No. 2. ] 



Miscellaneous Notes. 



97 



tl:at, so fai' us conlJ be made out from the specimens forwarded, the 

 insect seems to be identical with the species Aphis brassicce which attacks 

 ^inapis urvensis and other field crops ia Eng'land. It would be desirable 

 to procure further specimens to enable the insect to be identified witii 

 certainty. It is likely to be the one noticed by Duthie and Fuller, in 

 their Field end Gafdeu Crojif) as attacking Brassica compestris (rape) 

 and its varieties in the North-West Provinces. The following is au 

 extract from their valiuible work (Part llj page 31) : — 



'' The outturn of lape is extremely precarious, or otherwise it would be much more 

 generally grown as a sole crop than it is, since area for area the value of a crop of 

 sarson would be considerably greater than that of a crop of wiieat. It is, however, 

 peculiarly liable to the attacks of a species of blight, and in damp seasons every 

 plant in a tield is not uncommonly covered with tiny insects (Apliides), which suck 

 the sap from the flowering slioots and effectually pievent any s-eed from growiuo-. 

 "Where holdings are large, as they are in the sub-Himalayan countr3^, a cultivator can 

 alTord to risk the total loss of the crop on a part of his land, with the chance before 

 him of handsome profits if the season is propitious. But in the crowded districts of 

 the Doab the total loss of a crop means such distress to the cultivator th:it he prefers to 

 make a certa'uty of a moderate profit rather than run any risk in aiming at a lar^e 

 one. The cultivation of rape as a sole crop in some parts of the provinces, and as a 

 subordinate crop in other parts, is therefore explained by a difference in the density 

 of population." 



lu March 1892 Mr. J. Mollison, Superintendent of Farms, Bombay 



„.,,... , , , , Presidency, forwarded s])ecimens of a cricket 

 Cricket injuring potnto plants. ■ i i • 



which had proved destructive to potato plants 



in Khandesh, by cut'ing through the stems near the surface of the 



ground. The insect was found to le indenfical willi specimens in the 



Museum collection which have 



been determined by Dr. Henri de 



Sanssure as Liogrifllus biviacu, 



latus DeGeer (GryllidaB), a species 



which has ncft previously been 



noticed as destructive in India. 



Crickets of this kind a-e ve y 



difficult to deal with; flooding the 



land to bring them to the surface, 



where the birds can get at them, 



may be useful in cases where it is 



prac'icable, while dressing tiie 



land with gas lime soot and such 



fertilisers as kainit might perhaps 



be worth tryingj though there is 



little evidence to show that they 



do much good. 



