Notes on Insects Damaging Sugar Cane in Queensland. 27 



(25) EUPROCTIS HOLOXUTHA, Turner. (Family LIPARIDAE). 

 Plate I., Fig. 25 and h, p. 6. 



Discovered eating leaves of sugar-cane in December, 1914, 



Colouration of Moth. 



Wing membrane whitish, semi-transparent, sparingly sprinkled with 

 short hairs and large golden-yellow scales of curious shape, figured at H, 

 Plate I. Nervures yellow, very conspicuous, hairy. Head, thorax, and 

 basal portions of wings thickly covered with long fluffy yellow hairs. 

 Wing expanse, 33 mm. (about 1% inches). Presumably unimportant. 

 A related species, Euproctis })ii)ior, Snell., is known to attack sugar-cane 

 in Java. 



Plant-Eating Beetles. 



Four species of the family Chrysomelidte are found more or less 

 commonly on the foliage of cane plants at Gordonvale, but only one of 

 these (Rhyparida morosa, Jac.) was observed to cause appreciable 

 damage. Our annual bush fires extending over vast areas of forest land 

 probably operate as a natural check on the increase of chrysomelid 

 beetles by destroying their food-plants, together with multitudes of the 

 adult insects. 



(26) RHYPARIDA MOROSA, Jac. (Family CHRYSOMELID AE). 



Plate III., Fig. 26 q-r., p. 20. 

 General colour uniform shining black, occasionally with a bronze 

 tint. Head deeply immersed in the prothorax up to the eyes. Antennae 

 reddish-brown with eleven joints of about ecpial length, the first five 

 lighter in colour, more slender, and less hairy than the remainder. 



Prothorax and elytra punctate, the former irregularly and finely, 

 the latter coarsely with punctures arranged in curved lines as shown on 

 drawing. Scutellum semi-circular. Length. 6 mm. (i/4 inch) ; greatest 

 width, 4 mm. 



Its native food-plant, the so-called " blady grass " {Imperata 

 arundinacca) is abundant at present, but possibly in course of time, as 

 cultivation extends, this beetle may become troublesome, it having already 

 acquired a decided liking for sugar-cane. It usually occurs on borders 

 of plantations adjoining " blady-gras-s " eountry, sometimes very plenti- 

 fully. The imago is victimised by a predaceous bug belonging to the 

 family Reduviidee. 



