74 Indian Museum Notes. [ Vol. VI* 



Mr. D. W. Coquillett kindly identified the flies submitted to him 

 by Mr. Howard, and the latter writes as follows upon the subject : — 



" The three flies which Mr, de Niceville sent and which were 

 considered to have done the great damage to the apple and pear crop 

 are simply Musca corvina Fabr., Sarcophaga princeps, Wied., and 

 Sarcophaga taenionota ) Wied. The first of these three insects is 

 cosmopolitan; the second is from India and China, and the third from 

 Java; that is, speaking from previous records. It is absolutely 

 impossible that these flies should have done the damage to the apple 

 crop described by Mr. de Niceville. They will attack badly decayed 

 fruit, and being probably bred from masses of rotten apples or 

 captured upon such decaying stuff, they have erroneously been . 

 considered to have been the authors of the damage." 



This is the present position of affairs. I repeat the first and most 

 important point now to be discovered is what leads to the first decay 

 in the fruit which enables the flies to lay the maggots in it. It is 

 of the utmost importance that this should be observed and this entails 

 a very careful watch being kept on the orchards whilst the trees are 

 in the flowering and fruiting stage. Any insects found to be at all 

 plentiful in the orchards at these periods should be collected and 

 forwarded for identification. 



Insect infesting Grape VINES. 

 Chcerocampa butus* 



Order, Lepidoptera. Sub-order Heterocera. Family, Sphingidce. 



Moth. — This moth is of an almost uniform olive green colour. 

 There is a central dark line down the forewings. There is also a 

 very distinct white line on each side of the thorax (above the 

 base of the wings). The hindwings suffused with black with a 

 yellow patch on inner and lower edge. The undersurface of the 

 abdomen and wings yellowish, speckled with brown. 



Larva. — The colour of the larva is usually a dirty brown. 

 There is a light band on each side of the body. 



The caterpillar feeds upon the leaves, injuring the plants and 

 rendering them unsightly. 



Remedies.— Since the larva is a large one hand-picking to 

 remove them could be easily resorted to. All caterpillars collected 

 should oe killed. 



Spraying with Paris green or London purple (see previous volumes 

 of these Notes) could be resorted to as long as there are only flowers 

 or young and immature fruit upon these trees. This spraying would 

 have the advantage of also killing off other leaf-feeding insects 

 upon the plants. 



