CASTOR PESTS. 



159 



structure on the back, similar to other butterfly chrysalides. The imago 

 is a deep brown butterfly, 1 common throughout India (fig. 180). 



These three species attack castor at almost all seasons of the year. 

 When the eggs are laid and the caterpillars hatched, nothing can be 

 done but to destroy that brood by picking and burning the infested 

 leaves. The increase of these insects is rapid and, if allowed to multiply, 

 they may come in such vast numbers as to entirely strip the plants. 

 The smooth caterpillar is the worst as it feeds upon many wild plants 



and suddenly appears in numbers 

 out of the jungles, eating every 

 plant it can find : having finished 

 the castor, it starts upon other crop 

 plants. Like other Noctuid cater- 

 pillars, this species feeds voraciously 

 and quickly; the life history is 

 short and the reproductive powers 

 of the moth large. Compared with 

 it, the Hairy Caterpillar is harm- 

 less, being slow in its life history 

 and having few broods in the 

 year; and the spiny butterfly caterpillar is a rarer insect, that appears 

 constantly but does not multiply at the enormous rate of its successful 

 cousin. 



Another pest of castor is a small caterpillar found boring in the 

 capsules, destroying the seeds. It does a considerable amount of destruc- 

 tion when well established and is found abundantly in late ripening castor. 

 The caterpillar is easy to rear, a small bright yellow moth 2 emerging, 

 which is speckled with black. The chief safeguard is in leaving no stray 

 plants for the pest to breed in ; where the crop of castor comes on evenly 

 the pest can do little harm. When some ripens early or is sown early, 

 or when stray plants are left in the fields and bear at unseasonable times, 

 the pest increases. It is best to sacrifice the early capsules, picking them 

 off and destroying them. 



PIG. 180. 



Castor Butterfly. 



Til Sphinx. 



A large green caterpillar, with oblique yellow stripes on the abdominal 

 segments, is found feeding upon the leaves of til (sesamum) during the 

 cold weather. It has a large horn on the hind end and grows to a length 



1 156. Urffolis merione. Cr. (Nymphalidae.) 



* 161. Dichocrocis punct'iferalis. Guen. (Pyralida.) 



