No, 3.] Cereals and Crops. 141 



larvae and pupae found in the maize stalks. This borer appears, how- 

 ever, to do the greatest damage to the plant when it is young. A young 

 shoot or plant attacked dies out entirely, while an older plant, if 

 attacked by a few (one or two) borers, will escape and produce seed- 

 pods. It is almost certain that there are at least two generations of this 

 insect during the time the maize is on the ground, probably three. 

 My efforts to discover the eggs failed, though I kept many moths in a 

 very large breeding cage and supplied fresh stalks of maize to them 

 daily. No eggs were discovered, so probably the insect will not lay 

 readily in captivity. In the first generation the larva burrows through 

 the young maize stalks from end to end and entirely kills them. 

 The second generation, though still to be found in the maize stalks 

 even when as high as six feet, does but little damage to them, the 

 quantity of pith or inner substance of each stalk eaten being but a 

 small proportion of the whole. It also eats into the male flower buds 

 at the tops of the plants when still in the rolled-up stage. At this 

 period of the plant's growth the larva seems largely to abandon its 

 former habits of boring into the growing stalks, and seems to prefer 

 the succulent unopened flowers. 



On August 12th, 1901, Mr. J. M. Hayman, Deputy Director 

 of Agriculture, North-Western Provinces and Oudh, sent from the 

 Experimental Station, Cawnpore, some larvae of Chilo simplex, But- 

 ler, which was destroying the maize crops in that district. He 

 writes : — "You will notice that the egg appears to be laid under the 

 epidermis, at least I judge so by the marks on the leaves, which look 

 as if the young larvae had hatched from the egg, and proceeded to go 

 down into the plant. I did not notice these marks (mostly along the 

 midrib of the leaf) except on plants attacked. I also notice that there 

 is a small white maggot with a black head about "25 of an inch in 

 length which preys upon the borer [larva] in the rotten parts of the 

 plant " The stalks of maize sent me by Mr. Hayman were too de- 

 cayed on reaching me to enable me to trace the ravages of the young 

 larvae. The eggs are doubtless laid on the leaves close to the point 

 where the leaves join the stalk, the young larvae burrow into the 

 leaves and from thence into the stalk, gradually tunnelling down the 

 stalk. The maggots referred to by Mr. Hayman are almost certainly 

 a dipterous parasite, several species of which seem to invariably 

 attack this and other borers of maize and sugarcane, destroying large 

 numbers of the larvae. 



2. Marasma trapezalis, Guenee. Family Pyralidse. Sub-order 

 Phalssnde. Order Lepidoptera. 



This moth is thus described in Sir George F. Hampson's "Fauna 

 of British India : Moths," vol. IV, p. 277, 11.4819(1896) :— " Pale 



L 



