238 



PEOCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD EXTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 



the mire in the fields gets sticky and the beetles that fall in get stuck 

 there. 



We find this pest very bad in cases where fields are, irrigated from 

 tanks. 



It does not occur until forty-five days after transplantation. 



It is bad in flooded areas in Bengal and nothing can be done there to 

 check it. When it attacks cms paddy, bagging is possible. 



In Assam there is no hope of checking the pest by bagging or netting. 



Will Mr. Pillay say whether it was a bag-net or a hand-net that he 

 tried ? 



Hand-netting. 



We did bagging, but it was no good. 



The fields must be muddy and then the insects fall into the mire. 



Paddy is grown under swampy conditions, and bagging or netting 

 seem impossible. 



We do netting two or three times. 



Do you get the beetles by bagging ? They seem to sit tight on the 

 leaves. 



The insect occurs in patches where the paddy is about two feet high. 



Some varieties of paddy are more afiected than others and work might 

 be done on the selection of resistant varieties. 



Phidodonta modesta, Wied. 



South Ind. Ins., p. 315, t. 9 ; Proc. Second Entl. Meeting, pp. 149, 

 152, 180, 199. 



Our specimens are from Ctapra ; Pusa, on sugarcane, Sacchariim 

 Sfontaneiim, juar, oats and rice ; Surat, on sugarcane and jiiar ; and 

 Pyinmana (Burma), on sugarcane. It is a widely distributed species 

 throughout the Plains of India and Burma and is a minor pest of sugar- 

 cane and jttar. The larva mines the leaf and the beetle also eats the leaf. 

 The mined leaves and adult beetles may be collected and destroyed. 



It is uncertain whether we have one or more species on sugarcane 

 under the name Ph. modesta. The Pusa specimens (as is shown in the 

 coloured plate given in Indian Insect Life, tab. 23, and in South Indian 

 Insects, tab. 9) have five pairs of thoracic spines, the first and second 

 and the third and fourth connate, the fifth free. In the Surat specimens 

 the first and second spines are connate, the rest separate at origin. The 

 Burma form, as represented by a single specimen from Pyinmana, has 

 the third and fourth thoracic spines on a distinct staUc and the elytra 

 with accentuated colourless patches in rows between the spines. One 

 Pusa specimen has the fifth thoracic spine double on the left side only. 



