THE AGRICULTURAL PESTS OF INDIA. 37 



sacchari injures the sugar-cane. C. comuta is the common 

 maize weevil of Bengal. J. Scott. See Coleoptera ; Cur- 

 culionidos. 



Cannabis sativa, Linn., the hemp plant, is grown through- 

 out all the south of Asia ; that of the North- Western 

 Provinces is by the lowest class of cultivators, and the 

 phrase, ' May hemp be sown in thy house/ is one of the 

 commonest abusive imprecations. Its several products, 

 charras, bhang, sabza or siddhi, ganja, are hurtful intoxi- 

 cants. They are indulged in by the men of several of 

 the races of India, and insanity has often been traced to 

 their use. Women are not addicted to their use. A 

 person intoxicated with charras is often unconscious for 

 a day or two. D. & F. 



Cantharidse. A family of insects with irritating pro- 

 perties. The blistering flies of India are chiefly the 

 Mylabris or Meloe cichorii, the Cantharis gigas, and the 

 Cantharis violacea. Mylabris cichorii is common in the 

 neighbourhood of Dacca, in the Hyderabad country, in 

 Kurnool, and numerous other localities. Dr. Hunter 

 published a good account of this in the fifth vol. of the 

 Transactions of the Asiatic Society, p. 216. The insect is 

 about an inch long, and one-third broad; the elytra or wing 

 coverts are marked with six cross stripes of deep blue and 

 russet brown. The Cantharis violacea is often mixed 

 with specimens of meloe in the bazaars. The Telini fly, 

 if procured before the mites have commenced its destruc- 

 tion, yields on an average one-third more of cantharidin 

 than the Spanish fly of the European shops. The blue 

 fly is of uncertain strength ; Meloe trianthema is so called 

 from its being usually found on the plant named Trian- 

 thema decandra (biscopra, Hind.). The Indian blistering 

 beetles, Mylabris pustulata and M. punctum, are found in 



