556 rnocEKDiNGs of the third entomological meeting 



or adults have been found, it cannot be said that the Hemerobiid was 

 truly predaceous. But I mention the case for what it is worth. It 

 is possible that further observations would elucidate the role played 

 by the Hemerobiid in a colony of mealy-bugs on cotton shoots. 



The next pest to cotton is Machcerota -planiticB. (Dist., F. I. Rhyn., 

 IV, p. 84). It is recorded from Pusa, Chin Hills, Burma, and Distant 

 records it from Pusa, Muzaffarpur, Igatpuri. It is specially bad on 

 tree cottons and on cotton allowed to remain on the ground for the 

 continuance of experimental work or for rearing parasites on the cotton 

 bollworms, E. fabia, E. insulana and P. gossypiella. It is specially bad 

 from April to December when a large number of whitish calcareous 

 tubes may be seen attached to the stems and shoots of cotton. In 

 some years when P. corymbatus and P. hirsutus are present in large 

 numbers, this tube-making Cercopid seems to be specially abundant. 

 The pests combine together to undermine the vitality of the cotton 

 plant to such an extent that it fails to put forth the normal number of 

 flowers and bolls. In particular years, as was the case in 1907, 1912, 

 1916 and 1917, innumerable tubes were to be seen on the cotton shoots 

 with the efiect that these curled up and the leaves were shed. During 

 1910 it was the case that a few varieties of tree cottons obtained from 

 Bengal were so heavily affected by the Cercopid that the plants had 

 to be removed. From my past experience of the cotton plant at Pusa 

 for the last 14 years, I have found that the Cercopid is at times not to 

 be neglected. In sowings of a great many varieties of cotton for experi- 

 mental work against the cotton bollworms, it has been found that some 

 varieties are more amenable to attack than the others. Some of the 

 varieties were so heavily infested that they had to be removed from 

 the plots. On such plants the wiry, dirty-white calcareous tubes were 

 found in numbers on the top shoots, stems, axils of stems and ejen 

 midribs of leaves. Several such tubes were to be seen close together 

 either on the top shoots or the stems. (Plate 96, fig. 2, and Plate 97.) 



The pest was observed for the first time during 1907 and it was 

 mentioned by Mr. H. Maxwell-Lefroy in Indian Insect Life, p. 733, from 

 unfinished observations made by me. Professor J. 0. Westwood had 

 already drawn attention to Machcerota guttigera from Ceylon, (Notice 

 of a tube-making Homopterous insect from Ceylon, Prof. J. 0. Westwood, 

 Trans. Ent. Soc. 1886, pp. 329-333, plate VIII, figs. 1—15) and 

 there are two other species of Machcerota which make calcareous tubes 

 on Aegle marmelos and Pkyllanthus emblica. The one that makes 

 calcareous tubes on Zizyphus jujuba is identical with Machcerota planiticB, 

 but there seems to be some difierence in the colour, shape and size of 

 the tubes on Z, ji^uba. The genus requires working through when 



