JUNGLE LORE 219 



We now come to the next branch in the study of the lore 

 of the jungles Insect Life. 



It may not at first sight be apparent that any knowledge 

 of the insect life of India's jungles is necessary to the sports- 

 man, or that insects and their habits should find a place in 

 woodcraft. Yet I hope to be able to show that a certain 

 knowledge of the modes of life and powers of offence of 

 some of this section of animal life will be found of use and 

 interest, if not an essential addition in some cases, to the 

 knowledge of the jungle lover and sportsman. 



In my study of the insect life of the forest, to which I 

 devoted some years of research in India, I was led to form 

 certain conclusions, with reference to insects and game 

 animals, which I have nowhere seen recorded. 



One has reference to the local distribution of animals in 

 particular areas at certain seasons. I have alluded to the 

 fact that water, fire and the incidence of a particular 

 food in a certain locality may affect this distribution 

 for a certain period. Insects under certain circumstances 

 may exert a similar influence. For instance, there are 

 two small caterpillars of the moths, known to science 

 as Hyblcsa puera and Paliga damastesalis. These cater- 

 pillars defoliate the teak trees. Great blocks of forest 

 and whole hill-sides may be seen to be leafless at 

 certain seasons of the year, the entire foliage having been 

 stripped from the trees by the hordes of tiny caterpillars. 

 The effect to the eye, in the case of the Paliga which 

 skeletonizes the leaf, is as if a fire had swept through the 

 forest, scorching and turning the leaves brown. And this 

 defoliation may be repeated more than once in the same 

 year. Such attacks may be seen in the Central Provinces 

 teak areas, in the Bombay and Madras Presidencies and in 

 Burma. My investigations into the operations of these 

 pests led me to the conclusion that they had the effect 

 of limiting the number of animals in the forest subject 

 to the attacks. That, in other words, the animals, deer 

 especially and the carnivora, deserted the leafless jungles 

 for those which still retained their leaf canopy. The reason 

 for the exodus of the herbivorous animals I attribute to the 

 fact that the leafless forests become fully exposed to the 

 hot sun and hot winds, thus affording the animals little 

 food, the undergrowth becoming scorched and withered; 

 shade or cool shelter during the hot hours of the day in 



