68 Indian Museum Notes. [Vol. V- 



rains set in the fields become free from the insect, and a number of sickly-looking 

 cane plants shoot out, but these make very little progress and never attain the 

 proper size of the cane plant. If only one generation of plants is lost, and if this 

 happens at an early stage of the growth of the plant, the damage done is not 

 much." 



Writing from Baroda in 1892, Mr. T. H. Middleton refers to the 

 great damage done to cane in Gujrat in the preceding dry year, and 

 stated that the same occurred every dry year. 



In February and again in June 1899, the insect was again 

 reported in conjunction with others from the North-Western Prov- 

 inces and Oudh. This report is given under the insect Scirpophaga 

 excerptalis below. 



(The insect was not plentiful during the season of 1900 in Chitta- 

 gong.) 



Remedies,— \ have already mentioned that the insect passes the 

 winter in the larval stage inside the seed cane and dead tops and 

 refuse left in the fields and in the stubble. A great number of 

 remedies have from time to time been proposed for the destruction 

 of the pest, but it is practically established that it can to a great 

 extent be controlled by burning or burying all the discarded tops, 

 and clearing the fields of all waste sugarcane stalks after the crops 

 have been cut. This destroys the larvae, which would otherwise as 

 moths lay eggs in the spring. 



In his report already quoted from, Dr. Riley recommends the 

 burning of all ' tops ' during the winter so as to destroy the larvae 

 which hybernate in them, selecting seed cane from the least infested 

 portion of the plantation and laying it down in furrows during the 

 winter, covered with earth as deeply as should be found possible 

 without inducing decay, and only uncovering it as it is wanted in 

 the spring for planting out, thus preventing the egress of moths 

 from the larvae which have hybernated in the seed cane. If these 

 two recommendations are carefully carried out, the loss caused by this 

 pest should be greatly minimised. 



Another reason for burning over the dead tops, etc., even should 

 there be a rotation of crops on the areas over which the cane is 

 planted (and therefore no cane put out the following year), is to be 

 found in the fact that it has been almost proved that this Chilo borer 

 lives equally well in the cholum {Sorghum vulgare) and maize (Zea 

 Mays). The gravity of this habit will be at once apparent. Should 

 areas covered with either of these crops be in the neighbourhood, the 

 moths coming out of the tops and refuse stalks lying in the cut over 

 cane fields (if not burnt over) will lay their eggs in the cholum and 



