22 Indian Insect Pests. [Vol. I. 



2.— THE SUGARCANE BORER MOTH. 



Biatraea saccharalis , ^ Fabr. 



Plate II, fig. 2 a moth, b larva (dorsal vieto\, c larva (side view), e pupa (all natural 

 size) ; fig, 2 i pupa (enlarged), ^ piece of sugarcane (natl. size) to show tunnels. 



The larvsB of this moth bore into the stalks of sugarcane, often 

 thereby setting up putrefaction, so that the whole stalk becomes worth- 

 less. 



It has not yet been satisfactorily determined whether the sugarcane 

 The zoological posi- borer, found in different parts of the world, belongs 

 tion of the insect, exclusively to a single species, or whether there are 



several closely allied species, all of which damage sugarcane by boring 

 into it. Until, therefore, this question has been definitely settled the 

 Fabrician name of saccharalis may continue to be applied^ to the pest 

 wherever it occurs, and the insect may be determined zoologically as a 

 Pyralid moth, belonging to the genus Diatraea and to the species sac^ 

 char alls of Fabricius. 



Sugarcane, in different parts of the world has, for at least the last 

 Occurrence of the pest hundred years, been known to be subject to the at- 

 in India. tack, either of this pest or of others so closely allied 



to it as to be scarcely distinguishable from it, and during the last year 

 information has been sent to the Museum of damage done to sugarcane 

 in several parts of India, where the pest would seem to have long been 

 known, though but little has been recorded concerning it. 



In 1857 Babu Joykissen Mukerji described Hhe total destruction, by the 

 pest which he calls ^ dhosah,' of an imported variety of sugarcane (known 

 as the Bombay or red sugarcane) in the districts of Rungpur, Hooghly, 

 and a portion of Burdwan. The cultivation of this variety had been 

 carried on for some years, and had proved very profitable, but when the 

 pest appeared its cultivation had to be entirely given up, as it was found 

 to be very much more subject to attack than the country varieties of 

 cane. 



In the Indian Museum are specimens of the pest, which were received 

 in 1885, with the information that the insect had done great injury to 

 sugarcane in Dhulia. 



In 1888, the Personal Assistant to the Director of Land Records and 

 Agriculture, North- Western Provinces, wrote * that the pest, which ap- 



* The thanks of the writer are due to Mr. E. Blechynden, of the Agri-HorLicultural 

 Society of India, for help in hunting up the previous history of this pest. 



2 This is the view taken by Dr. Riley in bis paper on the pest in the Entomology Report 

 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1880, page 240. 



3 In a paper published by the Agri-Horticultural Society, India, Volume IX, page 355 



(1857). 



* In a letter dated 1st September. 



