No. 3.] Miscellaneous Notes from the Entomological Section. 117 



hopper of the genus Crotogonus, which is a common pest 



throughout India. 

 To the ahove may he added an insect known locally as FJapuchi 

 reported as having caused some very slight damage by eating the leaves 

 of groundnut plants in Villupuram (South Arcot) in September 189:>. 

 The specimens forwarded to the Museum by the Deputy Director 

 of Agriculture, Madras, consisted of CureulionidEe beetles belongiug to 

 a species which seems to be allied to the genus Episomus. The insect is as 

 yet undetermined in the Museum collection, and has been sent to Europe 

 for further examination.^) 



Specimens of an ant belonging to the genus Cremastog aster were pent 

 to the Museum in January 1893 by Mr. E. E„ 

 Cremastogaster dohr. Greel ^ of Qeyton, with the information that it had 

 ni, Mayr. n , , . . , , 



proved very troublesome in cinchona and coffee 



plantations. The insect was forwarded to Prof. A. Forel, who has kindly 

 examined it, and who identifies the species as Cremastogaster clohrni, 

 Mayr, a form which, occurs throughout Ceylon, India, and Sumatra. 



The following particulars are taken from an interesting note fur- 

 nished by Mr. E. E. Green : — The ants construct their large dark-brown 

 nests— sometimes more than two feet in diameter — on the stems of the 

 cinchona and Grevillea trees, or on the branches of the coffee, and resent 

 intrusion. They have no stings, but the bites they inflict are so severe 

 that it is almost impossible for coolies to work in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood. The nest seem often to be originally started around a colony of 

 plant lice, either of the species Lecanium coffece or Dactylopius adonidnm. 

 The presence of the ants causes a good deal of damage to the trees, as the 

 portion above where the nest is situated often dies off, the branches below 

 remaining unaffected. The breaking up of a nest only disperses the 

 colony and increases the evil, for in a very short time a number of 

 smaller nests take the place of the original. 



Amongst the Searabseidge forwarded to the Museum since the issue 

 , .. of the last number of these notes, may be noticed : — 



ScaraDEeidse. ' * 



(]) Imagos of the species Serica pruinosa, Burm. (Melolonthini), 

 forwarded in June 1892 from Devikulam, 5,000 to 6,000 feet 

 in the Madura district of the Madras Presidency, by Mr. 

 A. W. Turner. The insect is reported to have done a con- 

 siderable amount of damage by defoliating coffee bushes. 



(*) It has since been identified through the kindness of Mons. Desbrochers des Loges, 

 who determines it as Episomus Crenatus, Dej. 



