Vol. L] [No. I. 



NOTES ON INDIAN INSECT PESTS. 



RHYNCHOTA. 



BY 



E.^T. ATKINSON, b.a , c.s., c.i.e. 



The Rice Sapper {Leptocorisa acuta), 



Plate I, Jiff. 1 ; Si, enlarged ; b, natural size. 



In 1886, some specimens of an insect, belonging to the order Rhyn- 

 chota and section Heteroptera, were received from Mr. J. Lee- Warner, of 

 Tinnevelly, and were found to have considerably injured the autumn rice. 

 They were identified with Lejptocorisa acuta^ Thunb., a wide-spreading spe- 

 cies found all over the East on rice. In the North- Western Provinces 

 (Gorakhpur), Chota-Nagpur and Assam, this insect is known as gandhi, 

 and in Assam attacks especially the aJiu rice. In Tinnevelly it is called 

 the munju vandu^ or rice-juice sucker or sapper. There is every reason to 

 believe that the numerous references which are given below all belong to 

 one and the same species or its local varieties. This species is represented 

 in South America by the closely allied Leptocorisa fiUformis, Fabr. • in 

 Central and North America, by L, tipuloides, De Geer; in Africa by 

 L. aj)icalisy Westw, ; and in Australia by Mutusca hrevicornisj Dallas. 

 The general colour of the Indian species varies from virescent (which in 

 old specimens fades to sordid yellow) to testaceous, and even brownish- 

 testaceous : the rings, at the base of the 2-4 joints of the antennse, vary in 

 the space occupied by them, and, in colour, from white to fulvous and 

 testaceous, and are sometimes very faint; the first joint of the antennae is 

 sometimes entirely testaceous : abdomen above reddish orange, beneath 

 entirely flavesceut or with a row of four brown spots on each side. Those 

 without spots beneath are smaller, and, in the Indian Museum collection, 

 are from Assam and Sikkim ; the spotted forms are from Calcutta, Behar, 

 Tinnevelly and Ceylon, but in some or these latter specimens the spots 

 are so nearly obsolete as to be barely traceable. 



Mr. D. J. Macpherson, C.S., of Bankura, writes that this insect ap- 

 peared in the sudder sub-division of his district, where it is called hhomay 

 and damaged the early rice crop when ripening (September). In the 

 Proceedings of the Agri-Horticultural Society (18th May 1871) it is 



B 



