28 Indian Insect Pests. [Vol. I. 



3.— THE SORGHUM-BORER. 



Mr. G. Marshall Wcodrow, of Poona, has forwarded ^ some stalks of 

 Sorghum vulgare (Great Millet, jowaree or judr) injured by an insect 

 which is said to be very destructive in the Deccan, and is believed by 

 the ryots to be poisonous to cattle. In the account of Sorghum vulgare 

 in " Field and Garden Crops/' page 27, Duthie and Fuller write : — 



"The most peculiar disease to which ju^r is liable is that which makes the youn^ 

 stalks poisonous to cattle if eaten hy them when semi-pavched from want of rain. Of 

 this fact there can be no doubt ; in the scarcity of 1877 large numbers of cattle were 

 known to perish from this cause, their bodies becoming inflated after a meal of the 

 young juar plants, and death ensuing shortly afterwards, apparently in severe pain. 

 A good explanation is not, however, forthcoming. The opinion universally accepted 

 by natives is that young ju^r, when suflPering from deficiency of rain, becomes in- 

 fested with an insect called bhaunri, to which its poisonous effect on cattle is due. 

 Immediately rain falls the insect is said to perish, and unless the ears have appeared 

 before the rain failed, the crop often recovers itself and yields a good outturn of 

 grain." 



The juar stalks were in a rotten condition when received in the 

 Museum, but they were found to be tunnelled by a caterpillar, much 

 in the way that sugarcane is tunnelled by the sugarcane-borer Diatrcea 

 saccharalis (see p. 22), The remains of the caterpillar, chrysalis, and 

 imago of a small moth were also found amongst the stalks, but they 

 were all in much too bad condition to determine definitely : as far as 

 could be made out, however, they were very similar to the sugarcane- 

 borer. In this connection it may be noticed that the sugarcane insect 

 occurs in dry weather, the plants recovering, if not already too far gone 

 when rain falls, just as Duthie and Fuller describe to be the case with 

 the juar plants. The sugarcane-borer sets up putrefaction in the sugar- 

 cane stalk, and it is not improbable but that the juar insect may have a 

 similar effect on the juar stalks, thus rendering them hurtful to cattle. 

 The matter would seem to be of considerable interest, it is hoped therefore 

 that better specimens of the insect, in all stages of development, may 

 be sent to the Museum for comparison with the sugarcane insect. 



Since the above was written, further specimens of the affected Sor^ 

 ghum shoots have been received from Mr. Woodrow. These were 

 found to be tunnelled, and the base of the top shoots had become rotten 

 and infested with dipterous larvae, precisely as is the case with sugar- 

 cane attacked by the borer moth. On comparing the boring caterpillars 

 taken from the Sorghum shoots with spirit specimens of the larvae of 

 the sugarcane moth, the two were found very similar in general size, 

 coloration, and markings ; there were, however, a few minor points, in 

 the markings, in which they were slightly different from each other. 



' Received 24th December 1888. 



