No. I] Further Notes. 37 



a preservative against insects, has been repeatedly supplied to the Army 

 Clothing Department, both for clothes and also blankets, and that it 

 appears to have proved a success. Fears were at first entertained that the 

 naphthaline would tarnish gold lace, but Mr. Wood-Mason has found 

 that this is not the case. 



Specimens of Clothes Moth, a which is probably Tinea tapetzellttj have 

 been received from Mr. R. Chapman, with the 



Wool moth. -Ill 



intormation that they have done some damage 

 to raw wool in the Economic section of this Museum. 



8.— THE BENGAL RICE HISPA. 

 Hispa anescens, Baly, 

 Plate II, Jiff. 1, a {naf. size), b (enlarged). 



This rice pest is widely distributed in India, and a number of reports 



^. ^ ., ^. have been received of damage done by it in differ- 



Distnbution. ° 



ent parts of Bengal. In the collections of the 

 Indian Museum, there are specimens from Sikkim (Atkinson), Kullu 

 (purchased), Chittagong (Director of Land Records and Agriculture, 

 Bengal), JSIidnapore (Cotton), Calcutta (Lyall, also from the Collector, 

 24-Pergunnahs),Khulna (Rainey), Durbhunga (Duff), Hooghly (Collec- 

 tor of the 24-Pergunnahs), Behar (Moulvi Syed Nisah Ali, through the 

 Director of Land Records and Agriculture, Bengal), South India (Father 

 Honore). 



The insect is a beetle belonging to the family Chrysomftlidse, almost 



Zoological position of all the species of which feed on leaves, both in the 



the lusect. larval state, and also after they have become beetles, 



by far the greater part of the damage, however, being done by the 



larvae. 



From the reports that have been received, it seems that the pest 



^.„ , . ^ appears often in vast numbers during- the rains. 



Life history. . . , ^ 



when the rice has just been planted out and is still 

 young and tender, the insects feeding on the parenchyma of the leaves 

 and stalks, leaving the fibre exposed, so as to give the plants a white and 

 withered appearance. The insect pupates on the plant. 



Details of the life history of this pest are at present wanting, but it 

 may be inferred from the life history of other species of Chrysomelidas, 

 which have been carefully studied in America and Europe, that the 

 history of Hispa anescens is somewhat as follows :— 



The eggs are probably deposited on the leaves of the rice immediately 

 after it is planted out, the young larvse quickly emerging and proceeding 

 to devour the tender leaves, the pupae being formed on the plant, and 

 the perfect beetle emerging within a fortnight or three weeks of the 

 eggs being deposited : so that the cycle of a generation may be gono 



