PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 73& 



as its effects were already known). Next came coconut oil and then 

 Moliiva. oil in which the weevils apparently could not breed and were 

 found dead. Next came sesamum oil in which a very slight damage 

 had been done. More or less damage was done in all the others and 

 the affected grains, except those with sulphur, were fermenting and 

 emitted a foul smell, the degree of fermentation varying directly with 

 the severity of damage. In those marked " spoilt " in Experiment I 

 the grains were black and rotting. Although the grains were damaged 

 more in the other two experiments none of them fermented or emitted 

 any foul smell. This is a peculiarity of attack by weevils {Calandm 

 oryzce) in closed receptacles. They generate moisture and heat which 

 cause the grains to ferment and rot. In some parts of the country 

 people feel the sides of the storage vessels and, if they feel hot, it is 

 taken as a sure indication of bad weevil attack. Rhizopertha dominica 

 has not been observed to behave in this manner even when causing 

 much severer damage in similar receptacles. 



As regards the look of the grain, camphor came first and next to it 

 sulphur. The oils made the grains very unsightly. 



Lime and ashes seemed to have an injurious effect on the grains,, 

 apart from damage by weevils. 



In Experiment I the wheat was placed on 10th June 1915. By the 

 15th June many weevils were observed to have come up to the top of 

 the sand. They could not go down through the sand and were dying 

 (Plate 122, fig. 2). On 7th March 1916 more than 1,800 weevils were 

 dead on the top of the sand. The wheat, however, was not unaffected 

 and its lower part fermented. 



All the samples in Experiments II and III were damaged, but that 

 under sand in the earthen pot (Experiment II) kept the best. The- 

 sand had settled down, exposing much of the grains at the top, and 

 thus enabling the weevils to infect them. 



The damage in these three experiments was due to Calandm onjzce.. 

 There were many Tenebroides mauritaniciis grubs in the sample treated 

 with groundnut oil in Experiment II and in all the samples of Experi- 

 ment III. 



The germination tests were made in all the experiments on sand 

 placed in glass dishes to the depth of about an inch or so and kept wet. 

 This gave better and more uniform results than wet blotting-paper. 



Experiment IV. 

 One pound of wheat, Pusa No. 6, was stored in stoppered glass jars 

 (Plate 111, fig. 3) on 20th May 1916, mixed with the following things, 

 and 20 ■Calandra oryzce weevils put in. 



VOL. I X 



