ITvOCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 445 



adopts such measures as lessen tlie incidence of the pest or reports the 

 matter to a Revenue authority or a member of the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment to secure some relief. In ,the case of Bollworms, the damage 

 done by them is felt either at the time of picking cotton or after the crop 

 has been picked. It is then that the shortage of outturn is ascribed to 

 the Bollworms. 



The distribution in India of the two species of Farias is very charac- 

 teristic. In the Punjab and Bombay Farias insulana preponderates 

 over Farias fabia, which outnumbers the former in Bihar and Orissa, 

 Bengal, Madras and the Central Provinces, This statement is made 

 under reserve and is liable to change with a fuller inquiry into the status 

 of the pests in all the important cotton-growing tracts in India, At 

 Pusa, Farias fabia is by far the commoner species, Farias insulana 

 being found more in Abutilori indicum than in cotton. In the United 

 Provinces F. fabia is found in greater numbers than F. insulana although 

 the real pest to cotton in these Provinces is Platyedra (Gelechia) 

 gossypiella. In the North- West Frontier Province it is the Pink 

 bollworm which does more damage to cotton than Farias insulana. 

 In April 1913, Mr. Robertson-Brown, Agricultural Officer, North-West 

 Frontier Province, wrote as follows : — 



'* In the North- West Frontier Province we find that the Pink Boll- 

 worm {Gelechia gossypiella) is very much more common 

 than Farias insulana. In fact we rarely find the larvae of 

 the latter in cotton-bolls. On the other hand, I have caught 

 quite twenty green moths of Farias insulana flitting around 

 my dining-room lamp during winter. We also find that the 

 larvse of Pink Bollworm are found in greater numbers in 

 kapas when hand-ginning is being done in the villages. We 

 were of opinion that the Pink Bollworm was not so common 

 as Farias insidana. Will you very kindly say if Gelechia 

 is more common than Farias in any other part of India ? 

 Mr. Lefroy records that the Pink Bollworm hibernates chiefly 

 as a larva and that Farias hibernates more commonly as a 

 pupa and moth. That being so, it appears to us that the 

 Pink Bollworm would be more easily checked than Farias. 

 In 1910 we had a quarter of an acre of very perfect and 

 heavily fruited bhindi as a trap-crop for bollworm, but we 

 did not trap very many larvae. Now that we have found 

 that the Pink Bollworm is our comnftnest pest, it is under- 

 stood w^hy the bhindi was not much affected, as Mr, Lefroy 

 f5ays Pink Bollworm does not affect the crops allied to cotton 

 " {vide letter No, 665, dated the 22nd April 1913). 



