MAY 22 1897 



NOTES ON INDIAN ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY. 



AN UNPUBLISHED PAPER BY THE LATE Dr. E. BECHER. 



Translated from the German by E. C. COTES. 



I.— TRYCOLYGA BOMBYCIS. 1 



[ Plate V, fig. I.] 



Caput flavide nitens, fascia frontali nigra, occiput pilis canis longis 

 praeditum ; oculi hirti ; antenna nigro-brunnea; antennarum articulis 

 terthts plus quam duplo longior secundo ; palpi brunnei,'in basi nigri, 

 thorax cinereoflavus quinque fasciis nigris fere aqua latitudine ornatus, 

 qua-rum media antice inconspicua, thoracis latera cana, albide nitentia ; 

 scutellum fulvum, in basi nigrescens, setis quatuor longis in margine 

 praditum ; abdomen nigrum, segmenta singula, primo nigro excepto, antice 

 fasciis latis albide flavescentibus, Unea dorsali nigra ; microehetis mar- 

 ginalibus duabus. in segmento primo et secundo, discoidalibus nullis ; 

 alee fere vitrea ; squama albida-flavescentes, permagna ; pedes nigri, 

 femora albide nitentia. 



Head in both sexes as broad as the thorax ; the lower portion of the 

 clypeus retracted, parts round the mouth but little prominent, whitish 

 in colour, mouth bristles {vibrissa) situated somewhat above the mouth 

 on the sides of the clypeus ; facial bristles (that is to say, the bristles 

 situated above the mouth bristles) weak and short, not reaching- as far as 

 the middle of the clypeus, but approaching the bristles, which droop from 

 the upper part of the head, gense broad, of yellowish hue, not covered with 

 fine bristles, but only having a few bristles drooping from above (there 

 being five of these bristles in the male and three in the female), lateral 

 portion of the clypeus about half the breadth of the eye, hairy, of whitish 

 —colour, forehead somewhat prominent, and occupying about a quarter of 

 the breadth of the head in the male and a third of the breadth in the 



1 Becher described this insect as Trycolyga bombycum, nov. sp. ; it lias, however, 

 already been discussed by Louis {A few ivords on Sericulture in Bengal, 1880), also by 

 Cleghorn {Note on the Natural History of the Bengal Silk-worm Fly inthe RajsJiahye Dis- 

 trict, 1887) under the name of (Estrus bombycis : the name Trycolyga bombycis seems, 

 therefore, the best to adopt, as the insect has no connection with the genus (Estrus, — E. C. C. 



