62 THE AGRICULTURAL PESTS OF INDIA. 



rice, and is said to have affected a considerable portion 

 of the standing rice crop in the vicinity of Diamond 

 Harbour. It was described as constituting, in some of 

 the infested grains, a whitish, gummy, interlaced, thread- 

 like mycelium, growing at the expense of the tissues of 

 the affected organs, and at la t becoming converted into 

 a more or less coherent mass of spores, of a dirty green 

 colour, on the exterior of the d formed grains. Beneath 

 the outer coating the aggregated spores are of a bright 

 orange-red ; the central portion has a vesicular appear- 

 ance, and is white in colour. 'Bunt' is another pest 

 (Tilletia caries), which occupies the whole farinaceous 

 portion of the grains of wheat. 



Sorghum and the small millets are liable to attacks 

 from allied parasites. 



Sclerotium stipitatum, Curr., occurs in nests of the 

 white arit ; the people suppose it to possess medicinal 

 virtues. 



Stilbum and Isaria, genera of fungi, occur in Ceylon. 



Torrubia, a parasite genus of the fungi, of which 

 twenty - five species are known ; one seen in New 

 Guinea on a species of coccus. Dr. Hooker found two in 

 the Khasia Mountains. One American species occurs at 

 Darjeling, and two in China. They kill their insect hosts. 

 Torrubia sinensi^, Tul., of China, is developed on dead 

 caterpillars ; it is valued there medicinally. T. Taylori 

 grows from the caterpillar of a large moth of Australia ; 

 and in New Zealand T. Eobertsii attacks the larva of 

 Hepialus virescens. 



Botrytis Bassiana is a fungus which attacks and 

 destroys the living insect. Dr. Cooke and the Rev. Mr. 

 Berkeley; Dr. Cooke in the Economic Records of the India 

 Office. 



