No. 3.] Notes on insect pests from the Entomological Section. 13/ 



Measures of relief adopted. — The measure of relief usually adopted is to stop 

 the irrigation of the crop for a few days, so that by partially drying up the crop 

 a check is given to the free feeding of the worms, and the crop is said to have some 

 relief. Some ryots appear to flood the field with irrigation water and drain it off 

 now and then. Some years before there was a practice of sticking the twigs of a 

 tree known as Uramande here and there in the field affected, and the bitter taste 

 of the leaves had some good efl[ect against the pest. But the ryots say that 

 neither the twigs are available nor the remedy anywhere adopted.,....." 



III.— INSECTS DESTRUCTIVE TO FRUIT TREES. 



1. Mango tree borer. — On 25th June 1896 Mr. S. Srinivasalu 

 Naidu, Extra-Assistant Conservator of Forests, Amraoti District, 

 forwarded to the Indian Museum, specimens of an insect said to be 

 doing a good deal of damage to young mango trees in his district. 

 The insect proved to be the immature form of a Cerambycid 

 beetle, which cannot be precisely identified without the examination 

 of the imago. 



The following extract is taken from the report accompanying the 

 specimens: — 



" The specimens, I regret, are not very good, but while I am trying to secure 

 better ones, I thought it best to send up what I could get without loss of time. I 

 examined the affected trees last month, and found the injury to have been done 

 in two ways : — (i) The stem of the plant commencing from the base is attacked 

 by the grub, which devours the living bark and to a certain extent some wood 

 to the form of a spiral or in large irregular patches. These patches in the case 

 of almost all the trees attacked practically girdle the trees and at once seal their 

 doom. The grub reduces the bark and wood, it devours to a felt-like mass that 

 exactly fills the groove made by the removal of bark, etc., by the grub, and serves 



to hide its destructive action from view (2) Small tunnels varying with the 



size of the beetle found inside them are to be seen on the stem and branches. 

 The tunnel extends well inside and takes up the substance of the stem or 

 branch either in the form of rings bearing a thin column of wood in the centre or 

 in numerous longitudinal tunnels, in both of which cases the portion above dies 

 and can be broken at the diseased part with hardly any pressure. Exceptmg 

 the hole, which is the entrance of the tunnel and which generally is too small to 

 attract attention, there are no outward signs for suggesting causes for damage. 



The trees attacked are about 10 years in age and vary in girth from 8" to 14" 

 and in height average about 9 feet. The attack was first noticed in January last, 

 and the specimens of insects were collected at the end of last month." 



(2) Orange tree pests. — Specimens in alcohol, of the following 

 insects, said to be doing great damage to orange trees in the 



