174 Indian Museum Notes. [Vol. V. 



cultivator in cutting out diseased canes, as in the case of young cane 

 the bored shoot invariably dies, and only throws out thin, straggling, 

 lateral shoots which, when full grown, will give but little or no 

 produce in the mill. 



It has often been recommended to burn the trash (outside leaves 

 of the cane in the field after the cane is cut for milling. This appears 

 to me to be a wasteful process, as the trash if allowed to rot is of 

 great value for manure. I would rather advocate the trash being 

 at once ploughed into the ground and allowed to rot there, by this 

 means killing any eggs there may be in the leaves, or collecting and 

 burying it till thoroughly rotted, subsequently spreading it over the 

 fields. 



It might be found advantageous to catch the perfect moths. The 

 following apparatus should be used. Stout stakes should be driven 

 into the fields at intervals to be settled by experience, a few traps 

 being experimented with at first. On the top of the stake a shallow 

 wooden tray, tarred inside to make it water-tight, should be fixed, 

 and the tray filled to a depth of about half an inch with thin treacle 

 or molasses. The moths will probably be found to come in numbers 

 to feed on the molasses, to which they will stick. A kerosine-oil 

 lamp might be experimented with to attract the moths. It should 

 be suspended close to the tray of sweets, or placed on a stand in 

 the middle of the tray. It remains to be seen whether the molasses 

 alone would attract the moths, or whether a lamp in addition to the 

 sweets proves to be more efficacious. A common tin lamp such as 

 natives commonly use, with a piece of cotton twisted up for a wick, 

 would probably give sufficient light. These lamps, however, would 

 be useless on windy nights, and a hurricane or other wind-proof 

 lantern would have to be substituted. 



Plate xiv, Fig. i, male imago life-size, shows both surfaces of 

 the wings, the left-hand side the upper side, the right-hand side the 

 under side ; Fig. i a, the upper side of a female imago life-size in 

 natural position when at rest ; Fig. i d, larva full size seen from 

 the side ; Figs. 1 b and i c, young larva, dorsal and lateral views 

 found breeding in maize stalks in Calcutta? Fig. i e, pupa seen 

 from the side. 



5. Scirpophaga auriflua, Zeller. Family Crambidse, Sub-order 

 Phalaense. Order Lepidoptera. 



Scirpophaga auriflua, Zeller, Monograph Chilo et Cr ambus, p. 2 (1863); 

 Walker, List Lep. Ins. British Museum, vol. xxx, p. 968 (1864); Moore, Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. Lond, 1867, P- 666 ; Lep. Cey., vol. iii, p. 387 (1884-7) 5 Cotes and 



* These larvae died young, so were not bred up to the imago stage, but as there is only 

 one maize borer known, they are probably Chilo simplex. 



