No. 2, ] 



Note on the. Pests of the Teak tref. 



93 



NOTE ON Till!: PKSTS OF THE TEAK IREE. 

 By Major C. T. Bingham. 



At pacre 46, No. ^, Volume XVIII of the 'Indian Forester/' tHere 

 is a note by Mr. J. Nisbet, Deputy Conservator of Forests, on the damage 

 done to the teak plantations in the Pegu Circle by the larva of a moth. 



This moth, called by Mr. Nisbet, " Tortrix {Tecto7i£e'^)," does not, so 

 far as I know, occur in Tenasseiiin. During the past three years, while 

 on tour in the forests, I have made careful search, and been always on 

 the look out, but have failed to find it. Quite recently also at my request 

 Mr. P. W. Healy, Extra Assistant Conservator of Forests, went the round 

 of the whole of the teak plantations, anl over much of the natural forest 

 in the Ataran valley, without coming- across a single teak tree attacked 

 by the pest. 



As it was a matter of some impnrtanee to procure the moth and 

 have it properly identified, on the 23rd April of this year I sent a servant, 

 who has been used to collect insects for me, to Rangoon and by the kind 

 permission of Mr. Jellieoe, Deputy Conservator of Forests, in charge o£ 

 the Rangoon Forest Division, he was enabled to proceed to the teak planta- 

 tions in the Magayi reserve, where the plague of caterpillars destructive 

 to the leaves of the teak had set in. This plague, I believe, occurs 

 annuallj' in some portion or another of the Rangoon Division. 



Some 50 or 60 larvae were procured by my man, who returned on the 

 3()th. 



Unfortunately I had been obliged a day or two earlier to go out into 

 the district, and I did not return till the 6th May, 



On examining the box containing the caterpillars, which had, accord- 

 ing to directions I had left, been looked to daily and fed with fresh teak 

 leaves, I found that the majority had not only pupated, but that a good 

 number of the m iths even had issued. Luckily, however, there were still 

 some 12 or 15 rem^aining in the larval state. 



'J he moths I found were of two species. 



One. a soft dark robust-bodied moth, with an expanse of 1 3 inches. 



has been identified by Mr. Cotes as a Noctues moth of the fam 1\' Hi/blmdrs, 



