Vol. n.] [No. 1. 



INDIAN MUSEUM NOTES. 



No. I.-MISCELLANEOUS NOTES FROM THE ENTOMOLOGICAL 

 SECTION OF THE INDIAN MUSEUM. 



By E. C. cotes. 



During the year 1890-91 the collection of information on the subject 



of the Economic Entomology of India went 

 The work of tbe year 1890-91. i • ^i t^ ^ f • i o .• o 



on as usual in the Entomological oeetion or 



the Indian Museum. The chief work of the year may be classed under 



the headings of, (1) Locusts, (2) Silk insects, (3) Reference collections, 



(4) Lectures, (5) Miscellaneous insects. 



In the matter of Locusts, the habits and history of Acridium peregrinum, 

 which is the chief locust of North-Western India, were investigated, and 

 a detailed report was issued on the subject. 



In the matter of Silk insects, all available information was collected 

 concerning the wild species which produce silk in India, but which have 

 not hitherto been cultivated, and progress was made with a report upon 

 the subject, for publication in these Notes. The silk insects which are 

 actually cultivated have been already dealt with in a report which was 

 issued as Volume I, No. 3 of these Notes. 



In the matter of the Reference collections which are being gradually 

 got together in the Indian Museum, specimens of the insects sent to 

 the Museum for report, were, as far as possible, preserved and identified 

 zoologically for future reference. Help in the identification of the 

 species was received from Entomologists in several quarters of the globe :, 

 for in India, where there are, at a moderate computation, some twenty 

 thousand diflferent kinds of insects, many of them unknown to science, the 

 zoological identification of a species is often a matter of very considerable 

 difficulty, while it is necessary that the insects should be identified, as> 

 without identification it is impossible to avail ourselves of what has been 

 ascertained in other parts of the world about similar or allied forms. 

 Communication therefore has been established with many of the chief 

 Entomologists in different parts of the world, and several of them have 

 assisted gratuitously by identifying the insects belonging to the parti- 

 cular groups which they have specially studied. In this connection may 

 be mentioned the following Entomologists who kindly gave help during 

 the past year in the identification of species of economic importance : — Dr. 



