No. I.] 



RHOPALOCERA. 



BY 



L. DE NICEVILLE, f.e.s., c.m.z.s. 



A BuTTEEPLY INJURIOUS TO RiCE [Simstus gvemius, Fabricius) . 



Plate lifig, 4, male imago ; 4, b, full-fed larva ; 4, q, front and side views of two differ- 

 ent fwpcB — all from Calcutta specimens and natural size. 



A SINGLE report has been received regarding this pest, drawn up by 

 Hafizar Rahaman Ahmed, Tehsildar of the Govern- 

 ^^°^ ' ment Estate, Noanand, in the Balasore District^ 



Bengal, forwarded by the Collector of the Balasore District through the 

 Director of Land Records and Agriculture, Bengal, to the Indian Mu- 

 seum, Calcutta. Accompanying the report seven full-fed larvae and one 

 pupa of the pest were sent, together with some young paddy leaves on 

 which the larvfe had been feeding. The Tehsildar reports that the pest 

 is known by the local name of " Pattanai, '' that the larva is about an 

 inch in length, light green in colour, with a deep green line extending 

 down the middle of the back from one extremity to the other. He notes 

 that when they are exposed to the sun they hide themselves [presumably 

 in the shelter, which all larvse of the family to which it belongs invariably 

 construct for themselves of the leaves on which they live], but when ex- 

 posed to the rain their movements on the leaves are active. He says also 

 that they eat paddy alone, but this is not correct. He also says that 

 they are attracted at night by the light of a lantern. If this is correct, it 

 is an interesting fact, and one, as far as I know, not before noted with 

 regard to any Lepidopterous larva. He further notes that they build 

 nests [i.e. shelters] , that they owe their origin to the dirty water, and to 

 the reeds grown on the fields, also that no proper remedy has yet been in- 

 vented by the cultivators of this part of the country for their destruction, 

 but that it is believed that continual heavy rains destroy them by plung- 

 ing them under water, but it is left to nature to remove the pest. These 

 insects do great damage to the paddy plants, but happily their ravages 

 are confined to the younger and tender plants only. 



From the larvse and pupa sent I am able almost with certainty to 



Zoological position of ^<lentify the pest as Suastus gremius, Fabricius, a 



the insect. butterfly of the family Hesperiida, of the sub-order 



