The Tea insects of India. 45 



individual habits of tlie two species referred to above have yet to be 

 observed in India. 



Gryllid^. 



Dnmag'e of sufficient extent in tea nurseries to make it cccasionallj 

 worth while to keep children employed collecting- the insects by hand 

 has been noticed as caused by crickets in Assam, The only occasion on 

 which representatives of the insect concerned have been sent to the 

 Indian Museum was in July 1893, when some larvse of the species 

 Brachytrypes acJiatimis, Stoll., as determined in the Museum collection, 

 were forwarded from Jorhat. 



The figure shows the insect natural size. Like others of the same 

 group, it transforms, when mature, into a creature very similar in 

 appearance, but differing in the possession of large membraneous 

 wings, which are neatly folded on the back so as not to interfere with 

 burrowing. The eggs are likely to be laid in the ground, but this and 

 other points in connection with its life-history have yet to be traced by 

 actual observation. 



According to information furnished from the garden in Jorhat 

 where the specimens were procured, the insect cuts the young tea plants 

 off level with the ground at night ; in the day-time it conceals itself jn 

 a burrow from nine to eighteen inches deep which it constructs in the 

 ground ; it is speciaiily abundant on sandy soil, and may be recognised 

 by the shrill piping which it makes in the evening when it sits in the 

 mouth of its burrow. 



The species Brachytrypes achatinus, Stoll., has previously been sent 

 to the Museum as causing serious damage to jute and rice crops in 

 Bengal ; tea is therefore likely to be only one of a number of plants on 

 which it feeds. 



Another common species of Gryllidse also likely to attack young tea 

 plants, though it has not actually been sent to the Indian Museum ip 



