£2 Indian Museum Notes. [ Vol. III. 



identification, was forwarded by Messrs. Mackinnon, Mackenzie & Co., 



, ., .,, from Nowgong-, Assam, where the insect 



Geo m etna caterpillar on tea. . . , 



was said to have been damaging the tea 



(Camellia theif 'era) bushes. Geometrid caterpillars have not previously 

 been reported as doing any appreciable damage to tea, and the present 

 insect therefore is not expected to be of much importance. 



Insects said to infest the Terminalia belerica tree in the Thana dis- 

 trict, Bombay, were forwarded to the Museum 

 Terminalia helerica pests. ^ Febrairy ls gj by Mj . p G]eadow of the 



Forest Department. The insects were found to be of two kinds — (1) a 

 Bostrychid borer, identical with specimens reported on by Dr. Giinther 

 of the British Museum as Sinoxylon sp., and (2) a small Cucujid which 

 has been submitted to Mons. Fa'irmiare, who has kindly examined it 

 and reports that it belongs to the species Lamotmetux inngnis Grouville. 

 The Cucujid is. not likely to do much damage, but the Bostrychidis very 

 probably destructive. 



Amongst the enemies of wild silk-worms in India may be noticed 

 Iclmeumonid destructive to a large yellow Ichneumonid received from 

 wild silk insects. Hazaribagh, where it was said to attack the 



caterpillars of Cricula trifenesirata. The same insect has been bred in 

 the Indian Museum for a caterpillar of the Hesperid butterfly Telegonus 

 ihrax, also from a cocoon of the wild silk insect Antheraa royiei. In. 

 the latter case it had destroyed the chrysalis and filled the cocoon with 

 its own pupal cells as shown in plate 9, fig. e, of volume II of these 

 Notes. The Indian Museum also contains specimens from Sikkim, bred 

 by the late Mr. Otto M oiler, both from the butterfly Telegonus ihrax 'and 

 also from the wild silk insect Anthercea frithii. The specimens in the 

 Museum collection agree in general markings with the description of 

 Pimpla pnnctator, Linn, as given by Vollenhoven in the Stettin Ento" 

 mologische Zeitung, volume 40, p. 143, 1879. As however Vollenhoven 

 gives Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, and China as the habitat of the 

 species, and as the only measurement which he gives of the length of 

 body is 11 millimetres, while the average length of both male and 

 female specimens (excluding the ovipositor) in the Indian Museum 

 collection is 17 millimetres, the specimens being very constant in size* 

 it seems best for the present to look upon the Indian form as a variety. 

 This variety may be provisionally named Pimpla cricula, so as to prevent 

 confusion in the event of its proving distinct from P. punctator Linn. 1 



1 The specimens have since been submitted to Mr. P. C;imeron, who notices (Mem. 

 and Pro-. Manchester Lit. mid Pliilos. Soc., 1890-91) that they belong to the special 

 Pimpla jmnctator Linn, a species which he remarks is widely distributed over the oriental 

 region . .Mr. Cameron also notices the species Pimpla zebra Vollenbnven as bred from 

 Cricvla trifenesirata. 



