No. 2.] Holes. 95 



leaves and shoots, which have not hardened into wood. On account of its large size and 

 voracity the Orange Dog does great damage, particularly to young trees, which are 

 sometimes completely defoliated. Hand-picking is not a very difficultjtask in the case 

 of so large an insect, and must in most cases be relied upon to keep young trees free 

 from Orange Dogs. As the eggs are quite large and conspicuously placed at the tips 

 of the growing stalks and budding leaves, it is a simple matter to find and pinch them 

 between the fingers. A very little practice will enable the orange-grower to go rapidly 

 through his youug grove and destroy by hand nearly every e#g. If this method is 

 systematically pursued, the result will well repa}' the trouble. Two rules should be borne 

 in mind, and will greatly facilitate the work. First, only those trees which are push- 

 iug out tender sprouts need be examined for eggs and young larva}; secondly, in 

 nearly all cases the eggs are laid upon sprouts at the top of the young tree and not 

 upon those low down and near the ground." 



Hubbard notes, however, that 

 " while this rule in regard to the disposition of the egg can be predicted with greafc 

 confidence for the orange district of Florida, it is but just to observe that it may not 

 hold good for Louisiana and other more northern localities. Mr. Howard has, in fact, 

 found the eggs upon the older leaves and on the twigs orange trees in Savannah, 

 Georgia." 



In addition to the destruction of the eggs Hubbard recommends that 

 the butterflies themselves should be destroyed, as they flit through the 

 orange grove. 



VII.— OPIUM CUT WORM. 

 • Agrotis suffusa (?). 



Mr. J. Cockburn (Assistant Sub-Deputy Opium Agent, Auchin,) has 



Injury done by the furnished a report on this insect, which often does 



P- est - considerable injury to the young opium poppy in 



the North- Western Provinces. Writing on 21st February 1889, he 



observes — 



" Here, in the Fatehgarh District, their ravages are in full swing among the 



smaller plants I have this jear seen scores of acres as effectively swept 



clean by these insects as they could have been by any swarm of locusts, and the larva 

 must do damage to the value of many thousand pounds annually, both to Government 

 and to the ryot." 



Scott, in his Opium Reports for 1874, 1877, and 1878, describes this 

 pest as specially destructive to young crops in dry seasons, often stripping 

 beegha after beegha of plants in a few nights. 



The young caterpillars, which are sombre-colored and of the typi- 

 Life history of the cal Noctues shape, appear between November and 

 P est - March, sometimes in vast numbers, upon tbe opium 



plants. Scott supposes that they are hatched from eggs previously laid 

 by the moth upon the bare ground, but this has not yet been ascertained. 

 If tbe plants are more than about 5 inches high when the caterpillars 

 appear, only the lower leaves are gnawed and little damage is done. 

 Scott supposes this is because the juices of the poppy leaves have by this 

 time become too pungent for the insect to eat. Young plants less than 

 5 inches high are the ones that suffer. The modus operandi is as fol- 



c 2 



