HAIRY CATERPILLARS. 



195 



FIG. 223. 

 Orange Sann Moth. 



plants. Groundnut and sann hemp are the usual food-plants, but when 

 the caterpillars are abundant, they will attack indigo, castor, til, cotton, 

 jute, tobacco and other crops. The methods of treatment are similar to 



those used against the usual leaf -eat- 

 ing caterpillars. In case of a small 

 attack the brightly coloured cater- 

 pillars can be readily seen and picked 

 off. This is of great importance in 

 the case of the first brood, as by des- 

 troying that much subsequent loss 

 may be saved. 



As the caterpillars become chrys- 

 alides near the surface of the ground, 

 light cultivation does good, if carried 

 out when the caterpillars disappear 

 from the plants. In this and in 

 other cases of caterpillar attacks, 

 much depends upon what weeds are 

 growing near the fields; if certain 

 leguminous weeds grow in the jungle or in the waste lands near the 

 fields, the moths are likely to be present and to lay eggs on them ; should 

 the caterpillars be abundant, they will enter the crops after eating the 

 weeds (see also page 192). 



The radical treatment is, as in other cases, to apply a poison such 

 as lead arseniate, dusting or spraying it on the plants in powder mixed 

 with lime or dust. As these caterpillars occur chiefly upon field crops, 

 this method is as yet beyond 

 the reach of the cultivator. 

 It is far better to anticipate 

 the caterpillars and collect them 

 on their wild food-plants before 

 they attack the crops; they FIG. 224. 



appear as a rule only at definite Hair y Caterpillar from Sann Hemp. 



times, and a search through any lands growing weeds will probably 

 reveal them and show what their wild food-plants are. The caterpillars 

 must then be collected and destroyed ; in places where such caterpillars 

 come often, a watch should be kept particularly for the first brood which 

 must be destroyed on its wild food-plants before it attacks the crops. 



fc 



