CHAPTER XII. 



PESTS OF MISCELLANEOUS FIELD CROPS. 



THE number of miscellaneous field crops in India is so large that the 

 pests are probably numerous. However, not very much is at present 

 known o the pests of minor crops, and a number of insects can be 

 omitted because they come into well defined classes of pests not needing 

 individual discussion. Pests of these crops are likely to be more local 

 and far more varied than is at present believed. The few that are dis- 

 cussed here are general in the plains, so far as their crops extend. Very 

 many new ones remain to be found and among them many very interest* 

 ing insects peculiar to India. 



Jute Pests. 



The insect pests of the jute crop (Cor chorus olitorius and C. capsutd* 

 ris) are as yet but little known. A small black weevil * breeds in the 

 stems of the jute, the grub being found tunnelling near the axils of the 

 leaves. The grub is a very small white insect, legless, with the usual 

 biting mouth-parts ; it makes small tunnels in the jute stem, causing the 

 plants to become stunted and wither. In some cases one grub is found 

 to almost every leaf ; the tunnels extend about an inch up and down the 

 plant, and about half-way across the stem. The perfect insect is a very 

 small black weevil with long slender beak ; it is found eating holes in 

 the leaf of the jute plant. Nothing more is known of this pest, which 

 was found on jute in Bengal by Purushottam G. Patel. 



A pest of jute grown experimentally in Behar is a green semi-looping 

 caterpillar ; the first pair of prolegs is reduced in size, the body and 

 head green ; two lateral stripes of white run from head to tail and there 

 are numerous black spots with white edges on each segment. This insect 

 lives on the top of each plant, eating the leaves and eventually destroying 

 the bud, so that the growth of the main shoot ceases. It has been found 

 only on jute and is apparently a specific pest of this crop. 8 



Jute also suffers from hairy caterpillars (pages 161-62). Germinating 

 jute is attacked by the ground grasshoppers (page 221), and before 

 sowing it is advisable to clear grasshopper-infested latid of them^ 



1 212, Apion sp. (CurculioiiicUe.) 



2 229 Costnophiltt sabiilifera. Guen. (Noctuidse.) 



