96 Indian Economic Entomology. [Vo], L 



lows : The caterpillar gnaws off the plant close to the ground and drags 

 it towards its burrow, often leaving it on the way to wither, and attack 

 iug a fresh plant. The plant, which is a delicate one, dies, and much 

 damage is often done. Scott estimates that one caterpillar will cut 

 down at least from fifty to one hundred plants in a single night, while 

 Cockburn notices that four caterpillars will clear a bed that is sis feet 

 square in a week. The caterpillars are nocturnal in their habits and rest 

 during the day in natural cracks or holes they have burrowed an inch or 

 two deep in the ground. These holes are often marked by the protrud- 

 ing ends of leaves and stems they have dragged into them. In dry 

 weather they keep close in their burrows in the day-time, while in damp 

 cloudy weather, they may be found on the surface all over the field. 



"When full fed, the caterpillar, which is about \ inch to 2 inches 

 in length, buries itself from 2 to 8 inches deep in the soil, and there 

 constructs a firm irregular oblong cell of earth, in which it pupates. The 

 specimens that Scott kept in captivity, emerged after resting in the pupa 

 state for rather less than a month. 



The moth is common from the beginning of February to the middle 

 of March ; it often appears in vast numbers, and is attracted by a light. 

 Scott thinks there are two generations in the year, one fed upon the 

 opium poppy in the cold season, and the other upon the legumes and 

 pulses of the rainy season. 



The determination of the pest is still somewhat doubtful. It is 

 The determination of known in Ghazipur as Keroima, in Fatehgarh as 

 the pest. Suree, and in Behar as Kumwan. In the Indian 



Museum collections is a specimen of the Noctues moth Agrotis suffusa 1 

 marked "Ghazipur Opium Agency, 3rd February 1879." This cosmo- 

 politan species is well known as a cut worm and has habits similar to 

 those described for the opium pest. The figure given by Scott, in his 

 report on the experimental culture of the opium poppy 1874, certainly 

 represents a species of the genus Agrotis, while it may pass for Agrotis 

 suffusa, though the wing markings, probably owing to imperfect litho- 

 graphy, differ somewhat from those of the actual specimen of Agrotis 

 suffusa. The precise determination of the species can only be finally 

 settled by entomological examination of authentic specimens of the moth, 

 but on the whole there seems to be little doubt that the pest will prove 

 to be Agrotis suffusa. 



Crows, mynas, starlings, the cattle egret, and other birds all eat the 



caterpillars whenever they can set at them. They 

 Remedies. . . 



are particularly active in damp weather and after 



irrigation, when the caterpillars come to the surface. Irrigation is 



1 For accounts of this species see Economic Notes, I, No. 1, p, 33 ; also p. 103 of this 

 number. 



