98 



Indian Museum Notes. 



[ Vol. Ill, 



Castor-oil seed caterpillar. 



In Apiil 1892 Mr. A. V. Knyvetfc forwarded specimens of a moth, 



the caterpillar of which had been noticed as 

 attacking" castor-oil plants [Ricinus commu- 

 nis) in the Sonthal Pergimnahs. 'J he specimens were in too poor a state 

 of preservation for satisfactory examination, but, as far as could be made 

 out, they were identical with sjecimens in the Museum collection which 

 have been determined as belonging to the species Conogethes jmncti- 

 feral'is (iuen. f lhe caterpillar attacks the seeds and is said, to have done 

 a large amount of damage. 



In March 1892 Mr. J. Mollison, Superintendent of Farms, Bombay, 



„ . , . T i. mi forwarded pcds of Bombay hemp [Crotalaria 



Crotaiaria Juncea caterpillar. , I J r v 



juncea) tunnelled by the larvae of a miero- 

 lepidopterous insect. Mr. Mollison wrote that the insect had been very 

 destructive in Baroda in the months of October and November, a third 



of the pods kept for seed being- affected. 

 When full-fed the caterpillars spun them- 

 selves up into little silken cocoons, which, 

 in the case of the ones reared in the 

 Museum, were attached to the sides of the 

 box in whioh the pods were placed. It 

 is pro 1 , able, therefore, that the habit of 

 the insect is to- desert the pods before 

 spinning its cocoon. Moths emerged in the early part of April; they 

 prove to be Phycidse, hut the species is new to the Museum collection, so 

 specimens have been sent to Europe for precise identification^ 1 ) 



In April 1892 some cut worms and Elateridae larvae, said to have 



„ , , ,.„.,,. proved destructive to potato plants in Kalim- 



Potato pests in Sikkira. . ,. -in t» 



pong, Darjeeling, were received from Babu 



N. G, Mukharji. The insects were too immature for precise identification, 



but the cut worms were likely to have belonged to the species Jgrotis 



suffusa Fabr. (Nocfcues) a species which was reared on a previous occasion 



in the Museum from caterpillars which proved destructive to potato plants 



in Kurseong. Kerosene emulsion was tried by Babu Mukharji, but the 



results, though encouraging, do not seem to have been at all conclusive. 



At the time that the emulsion was applied very few stems had been cut, 



though numerous grubs were to be found at the foot of each plant; 



after the emulsion had been applied, Babu Mukharji found that more 



(') The insect has since been kindly examined by the well known entomologist Mr. F. 

 Moore, who identifies it as the species Mellia zinclcenella (Pligeis zinchenella Trict.) a not 

 uncommon Phycid iu Europe, India, and Ceylon. 



