THE AGRICULTURAL PESTS OF INDIA. 31 



Belostoma Indicum. A large water-bug. 



Blight is a general term in husbandry, commonly 

 applied to denote the effects of disease or other occurrence 

 which causes plants to wither or decay. 



Blister-beetles. See Cantharidse. 



Bombyx. A species known to the natives of India as 

 the Bhooa and Euro bhooa, has a caterpillar which feeds 

 on the castor-oil plant and Cocculus acuminatus. The 

 insect deposits its eggs in flimsy cocoons on the lower 

 surface of the leaves of the castor-oil plant. Each brood 

 contains about 300 individuals ; and for a few days 

 after the young caterpillars emerge from the eggs, they 

 form a dense, wriggling, maggot-like swarm, each a line 

 in length, thread-like, and of a greyish colour. These 

 rapidly increase in size, are extremely voracious, and 

 devour each other, at least 75 per cent, being thus 

 destroyed. Mynas and other birds shun them. The 

 full-grown caterpillar is from 1^ to 2 inches in length, 

 of a dull olive-green, with dorsal and lateral stripes of a 

 blackish-brown colour, and with fascicles of long silky 

 hairs. The moths emerge from the cocoon in 15 or 20 

 days. They are of a pale buff colour. Mr. Scott supposed 

 that the insectivorous birds avoid the caterpillar of this 

 bombyx, from its mimicry of a smaller one also affecting 

 the castor-oil plant, very similar in colour and shaggi- 

 ness, but with brittle hairs which cause intolerable 

 itching if applied externally, and, if taken internally, 

 give rise to dangerous and not infrequently fatal conse- 

 quences. Goats and buffaloes are so affected on swallow- 

 ing one or more of these caterpillars with the castor-oil 

 leaves. The first symptoms are inflammation of the 

 bowels, followed by excessive purging, which not infre- 

 quently ends in death. 



