14!) THE DAfte 



in winters following wet fruit harvesting seasons. There was 

 certainly a lot of damage done to stored date fruits by these 

 insects in the winter following the wet harvesting season of 1914 

 and apparently none at least in the fruits that I have had 

 stored and examined, or in others that I have heard about after 

 the dry harvesting season of 1915. Specimens of the insects and 

 attacked fruits have been sent to the Assistant Professor of 

 Entomology, Lyallpur. That officer has not yet worked out the 

 case completely but has given me the following note protem. 



" The pest is a small Tineid Moth. 



Life-history. The eggs are laid singly on the outside of the 

 fruit ; each egg is small and flattened. The caterpillar is of a 

 dirty white colour with a palish tinge. As soon as it hatches 

 out, it bores into the fruit and feeds on the soft pulp. It passes 

 its whole life in the fruit and fills it with excrement. When the 

 caterpillar is full fed it prepares a thin cocoon of silk and excre- 

 ment and pupates inside it." 



Experiments are in progress to discover just when the 

 eggs are laid on the fruits and measures will be taken either to 

 prevent the eggs being laid there or to sterilise them after they 

 are laid ; whichever is most practicable. 



A small more or less copper coloured beetle about ^th 

 inches long was found in date fruits stored at 



Cigar boring . 



beetle. (Lesioderma Lyallpur in 1914 and was sent to the Assistant 

 Professor of Entomology. He informs me that 

 it is Lesioderma testaceum, Duft, the beetle which bores into 

 cigars. He writes as follows : 



" Its life-history is being studied and the following is a 

 brief though incomplete account of it. 



Life-history. The female beetle gnaws a hole through the 

 external skin of the fruit and deposits an egg in the soft pulp. 

 Then the external hole is covered over. The eggs are laid singly 

 by the beetle and are small and shiny. They hatch out in six 

 days ; when the grub emerges it eats its way through the pulp, 



