680 PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIED ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 



turn, a West Indian species introduced as a garden plant and known 

 as Bi-zat in Burma. It is incomparably a greater nuisance than Lantana 

 in Burma and Assam, and measures ought to be taken to prevent it 

 spreading into the moist tracts of Southern India and Ceylon, where 

 it is sure to become a greater nuisance than Lantana. 



This is merely a preliminary note on Mr. Eamachandra Rao's work 

 on Lantana during the last two years. He is now writing up his results 

 more fully and they will be published in due course. 



As regards the introduction of the Agromyza into India, the conditions 

 are not so simple as Mr. Ramachandra Rao would lead us to beheve. 

 It is true that in Hawaii it has not attacked any plants other than 

 Lantana but, as Mr. Fullaway pointed out in his paper, the position in 

 Hawaii is rather a special one. For one thing there are no Verbenace- 

 ous plants of any importance other than Lantana ; this is by no means 

 the case in India. I have had a good deal of correspondence with the 

 Hawaiian entomologists on this question and there does not seem to 

 be a very united body of opinion even in Hawaii regarding the real 

 effectiveness of the Agromyza, of which, by the way, I have sonje speci- 

 mens if anyone would care to see them. 



32.— A NOTE ON CRABS AS PESTS OF RICE. 

 By C. C. Ghosh, B.A., Assistant to the Impenal Entomologist. 

 Reports have occasionally been received of damage to growing 

 rice plants by freshwater crabs. The question came up for discus- 

 sion at the Second Entomological Meeting held at Pusa in February 

 1917 and the information then elicited will be found at pages 155 — 159 

 of the published Proceedings of that Meeting. Some observations 

 were afterwards made by the writer in a few villages in Bankura district 

 and in a large rice-growing tract known as Barail in Muzaffarpur district, 

 comprising villages Barail, Munni, Banra, Lobanra and a few others, at 

 a distance of about six miles to the north of Pusa. These observations 

 are briefly described in this paper. 



A few broad facts concerning the life-history and habits of fresh- 

 water crabs, partly derived from the writer's past experience in his 

 own and neighbouring villages in West Bengal and partly gathered in 

 the course of this inquiry, will not be out of place here. 



Crabs are always found in ponds in West Bengal but seldom in large 

 numbers. They live in holes near the edge of the water and although 

 the mouth of the holes may be in dry ground and clear of water there 

 is always water in the holes and the crabs actually live in water. They 



