698 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. 



No. XLV.— CATERPILLAR PEST ON COTTON IN KHANDESH. 



I was recently summoned to Jalgaon. Khandesh, to investigate and 

 suggest remedies for what was said to be a very serious caterpillar pest of 

 cotton, and some short notes on my observations may not be without 

 interest. 



The pest proved to be the common, semi-looping, noctuid caterpillar 

 {Cosmophila erosa). Of this Lefroy {Indian Insect Life, page 453) writes as 

 follows. It " is common as a green semi- looping larva on cotton and 

 malvaceous plants : the male moth darker in colouring than the female. The 

 semi-looping larva is a common pest of cotton {Malachra cajntata), bariar 

 {Sida rhombifolia), and some other plants during the rains." 



The attack in the present case took place during September, and when I 

 reached Jalgaon on September 26th, the main portion of the attack was 

 over. The caterpillars appeared about the second or third week in 

 September, and disappeared at the end of the month. At the time of my 

 visit I was only able to collect large quantities of the pupse in the folds of 

 leaves. Nine pupse out of ten were parasitised with chalcidid Hymenop- 

 tera, with a few ichneumonids, and also a few parasitic diptera {tachinids). 

 There is thus comparatively little danger of an early repetition of the 

 attack. 



While the attack of the caterpillars was severe, the damage done was 

 great. The stalks only of the plants remained standing. Every bit of 

 leaf had been eaten away by the pest. The serious damage done, however, 

 was not very extensive. Reports only being to hand from four or five 

 villages, namely Jalgaon itself, Pimprola, Sirshola and Jamner. All these 

 were within a radius of twenty-two miles of Jalgaon. 



The caterpillars have not limited their attention to cotton, but have also 

 attacked ambad {Hibiscus cannahinus), which is often sown as a mixture 

 in the cotton fields, and Mug {Phaseolus mungo) and Udid {Plmseoluif 

 radiatus), which are sown in admixture with jowar (millet). 



R. S. KASARGODE, 

 Lecturer on Entomology, Poena Agricultural College. 

 PooNA, October 1911. 



No. XL VI.— NOTE ON THE BUTTERFLIES LETHE KANSA 

 AND DOPHLA PATALA. 



May I issue a small defence to the charge of inaccuracy brought against 

 me by Mr. Hannyngton in his note on page 286 of the last number (No. 1, 

 Vol. XXI) of the Journal, though the charge, at first sight, appears justi- 

 fied. The fact was that my "Notes on some Butterflies from tlie Indian 

 Region" had been written long before, and as far as my recollection goes, 

 were already in proof in the Editor's hands when the number of the Journal 



