10 An Account of a New Moth Borer of Sugar Cane, 
terminal one pointed. Antenne dark-grey, reaching hind margin of 
fourth abdominal segment. Abdomen silvery-grey with faint pink and 
green iridescence ; mid-dorsal areas of segments 1 to 3 with a large 
suffused yellow blotch ; ventral surface of thorax metallic silver in certain 
lights. Fore-wings pale grey, dotted with dark-grey scales and striped 
longitudinally with several dull ochraceous more-or-less-interrupted 
narrow bands extending to ends of wings ; central area with three blackish 
spots placed in form of triangle, two being about parallel with lower 
margin of wing. Hind wings light grey, fringe of hind margin more than 
twice width of wing. Legs rather long, grey dusted with whitish ; outer 
surfaces of front femora and tibiz, inner surfaces of intermediate tibiz, 
outer surfaces of hind femora and inner of hind tibiz, centre of first 
hind tarsal joint and distal ends of all tarsi covered with silvery-yellow 
scales; distal ends of intermediate tibie with two spurs, hind tibiz 
with two central and two apical spurs. Length 4 mm.; wing expanse 
10mm. (Fig. 6.) 
Male. 
Resembles the female, but the fore-wings are either entirely grey 
dotted with black, or have a single dull ochraceous stripe; upper and 
hind edges of lower wings about parallel, the extremity of the former, 
as in the opposite sex, acutely pointed, projecting considerably beyond 
outer border of wing; first antennal joint largest, about as long as the 
three succeeding joints. Length of body 3 mm.; wing expanse 
7-50 mm. 
PYRALID MOTH-BORER (Polyocha sp. Family Pyralide). 
Introduction. 
Although probably a minor pest of sugar-cane it is interesting to 
tind, as a result of observations made during November, 1919, that the 
insect in question must be considered as responsible at times for injuries 
of a rather serious nature to ratoons, extending in all probability over 
a considerable area, but fortunately, so far as observed, affecting only 
a small percentage of the young crop. 
As already indicated on page 6, fully 17 per cent. out of one hundred 
“dead-hearts” obtained from a plantation at Meringa during November, 
1919, were considered by the writer to’be the work of this moth-borer, six 
canes out of those examined being found to contain larval specimens. 
A year later (18th November, 1920), the writer collected from within 
an area of one square chain 44 ‘‘dead-hearts” from ratoons 18 inches high, 
in a cane field at Pyramid, which, when examined, yielded no less than 
33 larve of Polyocha sp. The remaining 11 ratoons were deserted, but, 
with the exception of two destroyed by mechanical injuries, showed 
unmistakable evidence of moth-borer attack. 
