In such cases the caterpillars can be controlled by spreading a 
film of oil over the surface of the standing water and dragging a rope or 
bamboo over the plants to dislodge the larve and suffocate them as 
they lie on the water or crawl up again. 
Nymphula depunctalis is frequently reported from the Malabar Coast, Mr. Ramakrishna 
As regards control there, a common practice is to drag a thorny bush ENT AE: 
over the fields. 
Another practice in Malabar is to collect the larval cases in a sort of Mr. Ramachandra 
winnow, which is used like a hand-net. Rao. 
In Mysore oiling the rice-fields is practised. Mr. Kunhi Kanzaa. 
At Sabour, in Bihar, this pest occurs every year and is controlled Mt H- L. Dutt. 
on the Farm by oiling the fields and then dragging a bamboo over the 
plants until their tips touch the oily water. This is practised regularly 
and found successful. 
In Assam the same method of control is practised. . Mr. Gupta. 
Nymphula fluctuosalis occurs throughout India, Burma and Ceylon, M?. Fletcher. 
but has only been bred at Taliparamba in Malabar, when it was reared 
from a pupa found on paddy. It is perhaps a pest of paddy, together 
with N. depunctalis, but has not been definitely recorded. 
Ancylolomia chrysographella is figured and described in “ South Indian 
Insects ”’, pp. 424-425, fig. 301, and we have lately prepared a new col- 
oured plate showing its life-history [exhibited]. In Madras it was found 
on one occasion doing damage to young paddy plants, the larva living 
in silken galleries at the roots of the plants. Will you tell us about it, 
Mr. Ramakrishna Ayyar ? 
On the occasion when it was doing damage, paddy had been sown Mr. Ramakrishna 
broadcast in sandy soil along the sea-coast. The caterpillars were ayia 
observed cutting the seedlings, when about a foot high, and carrying them 
into their galleries. Crows and other birds were very active in removing 
and eating the caterpillars. 
At Pusa Ancylolomaa chrysographella has never occurred in any numbers Mr. Ghosh, 
on paddy. It is found on grasses, especially in areas which have not 
been ploughed and which are overgrown with long grasses (Panicum 
spp.). The eggs are laid probably on the soil amongst the foodplant. 
The larva has the habit of forming a sort of a silken tube, into which 
the plants are woven ; this tube goes into the ground. Pupation takes 
place in the larval tube. Ordinarily the life-cycle takes about a month. 
At Pusa the winter is passed in hibernation in the larval stage. The 
moths come to light freely. 
