No. L] Further Notes. 69 



Some dried riee stalks, damaged by an insect described by the Col- 

 lector of Bankura as the Tota poka were received 

 in the begining of October, with the information 

 that the insect had begun to attack the amun rice plants, but had not, 

 up to that time (1st October), done much mischief. Fresh specimens 

 should be sent, as it has not been found possible to make anything out 

 of the dried stalks received. 



15.— EXTRACTS FROM REPORTS. 



[Note. — The following extracts and abstracts are taken from letters and 

 reports which have been received without specimens. The information 

 they contain will be of value when the insects to which they refer have 

 been determined ; for this purpose specimens should be forwarded, for 

 without the specimens the identity of the insects cannot be definitely 

 ascertained.] 



The following is taken from a report, dated 5th November 1888, by 

 Baboo Purno Chandra Chatterjee, Deputy Collect- 



epor or of Basirhat, forwarded by the Collector of the 



24-Pergunnahs— 



" Skua poha, a hairy caterpillar, two or three inches in length, and black or brown 

 in colour ; the hairs with which it is covered produce irritation when they get into the 

 skin. It is very injurious to jute, sometimes entirely destroying extensive fields of 

 this crop. It occurs in June, and is universally supposed to be due to drought, not 

 appearing when there is the usual amount of rain. It is said that vadri, or early 

 jute, which is cut in August, is more subject to attack than is kartiki (or late jute), 

 which is cut in October. Very young jute plants and also old plants which have run 

 to seed are not attacked. The pest appears suddenly, fields extending over several 

 bighas of land being found covered with caterpillars at the very commencement of 

 the attack. The caterpillars commence eating the plants from above downwards, 

 devouring the leaves and bark, until they come to where the bark begins to get fibrous, 

 when they proceed to the next plant which they treat in similar manner, and when 

 they have thus demolished the plants in one field they proceed to the next. The 

 caterpillars carefully select the healthiest plants for attack, leaving stunted and 

 withered plants untouched ; they also spare the mature leaves of healthy plants. 



" No endeavour on the part of the cultivators can save a field which is attacked by 

 this pest. 



" The attack lasts for from seven to fifteen days ; about the fourth or fifth day of 

 the attack, vast numbers of newly hatched caterpillars of the pest may usually be 

 found on the underside of the leaves of some of the plants ; these young insects spread 

 themselves over the field, when they are about two or three days old, and they are 

 even more voracious than the older caterpillars. 



" After the caterpillars have left a jute field, little but stalks, stripped of leaves, 

 shoots, and bark remain, and these stalks the cultivators cut and use for fuel. 



" The pest has not appeared during the past year (1888-89) in Basirhat ; in 1886-87* 

 however, a few fields were injured by it, but the damage was too slight to affect the 

 local market, while in 1873 serious damage was done by it to the jute crop through- 

 out the greater portion of the sub-division, very few fields escaping attack. 



