30 



Indian Economic Entomology. 



[ Tol. 11. 



Siervgly^phiis furcifer. 



In August and September 1890 a good deal of damage was done in 

 the Rajpipla State, and in the Paneh Mahals, 

 Broach, and Thana districts of the Bombny 

 Presidency, also in the 

 district of Sambalpur in 

 the Central Provinces,^ 

 by grasshoppers belong- 

 ing to the species Hiero- 

 gli/phus furcifer and its 

 allies. The insect was 

 noticed [vide Vol. I of 

 these Notes, page 203) 

 as destructive both in 

 the Central Provinces 

 and in Guzerat during 

 the rains of 1889. The 

 specimens that were 

 forwarded to the Museum were found to vary so mucii in their size and 

 markings that Dr. Henri de San«;pure, to whom they were submitted, 

 was|of opinion that the more extreme forms should be looked upon as con- 

 stituting a second species, for which he proposed the name of Hierogh/phus 

 colesiana. The specimens, however, which have since been forwarded by the 

 district officers, tend to show that the peculiarities upon which the new 

 species was based are merely due to individual variation. It seems likely 

 therefore that the whole of these insects belong to the one species, 

 HieroglT/phus furcifer, which, however, is a somewhat variable one. It is 

 probably non-migratory in its habits, and there is no record of any 

 definite measures adopted against it, though the injury it occasions 

 appears in some cases to be considerable. In Sambalpur, according to 

 the report of the Deputy Commissioner, the insect lays its eggs in 

 cracks in the ground in the early part of the cold weather, the young 

 hatching out with the commencement of the following rains, and often 

 occasioning considerable injury to the young rice plants. In Broach, 

 where, according to the Collector's report, the green standing crops were 

 said to be suffering, the ravages of the insect were effectually put a stop 

 to by a heavy fall of rain, which was supposed to have killed off the pest. 

 In the Panch Mahals, according to the Collector's report, the insect was 

 said to have been injuring maize, rice and Banti (?) crops, the loss in 

 some villages being estimated at as much as ten per cent, of the whole. 

 In Thana,^ according to the Collector's report, the insect was said to 



^ Specimens of the same insect were also received in January 1890 with the informa- 

 tion that it had proved destructive to crops in the Kolhapur State (Bombay). 



^ The specimens forwarded from chis district as responsible for the injury were 

 accompanied by a few grasshoppers of the genus Tryxalis, 



