THE AGRICULTURAL PESTS OF INDIA. 49 



be felt till some time after. And if the mosquito be killed 

 before it lias injected the poison into the wound, there 

 is no subsequent pain or irritation. 



Mosquitos, in the Tumiche creek in the Gunnison 

 Valley, Colorado, when the small young trout rise to the 

 surface to breathe, will alight on the trout's head and 

 kill it. (Sc. Gos., Nov. 1885.) The larvae of the dragon 

 Hies destroy young fish. In the damp parts of India, 

 mosquitos abound. At eventide they rise in myriads 

 from the Irawadi, and cling around the trees like clouds, 

 and the poorest Burman sleeps under a mosquito curtain. 

 If the itching sensation which their bites occasion be 

 yielded to and the part be scratched, numerous and 

 sometimes large leg sores are formed. The Edinburgh 

 Eevicw for October 1886 mentions that 'rich and 

 fertile portions of the Southern United States are in- 

 capable of cultivation from the hosts of mosquitos 

 that abound in them. The same insect effectually 

 shuts out portions of British America from explora- 

 tion.' In India, the people, to scare away mos- 

 quitos, suspend a plant of the Aloe perfoliata ; the 

 Chinese burn wormwood rolled up in the form of 

 pastilles with some fragrant resin. Pennyroyal plants 

 suspended in a room are said to be equally effective 

 against fleas, flies, and mosquitos. Van Beneden, 116. 



Curculionidse are weevils. They attack, principally 

 in their larva stage, every part of vegetable tissues, and 

 all sorts of plant life. These larvae are very destructive 

 alike to forests and orchards, and to seeds and cereals 

 stored in granaries. A large number of the Curcu- 

 lionidte pass the early stages of their metamorphosis 

 in the pith of stems of trees and plants. See Coleoptera 



Cylindrodes Campbelli, a mole-cricket, one of the Gryl- 



