No. 2. ] Note*. 103 



India. Some good results have been obtained by catching the moths 

 in lantern traps, and also by basins containing a mixture of molasses 

 and vinegar, to destroy the moths, which are attracted by the smell of 

 the mixture and get drowned in trying to feed upon it. Dr. Riley also 

 thinks that much may be done by hand-picking the earlier broods of 

 larvse. Arsenical poisons, such as London purple and Paris green, do 

 not reach the worms that are inside the cotton bolls, but may advan- 

 tageously be used for destroying those feeding in the. open. Spraying 

 the plants with pyretJirum, Dr. Riley thinks, is a promising remedy, for 

 the pyrethrum appears to destroy both the worms feeding in the open 

 and those inside the bolls. There is no record, however, of the adoption 

 of this remedy on any but an experimental scale. 



IX.— CECIDOMYIA ORYZ^, Wood-Mason-. 



[Plate VI, fig. 6 ; a,,imago, wing enlarged; b,pupa, dorsal view enlarged ; c,pupa, ventral 



view enlarged. 3 



The following is an abstract of the correspondence published in the 

 Supplement to the Calcutta Gazette of 8th December 1880 :— 



In October 1880 the Magistrate of Monghyr reported serious injury 

 to the dhan in the Kurruckpore thana, by some insect that had not 

 before been known. Specimens were forwarded to the Indian Museum 

 and were examined by Mr. J. Wood-Mason, who reported that they 

 consisted of pupse, pupal skins, and an adult female belonging to the 

 Dipterous genus Cecidomyia, and to a species which he provisionally 

 named Cecidomyia oryza. Nothing seems to have been previously known 

 cf this pest, which is one of special interest as belonging to the same 

 genus as the destructive "Hessian fiy " {Cecidomyia destructor) of Europe 

 and America. Mr. Wood-Mason observed that the insect was viviparous, 

 and he thought it likely that the young maggots were deposited by the 

 mother fly upon the developing panicle, or "ear/"' of the rice plant. 

 The figures of the insect were prepared in the Museum under Mr, Wocd- 

 Mason's supervision at the time of his report, and are now published 

 with a view of directing attention to the existence in India of a pest 

 which, on a priori grounds, is likely to be an important one, though 

 nothing seems to have been heard of it since 1 ! 



X.— MISCELLANEOUS PESTS. 



A caterpillar of the moth Agrotis suffusa was received on 17th May 

 _, 1889 from the Department of Land Records and 



Agrotis suffusa. r - . " 



Agriculture, Bengal, with the information that it 



had been doing considerable injury to the potato crop in the neighbour- 

 hood of Kurseong. The officer in charge of the experimental potato plots 

 at Kurseong reported that the insect appears chiefly in years when the 

 rainfall is deficient. It cuts the potato plants at night and shelters itself 



