244 



PEOCEliDINGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 



damage to cultivated plants at times and the beetles also attack culti- 

 vated plants, especially any that are at all sickly. 

 Mr. Senior- White. The beetles are gregarious in habit. 



Gonocephalum sp. 

 Mr. Fletcter. The larvae were found at Pusa in a gram field, and in confinement 



ate gram roots and also decaying leaves. 



Gonocephalum sp. 

 The adult beetles were found in numbers at Moulmein in September 

 1914 on sweet-potato which certainly seemed to have been attacked by 

 them, many plants being dying or dead and their stems eaten into. 



Elaterid^. 

 Drasterius sp. 



Elaterid grubs found at Pusa on 10th November 1914 were supposed 

 to be damaging newly-grown wheat. The larvae were supphed with 

 roots but it could not be determined that they were eaten ; they were 

 probably predaceous, and it is doubtful whether they were actually- 

 doing damage. 



We have foimd this species actually eating potato-tubers undergrounds 

 We find it chiefly in the Hilly tracts. 



All the Elaterids that we have reared have been predaceous in the 

 larval stage. 



They Hve in wood in large numbers. 



The grubs were fed on potato-tubers in our insectary. 



Mr. Ramakrislma 

 Ayyar. 



Mr. Beeson. 



Mi. Ramakrislma' 



Ayyar. 



BUPEESTID^. 



Kerr. 



Sphenoptera gossypii 

 South Ind. Ins., p. 298, t. 8 ; Proc. Second Entl. Meeting, pp. 119, 124. 

 This species is widely distributed in India and we have it from Hissar 

 (Punjab), Pusa, Nagpur, Anand, Surat, Baroda, and the Nilgiris. As a 

 pest of cottons, however, its activities seem localized. In the Punjab 

 and at Pusa it is scarce. In Berar it used to be a bad pest but the practice 

 of removing and burning all attacked plants has apparently reduced the 

 damage to insignificant proportions. In the Surat District it is still very 

 serious, especially in young cotton plants. In Baroda it is reported to- 

 occur especially on areas of black soil. In the Bellary district and the 

 adjacent territories in Mysore it is an occasional pest of cotton. It is. 

 occasionally found in hhindi also throughout its area of occurrence. 



