THE AGRICULTURAL PESTS OF INDIA. o9 



suffer occasionally from an insect known as the ' al.' The 

 people imagine that if there be lightning while the heads 

 are in flower, great injury is occasioned. This is sown, 

 intermixed with other seeds, to keep off deer, as they 

 dread its prickly leaves. D. & F. Tern. Kit-sum. 



Cassida, sp., the tortoise beetle, attacks the artichoke. 

 K T. 



Caterpillars. The caterpillars of Orgyia Ceylanica, 

 Euproctis virguncula, Trichia exigua, Narosa conspersa, 

 Limacodes graciosa, and a species of Drepana, do not 

 cause much injury to coffee. One caterpillar, however, 

 the Zeuzera coffese, destroys many trees, both young and 

 old, by eating out the heart. It resembles the caterpillar 

 of the great moth of England, and is as thick as a goose 

 quill. It generally enters the tree 6 to 12 inches from 

 the ground, and makes its way upwards. The sickly 

 drooping of the tree marks its presence. Caterpillars of 

 the Boarmia leucostigmaria and B.- Ceylanica, also those 

 of Eupithecia coffearia, are found on coffee and other 

 trees in Ceylon from September to December. Some 

 Ceylon caterpillars sting ; one of them short, broad, and 

 pale-green, with fleshy spines, that feeds on the Carissa 

 jasminiflora, and stings with fury is of the moth Necera 

 lepida, Cramer (the Limacodes graciosa, West.). The larvae 

 of the genus Adolia are hairy, and sting with virulence. 

 That of an undetermined species of moth of Bengal causes 

 great damage, its broods successively appearing with every 

 young crop. They are preyed upon by the crows and 

 mynas. Another undefined caterpillar, when young of a 

 uniformly pale-green colour, infests the poppy plant in its 

 later stages, and feeds alike on the leaves and maturing 

 seeds. It gradually acquires a yellowish-brown tinge, 

 and finally a dull grey, with two lateral brown stripes. 



