49 



prohibition of the transport of cotton seed or unginned cotton from an 

 infested to a non-infested district ; destruction of all living forms of 

 P. gossypiella in seed kept for so^Ying ; prevention of the escape of 

 moths of P. gossypiella emerging from seed in ginning factories and 

 stores ; destruction on the land on which it has been grown, by burning, 

 of all cotton sticks, bolls and refuse generally, immediately after the 

 last picking, as well as of all plants, whether cultivated or wild, that 

 may act as hosts of P. gossypiella ; establishment of a close season 

 for cotton and other host-plants between the time of the burning of 

 the cotton refuse, etc., and the sowing of the new crop. The object 

 of the close season is to give rise to a period when there are no living 

 plants on which P. gossi/piella can feed. For this purpose, owing to the 

 differences of the seasons in the various parts of the Sudan, the country 

 is di^^ded into districts and dates are fixed every year for each district 

 by which all cotton stocks, etc., must be burnt and before which no 

 cotton, etc., may be sown. 



The simple and effective method of killing pink bollworm in cotton 

 seed by heating it to a temperature of 50° C. for a short time can be 

 effected in the Sudan by exposing it in a thin layer to the sun's rays 

 on a moderately hot day. the vitality of the seed not being affected 

 below a temperature of 70^ C. 



King (H. H.). The Sudan Cotton Bollworm (Dijxiropsis castanea, Hamp- 

 son). — Enlom. Bull. no. 6, Wellcome Trop. Research Labs.. 

 Khartoum, 10th October 1917, 3 pp. [Received 1st December 

 1917.] 



Diparopsis castanea, Hmps. (Sudan or red bollworm) occurs 

 throughout Africa except in the extreme north and south. 



When present in large numbers, this pest may do much damage, as. 

 owing to its size, a single larva generally destroys several buds and 

 bolls before attaining maturity. It is not usually so plentiful as 

 Earias insulana, Bdv., and hitherto has not been found attacking any 

 plant but cotton. Two control measures are recommended, hand- 

 picking while the first bolls are forming, and the burning of all cotton 

 sticks after the last picking, followed by the ploughing of the land to 

 destroy the pupae ; this operation should not be carried out on farms 

 infested with P. gossypiella till a spell of hot weather has destroyed 

 any pinlc bollworms contained in bolls lying on the ground. 



Zaki (M.). Note on a Species of Ascalaphus. — Bull. Soc. Entom, 

 d'Egypte, Cairo, x, no. 1, January-March 1917, pp. 21-22. 

 [Received 3rd December 1917.] 



From egg-masses on cotton leaves examined by the Entomological 

 Section of the Ministry of Agriculture, Ascalaphid larvae were hatched, 

 and these were successfully reared on young larvae of the cotton worm, 

 Prodenia litura, on which they fed voraciously. Attempts to rear 

 them on flies, fruit-flies or pink bollworms [Pectinophora gossypiella] 

 were unsuccessful. From this fact and the situation of the eggs, 

 which were in rows on the under-sm'face of the leaves near the midrib, 

 it would appear that the natural food of these insects consists of cotton 

 worms and other Noctuid larvae. When fully fed, and after moulting 



