Ivilinv Mnsfiiim Notes. _ Vol III* 



me 



dian abdominal lobes in the female. This insect is stated by Signoret 

 to have been dreadfully injurious to cocoanut trees in the Isle de la 

 Reunion. 1 For further particulars see p. 66. 



In January 1892 the Superintendent, Government Farms, Nag-pur, 



forwarded wheat (Triticum sativum) leaves 

 Wheat-stalk borer. £rQm fie]dg ^-^ ^^ ^ tQ be suffering to „ 



very laro-e extent from some disease or insect attack. Little could be made 

 of the specimens, though the remains of a number of minute creatures 

 which appeared to be Collembola (order Thysanuta) were found upon the 

 leaves. These insects were not thought to be sufficient to occasion the 

 damage that was reported. In February,however, a number of green 

 wheat stalks were forwarded. These had their stems tunnelled by the 

 caterpillars of a Microlepidopterous moth, either identical with, or very 

 closely allied to, the paddy borer Chilo sp. described on page 19 of 

 Volume 11 of these Notes, as attacking paddy in the Bombay Presidency. 

 A series of specimens, illustrative of the same wheat borer, were for- 

 warded bv M'r. Mollison, Superintendent of Farms in the Bombay Presi- 

 dency, According to an interesting note by Mr. Mollison, dated 23rd 

 February, a considerable amount of damage had been done by the insect in 

 experimental plots of wheat on the Government Farm, Poona. The cater- 

 pillars were found inside the stalk, usually in the hollow of the straw 

 above the node nearest to the ear. The first symptom of attack that was 

 noticed was a bleaching of the ear and stalk down to the point where the 

 caterpillar was at work, while the lower part of the plant remained green 

 and healthy. Several varieties of wheat were being experimented with 

 in small adjacent plots, and one plot of wheat, that ripened sooner 

 than the other was not affected, while none of the plants were noticed as 

 attacked until they were within it about ten days of ripening. Th e 

 wheat followed green peas ; and the wheat seed from which these plants were 

 raised had been grown on the farm the preceding year. The specimens 

 arrived in excellent condition, the caterpillars reaching the Museum alive, 

 so it is hoped to rear this moth for identification. It will be interesting 

 to ascertain whether this paddy borer, which attacks the rice crop in the 

 rainy season, is the same as the caterpillar which attacks wheat in the 

 cold weather. In the case of the paddy borer, which did some damage in 

 the Bombay Presidency last year, there was reason to suppose that the 

 insect passed through a number of generations in the course of the year, 

 hvbernating in the self-sown paddy and large grasses, around the paddy 



1 The success which has attended the experiments made by the United States Ento- 

 mological Department in importing Vedalia beetles (Coccinellidce), at first from Australia 

 into California, iind afterwards from California into Egypt and New Zealand, for the destruc- 

 tion of the scale insect Icerya, would seem to indicate the desirability of ascertaining 

 whether, in the Isle de la Reunion, the palm scale is attacked by any Coccinellid which 

 might be wrth importing into the Laccadives. 



