04 Indian Museum Notes. [Vol. IV* 



to a great extent, be prevented by the removal of the useless plants which crowd 

 hedgerows and afford protection to the insect." 



This insect is referred to in Volume III, No. 5, pages 57-58 of 

 these Notes. 



" Heliothis sp. — The common cotton boll-worm of Gujarat is a pinkish cater- 

 pillar about y in length ; from the caterpillar I reared a small grey moth, which 

 may be Heliothis armigera. The boll-worm is always worst when there has 

 been cloudy weather in November, a month or two before cotton ripens. It is one 

 of the chief causes, but not the only cause, of ' stain ' in cotton. 



" DiatrcBa saccharalis, — I have reared several specimens of this insect. The 

 moth differed from the description and plate of ' Museum Notes, Volume I, ' in 

 having a plumper body and much narrower inner wings, 



" The sugar-borer has long been known in Gujarat, and when the monsoon 

 rains are light, often proves a serious pest. Cane is planted in May, and the 

 ravages of the borer are usually noticed about two months later, and continue 

 throughout the growing season, although worst when the plants are young in July 

 and August. The symptoms are withering of the terminal shoot of the cane, 

 which on being pulled up comes away in the hand. If the shoot is examined, 

 although the hole pierced by the borer may be seen in it, the borer itself is very 

 seldom there (in 300 shoots examined I found two borers), but numerous small 

 grubs, the larvse of black and brown flies, will be found in the decaying matter. 

 The borer itself soon after entering the stem seems to tunnel down into the solid 

 cane of the lowest node, and if the cane be cut out below this node, and split open, 

 one, and occasionally two, may be found. The sugarcane moth in captivity is 

 very sluggish, and if this is its natural condition, and it does not migrate from or 

 to distant fields, its ravages should be easily prevented. 



" In Gujarat cane is seldom grown oftener than once in six years on the same 

 soil, and in the district with which I am best acquainted the practice is for the 

 cultivator never to plant cane sets from his own crop, but to purchase * seed ' in the 

 neighbouring village. Whole canes stripped of leaves and tops are bought 

 for seed, so that cane refuse or tops cannot be responsible for the introduction of 

 the larvse. From my own observations I think it most likely that the pest may 

 be brought through the eggs of the moth sticking to the canes used for planting, 

 because I have not found larvse in large canes, but only in young canes. Late in 

 the season borers are not found in the large canes, but in the shoots which spring 

 from the base of the cane. 



" In whatever way the pest gets into the field, it seems to reach the second 

 generation before it makes itself apparent. The larvae of the first generation either 

 confine their attentions to the underground sets or, which seems to me more likely, 

 they are few in numbers and their depredations among the young cane shoots pass 

 unnoticed. For the past two years a careful watch has been kept for the first 

 appearance of borer in the cane at the College Farm, but neither after planting 

 ror at the usual time, two months later, did it make its appearance. 



*' Remedies.~li it is the case, as I take it, that this pest does not do serious 

 damage until the second generation, and that except when cane fields are within a 

 few hundreds of yards of each other, the cultivator need only fear the moths bred in 

 his own field, prevention ought not to be very difficult. Efforts should be made 

 to destroy the larvae of the first generation. They may spend their lives in the 

 sets where they would pass undetected, but, as 1 have not yet met with the borer 



