36 Indian Museum Noies. [Vol. IV. 



" This scale insect injures the crop (1) by sucking the juices of the plants and 

 (2) by covering the cane-stalks with a dirty powder, which gets into the juice during 

 crushing, and destroys the colour of the jaggery, 



" A scale insect locally known as koaria from its resemblance to koara (the 

 seed of Paspalum scrobiculatum) does much damage to Cephalandra indica. The 

 insect looks like a species of Lecanium. As the crop, which it attacks, is a valuable 

 vegetable grown on a wooden trellis by market-gardeners, spraying with resin 

 washes would probably be effective and profitable in this case." 



The insect is referred to in page 53 of Volume 11 1^ No, 5, of these 

 Notes. 



" Termes taprobanes. — The white-ant is very destructive on the light sandy 

 soil of Northern Gujarat. 



" It attacks most crops after they are cut and stored, and hay, corn-stacks, etc., 

 must be carefully watched. Corn is always threshed soon after it is cut for fear of 

 white-ants entering the stack. 



•' Sugarcane suffers severely from white-ants. They burrow into and destroy 

 the sets soon after planting, and eat through the junction between the young plant 

 and the parent set, so that the latter withers off. The remedy always employed is 

 castor-cake. Cultivators apply the powdered cake to the roots of the cane, two or 

 three times between May and August. The total quantity given in a season is 

 usually between 1,500 and 2,000 Bb per acre. This large application of castor- 

 cake is of course chiefly given as a manure, and not to keep off white-ants, but it 

 serves two purposes very effectively. 



" Miscellaneous.— In addition to the foregoing I have seen many insects dam- 

 aging the crops. 



" The following may be noticed ; — 



Cotton. — (i) A borer in the stem. 



(2) A green caterpillar, f" long, which twists up and destroys the 



leaf when pupating. 



(3) Weevils in the seed, especially when pods have been injured 



by the borer. 

 Tobacco. — (i) A small cream-coloured caterpillar, |" long, eating holes in 

 the leaves. 

 (2) Two large crickets, one green, the other brilliantly coloured, 



eating the leaves. 

 (3) A borer in the apex of the stem. 

 C aster 'oiL—il) A borer in the upper stem and branches, the larva of a pretty 

 white moth with black spots on the wings, and spread of 

 wings of about one inch. 

 Cucumbers.— SmaW terra-cotta coloured beetle-like insects eating leaves. Body 



about f" long. 

 Rtce. — Borer in the stalk, small white caterpillar, f" long." 



The following extract is taken from a letter dated August 1894, 



Report from Kanara by Mr. E. H. Aitken, Assistant Collector of 



^^"^e. Salt Revenue, Kanara Range, forwarded by 



