Mr. Ramachandra 
Rao. 
Mr. Fletcher. 
170 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 
were all laid on the surface of the water and none on the plants. I 
could not however get any plants infected. 
This fly is a major pest of paddy plants and in some years causes 
serious damage which may amount to about 50 per cent. 
The maggot can attack only young plants. Grown-up plants become 
immune. The greatest damage is done at Ranchi about August and 
therefore in years in which the transplanting operations are late. The 
damage is insignificant in years in which the operations are early and 
the plants grow to some height by about August. Remedial measures in 
this case are out of the question as the working of the pest is obscure and 
its presence is revealed only after the damage has been done. We 
have to rely on preventive measures alone and in order to find them 
out a good deal of investigation and experiment is necessary. 
I have seen Mr. Ghosh’s report and agree with him on all points 
except the method of oviposition. In the Insectary at Coimbatore I 
have found 4 to 10 eggs on the plant, generally at the base of the leaves. 
I have found parasites searching out and ovipositing in the Cecido- 
myiad eggs. 
In Madras this pest was studied in 1914. The cultivators know it 
well and it is called Anaikombu (Elephant’s Tusk). Recently a serious 
attack was reported from the Godavari District, and several experi- 
ments were tried in varying the dates of transplantation. Plants trans- 
planted late suffered most. 
At Coimbatore specimens were attracted to light. This led to an 
examination of the neighbourhood and sixteen kinds of grasses were 
found to develop galls in a similar way. Later on it was found that 
several distinct species of flies had been bred out and that each of these 
species restricted itself to one particular variety of grass. A species of 
Panicum at Samalkota was noticed to develop a gall-formation similar 
to that characteristic of Pachydiplosis oryze and the fly, on emergence, 
resembled the gall-fly in paddy. 
As regards control, experiments will be tried with light-traps, as it 
has been found that the flies are attracted to light. 
It remains to be seen whether the flies attracted to light are the same 
as those which produce these galls in paddy. As regards control, direct 
control-methods will obviously be of no use, since, by the time that 
damage is noticed by the presence of the galls, the damage has all been 
done, and it is then too late to avert it, the flies having emerged, or being 
about to emerge, when it is noticed. It will be necessary to make a 
careful study of the life-history of this insect and to adopt preventive 
measures, such as the use of early-maturing varieties of paddy, to pre- 
vent damage. 
