i6t 



The pods attacked by them were quite destroyed, shrivelled up, 

 and the cotton ill developed and short in staple. 



In the cotton cultivated in the Botanic Gardens, Singapore, ap- 

 peared Dysdercus cingulatus as was expected, as it is a common 

 insect here, but not in any great abundance. 



A leaf-rolling caterpillar attacked the leaves rolling them up and 

 fixing them with silk. It is a slender caterpillar little more than 

 half an inch long. The head deep brown, ihe hrst three pairs of 

 legs black. The rest of the bodv pale dull green with a darker line 

 down the back. It hatched out at the end of April into a Pyralid 

 moth an inch across, of a pale straw color reticulated all over the 

 wings with blackish brown markings. I have not as yet identified it. 



I found no remains of pupae in the leaf and believe the caterpil- 

 lar leaves the leaf when full grown and pupates under ground. I 

 found the coccoons of an Ichneumon parasite in one of the rolled 

 up leaves and I noticed that in some cases the rolled up leaf has 

 been bitten through by some enemy which has eaten the caterpillar. 

 I think this must have been done bv one of the small caterpillar 

 wasps, of which I saw a number about, who store their nests with 

 caterpillars for their young, but I saw none at work. 



These leaf-rollers are the most troublesome insects to deal with 

 on a large scale as their habits effectually prevent the use of any 

 insecticide against them, they being protected by the rolled up leaf 

 and their silk web from being touched bv liquid. Xor do they fall 

 from their nests when the bushes are shaken, as some leaf rollers 

 do. So that hand picking seems to be the only remedy. The 

 amount of damage done does not appear to be verv great, but it is 

 probable that if they appeared in great nun hers they might devas- 

 tate the cotton fields. 



The cotton borer is another serious pest. It is a very small moth- 

 caterpillar about \ inch long, rather thick and stumpy, mottled 

 black brown and white and sprinkled with a few long white hairs. 

 The head is polished black with white markings. 



This bores up the terminal shoots of the branches causing them 

 to wither up. Its burrow is about an inch long, and it does not 

 pupate in its burrow but apparently bores its way out and falls to 

 the ground to pupate. 



It pupates in a box in a small oblong hairy coccoon about a 

 quarter of an inch long, but I do not see any of these coccoons 

 about the cotton plants. 



A small yellow aphis has also attacked the cotton plants in the 

 Botanic Gardens and caused the leaves to shrivel. It is quite yel- 

 low except the eyes and long paps which are black. It attacks the 

 fender side of the leaves. 



