46 Indian Insect Tests. [Vol. L 



of 1885 it showed itself in the well-kept orchard of Kaly Kissen Tagore, 

 I learQ from a gentleman residing in Ballygunge that every tree in his 

 garden is infected. Reis and Rayyet also informs us that Sylhet was 

 formerly practically free from this curculio, two or three mangoes per 

 1,000 alone being tainted. During the last few years the pest has 

 gained ground so rapidly in Sylhet that now not a single tree nor fruit 

 is free. According to Taylor's Thirty-eight Years in India (Volume II, 

 page 331) the mango is the staple fruit of India, and millions almost 

 subsist on it during the season. Roxburgh says that in times of great 

 scarcity and famine, the kernels are boiled in the steam of water and 

 eaten. When you remember, from your own personal observation, how 

 largely the mango enters into the dietary of the poorer classes, you will 

 readily realize that the depredations of the weevil which attacks it are 

 a serious matter. 



I expect the q^^ of the weevil is deposited either in the flower, or in 

 the very young fruit. During the last mango season — which, by the 

 way, was not prolific in weevils — I examined several specimens of the 

 fruit with the view of ascertaining what external indication they bore 

 of the existence of the insect within, and I failed to '^ see it from the 

 outside,^' as one of the papers I have referred to says it can be seen. 

 In almost every case examined by me, the weevil was about one- 

 third off from the further end of the drupe, while there were no indica- 

 tions of its having worked its way from the surface, or the stem, through 

 the pulp, to the cell. The cells were usually filled with brownish 

 granules which I took to be the excreta of the insect. 



The insect is found in the adult phase of its existence in the months 

 of May, June, and July. The mango tree blossoms at the close of the 

 cold season. Unless, therefore, there are two broods of the curculio, 

 which is not likely to be the case, the pest must live through the drench- 

 ing rains of the rainy season, and the low temperature prevailing in the 

 cold months ; and whether it attacks the flower, or the young fruit, it 

 must be in a fit condition when the mango trees blossom, or their young 

 fruits form, to deposit its ova. Now, we know that many insects pass 

 from one season to another in a state of hybernation. They may hyber- 

 nate in either the larva, or the pupa, or the adult state ; or again they 

 may lie over in the q^^. I doubt very much if the eggs of the mango 

 curculio are laid in the season previous to their being hatched ; I think 

 it probable that the imago, or adult weevil, lives over from one season 

 to the next, and that in the interval it hides away in crevices under the 

 bark, or in rubbish, or the like. In this connection, it is perhaps of some 

 importance to note that if it hybernates in the localities I have sug- 

 gested, then the dingy colour of this curculio is distinctly protective. 

 Anyhow all these are matters which can only be verified by actual 

 observation. 



