58 Indian Mnsevm Notes. [ Yol. III. 



Indian Museum collection. Together with it were the remains of a 

 Taehinid said to be parasitic on the caterpillar. The material in this case- 

 however^ was in too poor a state of preservation for specific identification. 



According to an interesting account furnished by Mr. Middleton in 

 July 1892 the Jcatra insect has been known near Baroda for ten years, 

 and it is said that villages to the north suffered before those near the 

 city. The insect seems to be common in the light soil tract lying 

 between Baroda and Ahmedabad, but the cultivators say the caterpillar 

 is not known to the South where black soil exists. The caterpillar appears 

 about a fortnight after the first fall of rain when the crops are beginning 

 to o-roWo It attacks cotton, sesamum, pulses of all kinds, brinjal and 

 other plants. It often makes a clean sweep of a field beginning on one 

 side and finishing on the other. If the weather is dry, its ravages may 

 continue for three weeks or more, but if heavy rain falls it rapidly dis- 

 appears. Mr. Middleton is of opinion that in fields where the ground 

 is smooth and not too hard, rolling frequently with a heavy roller would 

 kill a great many of the caterpillars, but he adds that it is difilcult to 

 have the fields in this condition at the time of attack, and that his own 

 efforts to reduce the numbers of the pest in this way have not been 

 very successful. 



For a reference to damage done by the same species in the Central 

 Provinces, see Vol. I, p. 55 of these Notes. The woodcut shows the 

 moth natural size. 



In January 1893 some caterpillars were forwarded to the Museum by 



Messrs. Jardine Skinner and Co. with the inPorm- 

 Aiidraca trilochoides ^j^^ ^^^^^ ^^^y ^^^ ^^qq^ doing a good deal of 

 on Tea. , i. i. • n i » t= 



damage to tea m Lac liar. 



It was said that in former years these caterpillars were only noticed 

 in the rainy season, but now they remain all the year round with the 

 result that coolies have to be kept on at considerable expense to pick 

 them off the bushes. 



