235 



" By to-day's post I send you a small box with two varieties of cater- 

 pillars which have been ravaging guinea grass pastures, also eating 

 young corn plants, potatoes and cassava in the southern districts of 

 Manchester I did not see the caterpillars that did so much damage 

 in St. Elizabeth last year, but I have no doubt they were similar to 

 these, as the first information I had this year about them was from Al- 

 ligator Pond, which borders on the district infected last year. These 

 caterpillars are now found at places more than six miles from Alligator 

 Pond, travelling easterly, and I expect in a few weeks they will be in 

 the neighbourhood of Milk River and soon spread to Vere. I notice a 

 letter in the Tri-weekly Gleaner of 13th inst., complaining of their 

 being in St. Catherine. " Several of my guinea grass pastures have 

 been so fed down by those caterpillars that I can feed no stock in them 

 and the season rains have been late in coming this year, that I am 

 afraid there will be a shortage of food for stock unless these insects 

 leave us shortly. From around Kingston and from Hope similar con- 

 ditions are reported to exist." 



The caterpillars belong to the well-known group of the "loopers," 

 " measuring worms," or geometricians," so named from their peculiar 

 method of progression. They are rather long and thin, with three 

 pairs of legs in front, and two or three pairs behind. They are found 

 largely on trees, grasses and vegetables, the foliage of which they de- 

 vour. Most larvae of this extensive group burrow into the ground in 

 changing into the chrysalis stage. In the Jamaican examples now 

 under consideration the caterpillar folds the leaves around it and forms 

 a kind of silky web, and in this condition above ground passes into the 

 chrysalis. 



Several of these have hatched in the Museum, and are evidently a 

 species of the genus Rimigia. A few specimens were already in the 

 collections, but are not specifically determined. The moth is of mid- 

 ling size, being about an inch and a half across the wings in the ex- 

 tended condition. It is dark brown with lighter and darker markings. 

 Unlike the majority of moths it flies during the day, and is at present 

 fairly common around Kingston and the suburbs. It is very different 

 from that occurring in St. Elizabeth last year, which was the caterpil- 

 lar of one of the arge hawk moths. From observations received later 

 from the country, it appears that most of the caterpillars have now 

 passed into the chrysalis state and are hatching. 



Though the moths must be forms well known to entomologists in 

 the island, the extraordinary abundance of the caterpillars at present 

 is probably dependent upon some favourable climatic condition. Many 

 of the remedies previously mentioned and referred to above are the best 

 that could be suggested, and no doubt will prove effectual if persis- 

 tently employed. 



J. E. Duerden. 



