JJ"q ]_.] Miscellaneous Notes. 



daily, but that in spite of all his efforts they seemed rather to increase in 

 numhers. They stripped the leaves and the bark off the bushes to such 

 an extent as in some cases to kill the plants. The manager added that 

 during the ten years lie had been in the district he had never seen such a 

 visitation, and that his coolie sirdars, some of whom had been over 20 years 

 on the garden, conld not remember the like. The specimens that vve:e 

 forwarded were found to be the larvae of a Bombyces moth which is 

 thought to belong to the family Arctiidae. The insect does not appear 

 to have been previously sent to the Museum as attacking tea, and it 

 cannot be identified precisely without an examination of the moth into 

 which the caterpillar transforms. The fact that it has not previously 

 been reported as attacking tea makes it pretty certain that it is not a 

 species likely to do any very extensive injury. To enable the moth t-> 

 be reared for identification in the Mnseum it would be desirable to obtain 

 some live full-grown caterpillars or better chrysalids. They would 

 probably reach Calcutta alive if they were lightly packed with a few 

 tea shoots and sent direct in a perforated box or basket. The cater- 

 pillar could no doubt be easily destroyed by spraying the tea bushes with 

 an insecticide, but this method of treatment does not seem to be gener- 

 ally looked upon favourably by tea planters, and it is veiy doubtful to 

 what extent it would he desirable in the present instance, on account of 

 the poisonous nature of most of the preparations. 



In October lbiM a number of Melolonthidse larvse {= cockchafers or 



_'■. , . ., , . white grubs) were forwarded to the Museum 



White grub in Sikkim. " ' . 



by Messrs. Davenport & Co., with the in- 

 formation that they had appeared in vast numbers in some of the hill 

 tea (Camellia t heifer a) gardens, and were making great havoc among the 

 young tea plants. In one case the insect was said to have practically de- 

 stroyed 100 acres of young tea as fast as it was planted. The prevalence 

 of the pest was attributed to the abnormally dry weather. An attempt 

 was made to rear the insect in the Museum for precise identification, and 

 in February 189*2 a mature specimen emerged in the rearing cage. It 

 was found to be identical with a species which was determined some 

 years ago through Dr. G until er as Lachuosterna imjpressa Burmeister. 

 It is therefore the insect which appeared in vast numbers and proved very 

 destructive in Darjeeling in the year 1883. In Ceylon coffee estates, wheie 

 allied insects proved very destructive about a dozen years ago, the only 

 method of treatment that was at all successful was disrarinff out the 

 grubs by hand, and this, though very costly, was generally admitted to 

 be the most satisfactory method of dealing with the pest. Attempts 

 have recently been made in Europe to destroy white grubs by innoculat- 



