182 p. A. BUXTON. 



Distribution. 



In the year 1918 0. amanda was a very serious pest of figs at Ba'quba (Bakubah) 

 on the River Diyala, about thirty miles north-east of Baghdad ; also at Mendali, 

 Shahroban, and Balad Buz, all of which are within sixty miles of Ba'quba towards 

 the Persian frontier ; also at Kerbela on the west side of the Biver Euphrates, 

 50 miles S.S.W. of Baghdad. This last was important, because the large black 

 figs of Kerbela are famous all over lower Mesopotamia and the whole crop was 

 destroyed by 0. amanda in 1918. So far as I know, figs, though widely grown, are 

 not a principal crop in any part of the country. The incidence of the pest appears 

 to be very sporadic ; I failed to find it at Khaniqin, about 60 miles up the Biver 

 Diyala from Ba'quba, or at Baghdad, Basrah, Qurnah. Nasiriyah, or Suq-ash- 

 Shuyukh. In the year 1919, as I am informed by the Director of Agriculture^ 

 Baghdad, there were no reports of its incidence in Mesopotamia, and in the same 

 year I failed to find it in North- West Persia at Qazvin and Enzeli, and at Tiflis in 

 Transcaucasia. 



The larva is known to the Arab cultivators as Shimbaran, but the word is not 

 in very general use. 



Preventive Measures. 



The habits of the insect lead us to beheve that it should be easy to keep in check, 

 and the following measures may be mentioned : — (1). Arab cultivators burn the 

 dead leaves and other rubbish in heaps beneath the trees. This destroys aU stages 

 of the insect, and also its lading places. The damage done to the tree is slight. 

 (2). Hand-picking the larvae from beneath the leaves shortly after dawn should 

 be effective ; batches of eggs would be found at the same time. (3). Grease banding 

 would no doubt catch the larvae on their morning and evening migrations, but 

 it is unhkely that so expensive a method will be used when burning the rubbish 

 is so efficacious. 



Description of the Moth. 



When Staudinger described the monotypical genus Ocnerogyia he had only the 

 male of the present species before him ; the female has not previously been captured. 

 Sir George Hampson has been good enough to redescribe the species as follows : — 



Family Lip arid ae. 

 Genus Ocnerogyia. 



" Ocnerogyia, Stand., Iris, iv, p. 254 (1891). Proboscis absent ; palpi very short, 

 porrect, clothed with rough hair ; Irons smooth, with large tuft of hair ; eyes rather 

 small and elhptical, smooth ; antennae of male bipectinate with long branches 

 to apex, of female with rather shorter branches ; thorax and abdomen clothed with 

 rough hair and without crests ; tibiae and tarsi moderately fringed with hair, the 

 mid and hind tibiae with terminal pair of spurs. Forewing broad, the costa evenly 

 arched, the apex rounded, the termen obhquely curved and not crenulate ; vein 

 2 from beyond middle of cell ; 3 from well before angle of cell ; 5 from above angle ; 

 6 from upper angle ; 7, 8, 9 stalked ; 10, 11 from cell. Hind wing with the cell 

 long ; vein 2 from beyond middle of cell ; 3 from well before angle of cell ; 5 from 

 just above angle ; 6, 7 from upper angle ; 8 connected with the cell by a sHght 

 obhque bar just before middle. 



