PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 59 



«xpected was further explained by officers of the Department. Tem- 

 porary fieldmen were appointed and put in charge of the picking work 

 in the various villages and two officers were stationed — one at Sasalu 

 and the other at Santebennur to organise and supervise the whole work. 

 In spite of these elaborate preliminaries it was some time before the 

 raiyats realised fully the intentions of the Government and the extent of 

 the powers vested in them by the Act. The almost complete failure 

 of the early rains was another obstacle, for it indisposed them to exertions 

 against a pest which they said would die out of itself from the want of 

 crops to feed on. There was however no active opposition and no 

 penalties were imposed on any one even though the cases deserving of 

 these were not a few. In all about 10,000 moths were collected re- 

 presenting nearly five million caterpillars. But for the Pest Act it is 

 certain no picking work would have been done even in villages in the 

 hohJis where work had been done previously and where the raiyats knew 

 very well the advantages of the remedy. 



Creatonotus gangis, Linn. 



S. 1. 1., pp. 369-370, f. 231 ; Proc. Second Entl. Meeting, pp. 28, 

 91, 133, 206. 

 A minor, polyphagous pest, occurring throughout India and Burma. Mr. Fletcher. 

 Piepers and Snellen have described {Tijds. voor Ent. XLVIII, 188-189 

 ^1905)) the larva from various wild plants in Java. In Southern India 

 it has been found on coffee, groundnut, lucerne, etc., and we have speci- 

 mens reared at Pusa on marua, grasses, and Mimulus gracilis, at Lyallpur 

 on sweet potato, maize, urid and lucerne, and at Mandalay on seedling 

 paddy. 



Pericallia ricini, Fb. 



S. 1. 1., pp. 370-371, f. 232 ; P oc. Second Entl. Meeting, pp. 75, 

 84, 86, 101, 237, 267, 298, 299, 303. 



As is imphed by its specific name, this insect is usually found on 

 castor, but it is polyphagous and has been noted in Madras on plantain, 

 pumpkin, gingelly {Sesamum indicum), cotton, agathi, Calotropis, Moringa, 

 oleander, and Colocasia. The Pusa collection contains specimens reared 

 at Coimbatore on plantain, at Tynampet (Madras) on castor, at Calcutta 

 on sweet potato, at Howrah on Cucurbita pepo, at Pusa on castor and 

 Commelina, and at Nagpur on brinjal. We have no examples from 

 Burma or from India north of the United Provinces. 



A minor pest of castor and of garden crops. The larvse may be 

 hand-picked. This species is attacked by a Tachinid parasite. 



