No. 6. ] -^ Conspectus of Insects. 14i7 



often so much like eael> otlier tlia,t entomologists nre sometimes unable 

 to determine precisely whiit an insect is, unless they are aide to examine 

 malnre specimens. Mature specimens, liowever, are often difficult to 

 getj for some insects t:ike j'ears in developing, while others are not 

 easily reared under artificial conditions. Even when the mature form 

 is forthcoming, the determination of the species docs not b\- any means 

 follow as a matter of course, for many insi'cts, when full fjrown, still have 

 much superficial resemlihiuce to other insects, tlion<jli in reality they miiy 

 differ from them in important jioints. Again, the eonfnsion which has 

 been widely introduced into entomolouical writiri<;s, ouini;' to the indis- 

 criminate manner in wliieh new sjiecies have atjain and a^ain lieen 

 descrilied on evidence olitained solely by esaminiiig liraiied collei-tions 

 of dried specimens, has added what is at piesent perhajis tlie greatest 

 stnmbling-lilock in the way of arriving' at the correct identification of 

 Indian insects. It is generally impossible therefore to identify a 

 species with certainty from a description, unless the description is a 

 very minute one, and even then mistakes are always liable to occur, 

 unless comparison can be made with authentically identified specimens. 

 A treatise, therefore, of some length would be required to give sufficient 

 descriptions to make it possible even to attempt the identification 

 of all the insects that are noticed in this paper; and as the principal 

 object in the present instance is to give a list of tlie species which 

 affect cro]is, it has lieeii thonght best merely to notice rouglily wliat a 

 few of the more important of them look like supertieially, disregarding 

 the fact that the same remarks would ver\' often aj'ply equally to other 

 insects with different lialiiis. 



Much reliance cannot he placed in the accuracy of the Native names 

 The extent to wliicli the that are quoted ; for, although some names 

 Native names are reliable. ajipear to be used with great constancy for 



denoting particular insects (as, for example, griiiillii for the rice sapper — 

 Leptocorha ncnta of Bengal), in main' instances they seem to be used 

 loosely and to have little more significance than such popular English 

 terms as caterpillar , weevil, gruh, and locust, all of which cover a multi- 

 tude of distinct species — many of them with very different habits. 

 Besides the inaccnraey due to the indefinite significance of many of the 

 names themselves, great carelessness has also been noticed in the naminjj 

 of some of the specimens that have been sent to the JMusenm, as, fur 

 instance, where some butterfly caterpillars and red Hemiptera were sent 

 in one bottle under a single Native name, though it is scarcely credible 

 that any one could have supposed that such different creatures were 

 forms of one and the same animal. Again, what is apparently one name 

 often appears under several forms [e.g ., pamari, pandi, and pavali, all 



