32 THE AGRICULTURAL PESTS OF INDIA. 



Bombyx, sp. } the Tiliayakura of the natives of Hindu- 

 stan, appeared in Behar in 187778 on the poppy plant, 

 causing great destruction. J. Scott. 



Book-worm, the death-watch, a beetle which bores 

 through the leaves and boards of books ; it is a species 

 of Anobium. Among the insects which infest books in 

 India are two useful genera, the chelifer and the 

 iepisma, known respectively as the tailless scorpion and 

 the fish insect. Both of these shun the light, but they 

 pursue and greedily feed on the larvre of the death-watch, 

 and the numerous acari and soft-bodied insects which 

 prey on books. Leaves of the margosa tree are placed 

 in books to protect them, as also the powdered leaves of 

 Justicia gandarussa. The seeds of the Nigella sativa and 

 camphor are placed among the books to scare insects. 

 See Anobium. 



Borer. A popular term adopted in India to designate 

 several different insects which bore into and destroy 

 economic plants. A borer-worm of India, with a white 

 flaccid body and reddish -hued head, is described as 

 committing great havoc in gardens and shrubberies of 

 Southern India. It attacks all manner of shrubs and 

 trees indiscriminately, piercing the stem about two feet 

 from the ground, and then boring downwards through the 

 root into the earth, and effectually killing the tree or 

 shrub. Eucalyptus, acacia, and woodbine or honey- 

 suckle appear especially subject to its depredations. See 

 Batocera ; Diatrcea ; Tomicus. 



Bostrichus. A genus of the Xylophagi. The species 

 chiefly affect the dead wood of forest trees. E. T. 



Bots are larvse of insects of the family QEstridse. See 

 (Estridae. 



Brarrah, of Swat. A wood-louse that infests houses in 



