THE JOLA OR DECCAN GRASSHOPPER 
(Colemanta sphenarioides, Bol.) 

THE Deccan Grasshopper is a new and serious agricultural 
pest in Mysore. It is to be considered serious not only on 
account of the damage it has already done in the areas 
where it has gained a footing, but also on account of its 
possibilities for the future. So recent is this pest that 
practically nothing has, as yet, been published with regard 
to it. The first printed reference to it occurs in a note by 
Mr. Maxwell Lefroy, Imperial Entomologist, published in 
the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, Vol. 
XIX, No. 4, 1910, p. 1007. In this note, he suggests that 
the popular name ‘‘ Deccan Grasshopper” be applied to 
the insect as indicating its habitat. This name is, on the 
whole, a suitable one, although this grasshopper appears 
to occupy but a fraction of the area known as the 
Deccan. In Mysore, it would be, perhaps, better known 
as the Jola Grasshopper, for here it occurs, as yet, only 
in those areas where jola (Andropogon sorghum) is the 
staple cereal crop and it is, therefore, to this crop that the 
most extensive damage is done. 
In April 1910, specimens of this grasshopper, collected 
the previous year in the neighbourhood of Honnali, 
Shimoga District, were sent to Prof. Ignacio Bolivar, one 
of the leading authorities on Orthoptera, for identification. 
He informed me that this form is not only a new species 
but also belongs to a new genus. Later, in the Boletin de 
la Real Sociedad Espaiola de Historia Natural, p. 319, 
July 1910, he published his descriptions of the genus and 
species. As his paper, which was written in Spanish, 
appeared in a Spanish scientific journal not easily acces- 
sible to entomological workers in India, I published a 
note giving its main points, together with his original 
B 
