PESTS OF LEGUMINOUS CROPS. 



destructive, causing a loss of quite forty per cent. In addition to tur it 

 has been found on val (DolicJios lab-lab) and probably attacks other pulses. 



Remedies. No case has been seen where remedies for it were required 

 except in experimental plots. On such plots, spraying with strong contact 

 poisons is a simple and radical cure. A sprayed plot gave an increased 

 yield of fifty per cent, over a similar unsprayed plot. Serious attacks of 

 this pest in large areas could be checked by hand-picking or other tedious 

 methods, and where such attacks occur preventive measures should be 

 taken in the following seasons. The only really valuable preventive 

 measure probably lies in not growing any leguminous crop, such as val, 

 mung (Pkaseolus mungo], etc., from the time the tur is picked till the 

 next crop is ready. By this means the pest will be starved out and will 

 not be abundant in the next season. This is a matter of local conditions, 

 tur ripening so much sooner in some parts of India than in others. The 

 pest has alternative food-plants in the small mass of leguminous crops 

 grown in the hot weather and rains, chiefly vegetable crops which form 

 pods at a time when the pest has not got its staple food. 



Tur Pod Fly. 1 



A small white maggot, found feeding upon the seeds of tur ; the 

 injury is apparent only when the insect leaves the pod, there being at 

 first no sign of the attack. A small hole in the pod is the only external 

 sign of an infested pod. This pest was discovered in the Central 

 Provinces 2 and has since been found in Behar. The fly lays an egg in the 

 pod piercing the shell with her ovipositor and leaving a single egg behind. 

 The maggot feeds upon the tur seed, first tunnelling under the skin, later 

 devouring a large part of it. Only one seed is eaten and several maggots 

 may inhabit the same pod. The maggot is a typical fly maggot, small, 

 white, without legs or head, the mouth at the tapering end with small 

 black hooks ; in length it is one-eighth of an inch. "When full grown 

 it eats almost through to the outside, leaving only the thin outer skin of 

 the seed intact. It transforms within to the brown seed-like pupa, and 

 when the fly emerges, it pushes through the thin skin left by the larva 

 and emerges directly into the air. Larvae and pupae are found in the same 

 pod. The fly is a very small black insect, the wings large in comparison 

 to the body. It is common in the tur fields, though not easy to find or 

 to recognise from other small black flies. The female has an ovipositor, 

 an organ resembling the sting of a wasp. 



1 194. (Muscidse acalyptratae.) 



* By Ratirajn Khamparia, Ent*>mp]pgical 



