T 82 Indian Museum Notes. [Vol. V. 



Seeraha and in the months I visited that district. In the dry season 

 it may prove to be a bad pest. 



Some specimens were sent to Mr. E. Ernest Green, Entomo- 

 logist, Royal Botanic Garden, Peradeniya, Ceylon, who identified 

 them as Riper sia sacchari, Green, He notes in his letter of 3rd 

 September, 1901, that he has recently received Dactylopius sacckari, 

 Cockerell, another sugarcane pest, from India. The two insects 

 are very much alike, and can only be distinguished by microscopic 

 characters. 



R. sacchari'is described and figured in "Indian Museum Notes," 

 vol. v, n. 2, p. 37, n. 3, pi. vi, figs. 5, pygidium of female ; 6, 

 antenna of female (1900), collected from sugarcane in the Gorakh- 

 pur district, North-Western Provinces. 



VIII.— INSECT PESTS OF COTTON. 



On Gossypilim sp., Natural order Malvaceae. The- cotton plant. 



1. Sylepta multilinealis^ Guen6e. Family Pyralidse. Sub-order 

 Phalzense. Order Lepidoptera. Plate xiv, figs. 4#, larva ; 4 b, pupa- 

 case after the moth has emerged ; 4, imago — all x 2. 



The Director of Land Records and Agriculture, North-Western 

 Provinces and Oudh, in October, 1900, forwarded a large number 

 of caterpillars which he reported to be damaging the cotton plants 

 in the Government Experimental Farm at Cawnpore. On rearing 

 them they proved to be the pyralid moth Sylepta multilinealis 

 Guenee, which has been referred to in (l Indian Museum Notes, 

 vol. iv, n. 2, pi. 63, n. 3, pi. v, fig. 4, imago (1897), under the generic 

 name Synclera, as injuring cotton in Baroda. The genus Synclera ; 

 Lederer, is a synonym of the genus Pagyda, Walker, and has 

 nothing to do with the genus Sylepta, Hiibner. S. multilittealis 

 has a wide habitat, being found in West Africa, East Siberia, Japan, 

 China, throughout India, Ceylon, and Burma, the Malayan sub-region, 

 and the Australian region. This moth is referred to on page 132 as 

 attacking the Bhindi or Lady's Fingers plant, Hibiscus esculentus, 

 Linn., Natural Order Malvaceae. The figures show the larva, pupa- 

 case and moth all twice enlarged. 



