Mr. Jhaveri. 
Mr. Fletcher. 
Mr. Ramakrishna 
Ayyar 
272 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND ENTOMULOGICAL MEETING 
Heliothis obsoleta also bores at times in the capsules. Hand-picking 
is the only remedy. 
Nysius inconspicuus is supposed to occur on tobacco and N. minor 
has been recorded in ‘‘ Indian Insect Life,” p. 687, as found on tobacco 
abundantly, but we do not seem to have any exact records and the 
identification of these bugs appears to require revision. 
Gallobelicus crassicornis [“ South Indian Insects,” pp. 490-491, 
fig. 377] is found commonly, at times abundantly, on the tender shoots 
and flower-heads and seed-capsules of tobacco and is a minor pest 
througnout India. The adults are fairly active and are probably 
best dealt with by catching in hand-nets and shaking the affected 
plants over pans of oil and water. 
The stems of tobacco plants are damaged by the caterpillar of 
Phthorimea heliopa [‘‘ South Indian Insects,” pp. 454-455, tab. 43} 
which bores in the stem, causing a characteristic gall-like swelling. It 
attacks seedlings as well as grown plants, and is especially bad on the 
second crop when this is taken after a first cutting. In most districts 
this insect seems to be a minor pest, sporadically serious, but in Western 
India it is apparently a major pest. It occurs throughout the Plains 
of India and in Ceylon, but we have no records from North-Western 
India. Our records are from Hanguranketa (Ceylon), Coimbatore, 
Shevaroy Hills, Hagari, Penukonda (Anantapur District), Tharsa, 
Gujarat, Anand District, Pusa and Rangpur. As regards control, this 
is best effected by removal and burning of all attacked plants in 
nurseries and by careful cleaning up of all stumps and stray plants after 
harvest. In some districts the cultivators slit up the gall with a sharp 
knife to kill the caterpillar. 
In North Gujarat, Phthorimea heliopa is very common. The cater- 
pillars are first noted in the seed-beds. This insect never kills the plant. 
whose growth only is checked. I have seen plants, containing as many 
as fifteen caterpillars, but not killed. Asregards control, the ploughing 
of the fields after harvest, with removal of all stubble, is found useful} 
in the Kaira District, N. Gujarat. 
Schizodactylus monstrosus [“‘ South Indian Insects,” pp. 533-5 34, 
fig. 427] was considered under indigo. It does damage to tobacco at 
times but only casually and incidentally to its burrowing in the 
ground, 
Sucking insects found on tobacco, other than the bugs found on the 
shoots and already mentioned, are few in number, but Aphids occasion- 
ally occur in some numbers and may be minor pests. 
Aphids are very bad on tobacco in Tanjore and Coimbatore. 
