IR Iiiilian Museum Notes. [ Vol- III. 



Writing from Bahraich, Oudh, on 23rd March 1891, Mr. J. 



„ , Cockburn notes that he had observed moths 



Cut-worms. c i i > • /r 



or both Agrotis snjjusa and Ochroplewa 



flammatra, -which are destructive cut-worms of the rabi and other crops. 

 He noticed them from the 1st November up to the time he wrote, when 

 their numbers were specially great. He added that they had been doing 

 serious damage in the Sultanpore and Bahraich districts, five y)ercent. 

 of the produce over an area of 9,400 bigas of land in Bahraich being said 

 to have been destroyed by them. From Chupra (Bengal) also specimens 

 of Ochropleura flammatra were forwarded in March 1891 to the Museum 

 by Mr. J. A. Bourdillon, with the information that the insect had 

 appeared in immense numbers. In the same month some obscure cut- 

 worm larvae were forwarded to the Museum by the Manager of the Di- 

 ghaputya Wards Estate, Rajshahye, with the information that thej' had 

 been injuring nearly full-grown potato {Solanum Melon geno) plants- 

 In this case the insect is likely to have been Agrotis snjfusa, which is 

 known to attack potato plants in India, but the material is insufficient 

 for precise identification. 



The Bengal silk-worm fly Trycotyga hortihycis Becheris well known 



^ m I,- -J on account of the damage it does in rearing 



Tusser Tachmid. i , • . • 



establishments in Bengal where the. mulberry 



silk- worm [Botnhyx *j9.) is cultivated, and attention has recently been called 

 to an allied insect which attacks the Tusser silk insect [Ant/ieraa mylitta) 

 very much in the same way. In the collections of the Indian Museum 

 there is a specimen preserved in alcohol of a full grown Tusser cater- 

 pillar from Singhboom, which has been attacked by no less than fifteen 

 grubs of the Tusser Tachinid. These grubs are yellowish white in colour, 

 of the ordinary Tachinid shape, with a pair of easily seen mandibles in 

 front and a pair of black stigmata behind. Four individuals were found 

 inside the caterpillar's body, and the remainder had cut their way out 

 through irregular holes that were to be seen in different parts of the 

 skin. Almost the whole of the tissues of the caterpillar had been 

 devoured, no doubt while it was still alive, and the specimen that 

 remains is little more than an empty skin. Many of its stigmata have a 

 dark coloured patch on the inside, no doubt due to the grubs having 

 attached, themselves against the stigmata of their host in order to enable 

 their own posterior stigmata to be in connection with the outer air. 

 This somewhat unusual habit has also been recorded in the case of the 

 Uji fly {Cdschrmyia scricaria Rondani) which attacks mnlberry silk- 

 worms in Japan, and is a parasite with which the Tusser Tachmid 

 seems to have some affinity. Specimens of the Tusser Tachinid were 

 submitted to Mons. J. M. F. IJigut, who has kindly examined them 



