40 THE AGRICULTUKAL PESTS OF INDIA. 



It attacks only the exhausted capsules, and destroys the 

 seed. They are kept under by the pied starling, or ' ablaq 

 myna/ the Sturnopastor contra of naturalists. 



A small white round worm, in the Vizagapatam district, 

 is found at the root of young graft mango trees, which 

 they kill. Their presence is detected by a loosening of 

 the earth around the root-stem, and the presence of small 

 ants of a grey colour, covering the ground. It, too, awaits 

 identification. 



Many caterpillars exactly resemble in tint the leaves 

 they feed upon, others are like little brown twigs, and 

 many are so strangely marked or humped, that when 

 motionless they can hardly be taken to be living creatures 

 at all. J. Scott ; Tennent's Ceylon. See Butterflies. 



Cecidomyia oryzse, Wood - Mason. About the year 

 1879-80, an insect in Monghir threatened to become 

 very destructive to the rice crops. Mr. Wood-Mason 

 identified it as belonging to the genus Cecidomyia, and as 

 related to the Hessian fly which ravaged the wheat fields 

 in the United States. This genus, Mr. Wood -Mason 

 says, had never before been found in India, and he pro- 

 posed to call the species Cecidomyia oryzse, or the rice-fly. 

 He considered it as likely to prove a most formidable 

 pest, and recommended that the district officers should be 

 instructed to make further inquiries, and carefully watch 

 its progress. 



Cecidomyia tritici and Lasioptera obfuscata are wheat 

 midges. The former is the Hessian fly of Europe and 

 America, and the latter is of Great Britain. Those of 

 India await attention. W.-M. 



Cerambyx vatica, E. Thompson, has been so named by Mr. 

 Thompson because of its peculiarly attacking the wood of 

 the sal tree, Shorea robusta : not, however, in its healthy 



