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A LIPARID MOTH {OCNEROGYIA AMANDA, STAUD.) DESTRUCTIVE 



TO FIGS IN MESOPOTAMIA. 

 By P. A. Buxton, M.A., F.E.S., 

 Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. 



There are few countries in which agriculture is more important and the enemies 

 of the crops less known than Mesopotamia. The following notes on a serious pest 

 of the fig-tree in various parts of the Baghdad vilayet were put together on the 

 River Diyala, north-east of Baghdad, at the end of July 1918. The Liparid moth 

 w^hich is so injurious has been determined by Sir G. F. Hampson as Ocnerogyia 

 umanda. Stand. The larvae devoured all the fig leaves completely, with the 

 exception of one or two of the large vascular bundles. The fruit shrivelled and 

 dropped before it was ripe. 



Life-History. 



The eggs are easily found in patches of from twenty to a hundred, often laid 

 so that they did not touch each other ; the groups of eggs are found on the lower 

 parts of the trunks, more rarely on the underside of the lower leaves, and on rubbish 

 on the ground. The female does not deposit her anal hairs upon the eggs. The 

 eggs are large* for the size of the moth (horizontal diameter 1*39 mm., height 

 1-23 mm.). 



As Dr. G. A. K. Marshall has pointed out to me, eggs large in proportion to the 

 size of an insect are generally laid by species which either aestivate or hybernate 

 in the egg stage. This is clearly not the case in the species that we are now con- 

 sidering, which is continuous-brooded. 



The larvae are almost entirely night feeders, and conceal themselves before 

 7.0 a.m. in summer among dead leaves beneath the fig-trees, in cracks in soil or 

 in mud walls and similar situations. They may occasionally be found by day on, 

 and especially under, the leaves in shady parts of the gardens. The hairs of this 

 species produced no urticating effect on my skin, which is however by no means 

 sensitive. 



The pupa is placed in cracks in soil, and under overhanging portions of mud walls. 



So far as I could detect during my short stay in the area in which I found this 

 species, the two sexes fly with equal readiness if disturbed during the day-time ; 

 they do not fly in sunshine unless disturbed. 



We have no knowledge of the time of year at which the pest begins to be trouble- 

 some. It has been actually observed from the end of July to the end of September. 

 It is apparently a species that breeds continuously during these months, as all the 

 stages can be found at the same time. This is quite unusual, for the very great 

 majority of Mesopotamian Lepidoptera aestivate throughout the summer, which 

 is excessively hot ; we do not know whether they go through the summer as eggs 

 or pupae. 



* Compare Orgyia antiqua, 0*82 by 0*68 mm. ; Liparis monacha, 1*045 by 0*77 mm. 



