No. I] Further Notes. 37 



a preservative against insects, has been repeatedly supplied to the Army 



Clothing Department, both for clothes and also blankets, and that it 



appears to have proved a success. Fears were at first entertained that the 



naphthaline would tarnish gold lace, but Mr. Wood-Mason has found 



that this is not the case. 



Specimens of Clothes Moth, a which is probably Tinea tapetzella, have 



„„ , , been received from Mr. R. Chapman, with the 



Wool moth. . -iii 



information that they save done some damage 



to raw wool in the Economic section of this Museum. 



8.— THE BENGAL RICE HISPA. 



Hispa anescens, Baly. 



Flate II, fig. 1, a (nat. size), b (enlarged). 



This rice pest is widely distributed in India, and a number of reports 



„. , ., „ have been received of damage done bv it in differ- 



DistributioD. ° Ti " • 



ent parts of Bengal. In the collections of the 



Indian Museum, there are specimens from Sikkim (Atkinson), Kullu 

 (purchased), Chittagong (Director of Land Records and Agriculture, 

 Bengal), Midnapore (Cotton), Calcutta (Lyall, also from the Collector, 

 24-Pergunnahs),Khulna (Rainey), Durbhunga (Duff), Hooghly (Collec- 

 tor of the 24-Pergunnahs), Behar (Moulvi Syed Nisah Ali, through the 

 Director of Land Records and Agriculture, Bengal), South India (Father 

 Honore) . 



The insect is a beetle belonging to the family Chrysomftlidse, almost 



Zoological position of all the species of which feed on leaves, both in the 



the insect. larval state, and also after they have become beetles, 



by far the greater part of the damage, however, being done by the 



larvse. 



From the reports that have been received, it seems that the pest 



appears often in vast numbers during the rains, 



when the rice has just been planted out and is still 



young and tender, the insects feeding on the parenchyma of the leaves 



and stalks, leaving the fibre exposed, so as to give the plants a white and 



withered appearance. The insect pupates on the plant. 



Details of the life history of this pest are at present wanting, but it 

 may be inferred from the life history of other species of Chrysomelidse, 

 which have been carefully studied in America and Europe, that the 

 history of Hispa anescens is somewhat as follows : — 



The eo'gs are probably deposited on the leaves of the rice immediately 

 after it is planted out, the young larvse quickly emerging and proceeding 

 to devour the tender leaves, the pupse being formed on the plant, and 

 the perfect beetle emerging within a fortnight or three weeks of the 

 eggs being deposited : so that the cycle of a generation may be gono 



