No. 3.] Original Communications. 71 



3, ScirpopJictya excerptalis, Walker. 



References. — Wlk. Cat. xxvii, p. 142 ; C. and S. No. 4672. 

 Classification.— Order Lepidoptera. Sub-Order Heterocera. Family Pyralidce. 



Lije history and description.— -The life history has not been 

 fully worked out. It is not improbable that it will be found to have 

 two or more generations in the year. 



LARVA.— Lives and burrows in the interior of the cane. 



PUPA.— In specimens sent to the Indian Museum, Calcutta, pupae 

 were found in the cane stems in February. 



IMAGO. — This insect differs from S. auriflua in having the 

 outer hairs of the.anal tuft white, the inner being brown, underside 

 of forewing in male is suffused with fuscous. The moth is also larger 

 in size. The remainder of the description of .S*. auriflua equally 

 applies to S. excerptalis. 



Distribution. -According to Hampson this insect in India has 

 only as yet been reported from the North-Western Himalayas. 



Report of attacks in the cane fields.— \x\ February, 1899, the 

 Director of Land Records and Agriculture, North-Western Prov- 

 inces and Oudh, forwarded some samples of sugarcane said to be 

 injured by insects. He wrote : — 



"The specimens have been collected in Pipra, a village in Gorakhpur District 

 It is stated that when the cane is affected, the pith becomes red and the juice dries 

 up gradually. This happens in one internode after another till the whole cane dries 

 up and becomes woody. In a clump sometimes only one cane is affected and the 

 others remain healthy until the cane affected first is destroyed. The healthy canes 

 then get diseased 1 . . . It is known locally as Le-wahi. The disease makes its 

 appearance about the middle of the rainy season, and continues its damage until 

 February or March. Sometimes a whole crop dries up from the effects of the 

 disease a short time before it is fit for crushing. The variety of cane known in 

 Gorakhpur as Pansalie and in other places as Kalara is specially liable to the 

 disease, and its cultivation is therefore diminishing rapidly." 



The cane sent was found to contain two pupae of S. excerptalis, 

 Chilo simplex (described above), and a scale insect, Ripersia 

 sacchari (to be described later on) were also present. 



Remedies. —This insect would also appear to pass through the 

 winter in the larval or pupal stage, probably the former. The reme- 

 dies to be employed therefore for its extirpation will be those 

 described under Chilo simplex. 



1 This would mean that the larva after devouring the internal contents of a cane bores its 

 wny out and moves on to a fresh one which it tunnels into and treats in the same way — E. P. S. 



