22 Indian Museum Notes. [Vol. IV. 



In May 1894 specimens of caterpillars and some apparently living 

 " S"eMj *o/^a " destructive chrysalids were forwarded to the Museum* 

 to paddy. through the Director of Land Records and 



Agriculture, Bengal, from the Officiating Collector, Tippera, with the 

 information that the caterpillars, which are locally known as "Sent 

 poka^^ were said to be causing much damage to paddy fields by 

 eating up the ears and the tender leaves of the paddy plants. 



The specimens were found to be the larvae and pupae of a Noc- 

 tues moth, probably belonging to one of the Leucaniidae or Heliothi- 

 dae. The material, however, was insufficient for precise identification. 



Some of the chrysalids that were received appeared to be alive 

 at first sight, but on a careful examination they were found to be 

 heavily parasitised by a dipterous insect pupae, of which (some empty 

 and some dead) were discovered in considerable numbers among 

 the grass packing in the box. No imago form of the fly was, however, 

 obtained. 



Specimens of caterpillar of a boring moth, together with pieces of 



„ . . teak wood bored by them, have been received 



Teak borer. . h«^t-.ti-.i . 1-. -r^- . • , 



from Mr. F. J. Branthwaite, Prome District, 



who wrote in December 1894: — 



" When visiting some plantations of teak this morning planted in the Prome 

 Division in 1892 in company with the Conservator, Pegu Circle, and the Deputy 

 Conservator of Forests, Tharrawaddy, we noticed that several of the young trees 

 were attacked by some larvje, two specimens of which are herewith sent. 



" Specimen No. i shows how entry is effected into the young tree. It is made 

 at about one inch above the ground. Round the entrance was a heap of the ex- 

 creta of the larvae. 



•' Specimen No. 2 shows how the larva bores down the tap root. 



" Both when found were alive and of a dirty cream colour with brown heads. 



*' The plantation where the larvae were found was one planted in lines 12' X3', 

 the space intervening between the lines being overgrown with a fairly thick growth 

 of various grasses." 



It is quite impossible to identify this insect precisely from the 

 specimens received, but it may probably be one of the Hepialidae, a 

 group of moths well known to contain numerous wood-boring species. 



In April 1894 specimens of a caterpillar causing damage to rape 

 Caterpillar destructive crops [Brassica rapae) near Berhampur, 

 to '■^ps- Lower Bengal, were forwarded to the Indian 



Museum through the Director, Land Records and Agriculture, Ben- 

 gal, from the Deputy Collector on special duty, Berhampur. 



The caterpillars proved to be the larvae of a Pyralid moth, the 

 material being insufficient for precise identification. 



