Uo. 4.] Miscellaneous Notes. 207 



Boarmia cei/lanicaria is probably Boarmia diffusaria, Walker; while 

 the identity of Galleriomorpha lichenoides has, it is feared, 

 been completely lost. 

 It is much to be regretted that representatives of the various coffee 

 pests that were described by the late Mr. Neitner were not deposited at 

 the time in some local museum where they could be examined and their 

 identification settled. It is hoped, however, that as specimens and infor- 

 mation accumulate in the Indian Museum, it will be possible to deter- 

 mine and to publish accurate figures of at least the more important of 

 the insects described by Mr. Neitner. 



Attention has been called by Miss Eleanor Ormerod to the amount 

 of damage annually occasioned by Bot flies (Oestri- 

 da) in India. She notices that it had been 

 reported to her that hides shipped from Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay 

 were depreciated perhaps to the extent of 50 per cent, on 10 per cent, of 

 the skins, while those from Karachi had an average of about a quarter 

 damaged to the extent of 60 or 70 per cent. A report by one of the 

 Calcutta hide merchants has since been quoted in Hayes' Sporting News, 

 where it is stated that in shipments from Calcutta, warbled hides are 

 chiefly to be found in parcels which have come down from the North- 

 Western Provinces and the Punjab, fully 50 to 75 per cent, of the hides 

 being affected ; while in Bengal proper there are no warbles at all. The 

 warbled hides are chiefly found amongst those which come iuto the 

 market between November and January, hides being sometimes riddled 

 down the centre (along the backbone) by as many as 500 warble-holes 

 and thus reduced to but an eighth of the value they otherwise would have. 

 Deer are similarly affected, and horses and goats also suffer, though the 

 damage done to goat-skins is not so great as to hides, and the warble 

 probably belongs to a distinct species. 



Beyond the fact of the very serious loss which is annually occasioned 

 by Bot flies in India, little seems to be known about them, though it is 

 probable that their habits are very similar to those of Bot flies in Europe, 

 where, however, it is likely that the insects belong to distinct species. 

 Miss Ormerod has shown that much can be done to prevent injury from 

 these insects in England, and it would appear most desirable to study 

 them in India with a view to recording their life-histories and ascertain- 

 in o« to what extent it may be possible to combat them there. The observa- 

 tion that Bot flies are not found in Lower Bengal is a curious one and 

 requires explanation ; it would seem analogous to the well-known fact 

 that house flies are much more common in the dry plains of the North- 

 West than in the steamy plains of Lower Bengal, where, however, the 

 conditions that obtain seem singularly favourable to their increase. 



