No'. 1,] Notes on insect pests from the Entomological Section. 19 



The insect proved to be an Acridid grasshopper belonging to the 

 species Epacromia dorsalis, Thunb., which has previously been 

 reported as attacking crops in several parts of India. Accounts of it 

 may be found in Indian Museum Notes, Volume II, pp. 104 and 

 171 ; Volume III, No. 1, pp. 27, 29 and 30. 



In May 1898 specimens, which proved to be the immature forms 



of a cricket, probably belonging to the menus' 



Cricket injurious to „ ,, , . . . ° . ,° ,. 



bajri and other crops. L-ryllodes, were received in the Indian 



Museum from the Collector of Ahmednagar, 



through the Survey Commissioner and Director, Land Records 



and Agriculture, Bombay, as destructive to bajri and other crops in the 



villages of the Kopargaon Taluka. 



The following is from a report dated 13th May 1898, from the 

 Mamlatdar of Kopargaon : — 



"... That a flight of insects called ' Naktode ' has arrived in most of the 

 villages from Kopargaon to Chitali from the East from villages in the Newasa 

 Taluka and H. H. the Nizam's territory. They eat tender leaves of khindi and 

 kodwal and thus destroy the stem. They also eat bajri and jowar corns ; they 

 jump about a foot. They have got no points to their legs like a saw like the 

 locusts nor any wings. There is very little of khindi and kodwal in this taluka, 

 and particularly in the portion visited by them, and hence there is no possibility of 

 any damage for the present, but if they lay eggs there is a fear of fresh insects 

 being produced just at the next sowing season. They might eat up the seed as 

 well as the plant. The best remedy in my opin.on would be to burn every culti- 

 vable land with a little rubbish or rab after ploughing it a little before the sowing 

 season so that the little insects as well as their eggs may be burnt. The burning 

 must, however, begin at one and the same time in all villages on a fixed ni«-ht 



like the general census The insects bite people at night, enter private 



houses, eat bread flour and corn and disappear in the day time. The mail was 

 detained for about half an hour at Chitali on Wednesday night on account of the 

 rails being covered by these insects. ..." 



In September 1898 specimens were forwarded by the Survey 



„, , , Commissioner and Director, Land Records 



Lnrotogonus trachyp- . . 



terus, Blanch. and Agriculture, Bombay, ot an insect reported 



to have done damage to young bajri and other 



crops in the Ahmednagar and Bijapur districts. 



