Some Lepidopterous Pests New to Sugar Cane in Queensland. iI 
years. In British Guiana it occurs on cane as a minor pest; while in 
the Orient it damages sorghum and millet. The closely allied species 
Mocis repanda defoliates sugar-cane in British Guiana, Barbados, and 
Trinidad. Lastly, another species of the same genus—Mocis undata F.— 
attacks this crop in the Oriental region. 
Natural Enemies. 
The only insect enemies of frugalis observed by the writer are a 
tachinid fly (undetermined) and a Sphegid wasp (Spheax clavus Sm.) ; 
the former bred from pupx at Gordonvale in 1916, and the latter 
observed at Meringa during June 1918. This wasp was watched on 
several occasions in the act of boring the tunnel leading to its nest. The 
site selected by it in each case was the headland of a canefield, the soil 
being typical red voleanic and very dry. 
The nest consists simply of a narrow vertical tube about an inch 
long opening into a roughly excavated chamber ? by 14 in. in size, large 
enough to accommodate a single caterpillar. Having paralysed and 
carried its host to the spot, the parasite drags it underground, glues an 
egg to the venter of its fifth abdominal segment, and after blocking the 
lower portion of the tubular entrance with one or two large nodules of 
soil in order to prevent earth from falling into the chamber, fills the 
remainder with coarse particles, carefully hiding all signs of the where- 
abouts of the nest by levelling the surface and brushing dust over it. 
It may be of interest to state in this connection that in Trinidad 
Mocis repanda is preyed upon by Polistes canedensis J. & S., one of the 
social wasps. In Porto Rico the insect enemies of repanda are tachinid 
flies and a carabid beetle (Calosoma alternans F.). A bacterial disease 
is known to affect caterpillars of this species in British Guiana. 
Control Methods. 
Hand-picking, and dry arsenate of lead, have been recommended 
against repanda, the latter being considered the cheaper and more effec- 
tive remedy. Such treatment would apply equally to Mocis frugalis, 
and in the event of this pest becoming troublesome might be given a trial. 
MELANITIS LEDA Linn. (Family SATYRIN-®). 
(‘‘Leaf Butterfly’’ Figure 3.) 
Synonym—Cyllo leda Linne. 
Both forms of the Australian race of this widely distributed insect 
—viz., Melanitis leda banksia Fab., and M. leda banksia f. barnardi 
Lucas—have been bred by the writer at Gordonvale, North Queensland, 
from eggs deposited on the foliage of sugar-cane. 
The frequent occurrence of this butterfly in canefields was first 
noticed during 1916 (Australian Sugar Journal, vol. vill., p. 377), and 
naturally excited suspicion, as the insect in question was known to affect 
cane in Java and elsewhere. Examination of an extended area of young 
plant cane in the Cairns district resulted in a discovery of both eggs and 
