No. 4.] Notes on Insect pests from the Entomological Section. 196 



fatal to the plant. East winds seem to be favourable and west winds unfavour- 

 able to caterpillars. When the wind blows persistently from the East for days 

 caterpillars will appear almost to a certainty. They generally appear when the 

 plant is young, say a fortnight to a month old. I have known them, however, 

 attack plant in all stages of its growth and at all seasons of the year. The cater- 

 pillar, however, which appears on the matured plant during the manufacturing 

 season, is, according to my experience, the green variety invariably. Though these 

 do not kill the plant, they strip it of its leaves and render it practically unfit for 

 manufacture. I have some live specimens of caterpillars, and as soon as I can send 

 you their chrysalids I will do so, and also specimens of the resulting insect." 



The specimens received appeared to be the larvae of a Noctues 

 moth, the material being insufficient for any identification. 



Mr. Thorp subsequently forwarded a living chrysalis, which, how- 

 ever, arrived in the Museum in a dried state and dead that nothing 

 could be made of it. 



5. Insects infesting vegetable plants. 

 a. Plutella maculata, Curt. 



(Sub-ord. Heterocera, Fam. Tineidse.) 

 Cauliflower Moth. 



Plate XV, fig. 2 — a, and b, larva dorsal and side views ; c, chrysalis ; 

 d moth', e, piece of cauliflower attacked by larvae. 



Caterpillars of this Tineid moth have been received in the Indian 

 Museum through the Entomological Artist Babu G. C. Chuckerburtty 

 in the latter end of February, with a statement that they were found 

 attacking- a cauliflower which had been purchased locally in the 



market. 



The caterpillars are of very small size like most of the family of 

 Tineidse to which they belong, measuring little above one-half inch 

 in length, very slender and more or less cylindrical, but gradually 

 tapering both towards the head and the tail. They are of an olive- 

 sreen colour of a transparency that permits the pulsation of the 

 "heart" and the internal organs to be seen through the skin. 



The caterpillar spins a small oblong cocoon of very fine white 

 silk in which pupation takes place, the moth emerging after four or 

 five days. It is a tiny little insect of a grayish-brown colour 

 measuring no more than ^1 ^^ ^" i"^^ ^" length across the twa 

 fore-wings. 



