472 
TH^ TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1890. 
Zoological Position of the Insect. — This pest is 
a buttprfly of the genus Zaiapides, of the family 
Lyccenida, of the sub-order Itkopaheera, of the 
order Eepidoptcra. The genus is a purely tropical and 
sub-tropical oriental one, and occurs almost through- 
out India, in Ceylon, in the Andaman and Nicobar 
Isles, in Burma and in the Malay Peninsula and 
Archipelago. The male butterfly is of'a very beautiful, 
pale metallic azure-blue on the upper side, with a nar- 
row black border to both wings ; the hind wing has 
sometimes a series of black marginal spots, and there 
is always a short black white-tipped filamentous tail- 
like process to each hind wing near the anal angle. 
The female is pale dull (not metallic) bluish-white 
on the upper side, the outer black margius much 
broader, and the black spots on the margin of the hind 
wing considerably more prominent. The underside ot 
both wings of both sexes is pale brownish, crossed by nu- 
merous more or less broken prominent white lines the 
expanse of the open wings is about an inoh and a half. 
Life History. — It is most certain that this butterfly 
at low elevations, flies all the year round, and that 
there are a constant succession of broods. The female 
probably lays her eggs on the flower buds of the carda- 
moms (Elettaria cardamomum), as is th9 case with 
another Lycsenid ( Vimchola isocmtes, Fabricius) whose 
larva lives on fruit. The young larva emerges from the 
egg within a very few days and commences to eat the 
flower bud or young fruit, burrowing into its centre for 
that purpose. 
Mr" Green describes the larva when full-fed as 
" dull, pale green, tiDged with red on dorBal area ; 
three reddish narrow dorsal stripes ; spiracles minute, 
black ; head small, brown, retracted beneath the se- 
cond segment ; length - 55 of an inch. Pupa smooth, 
pale dull yellowish-brown, marbled and spotted with 
dark brown, spots coalescing into three irregular 
dorsal stripes." An allied species, L eelianus, Fabri- 
cius, has beeu bred by the writer in Calcutta on the 
leaves of Heynea trijuga, Koxburgh, and in Java by 
Dr. H orsfiel'd on Butea frondosa. It is most singular 
that two species of one genus should have such dissimi- 
lar habits. Only two other genera of Indian Eycm- 
nida: are known to live on fruits, Virachola with two 
species, Deudorix with one. 
Within the fruit all its larval state is passed ; it 
grows with the fruit and lives on the fruit entirely, 
probably never venturing outside unless the fruit to 
which it has hitherto been attached should for any 
reason become unsuitable to it, when it would seek a 
fresh one, and immediately bore into its centre. When 
full-fed, Mr. Green surmises that it leaves the fruit, 
and turns to a pupa or chrysalis amongst the shrivel- 
led leaves and stalks. This is contrary to my ex- 
perience of the habits of V. isocrates and V. perse, 
which, in nature, usually pupate within the fruit on 
which they have lived. The pupal state would last but 
a few days probably, when the butterfly would appear, 
and the second cycle of life begin by the females lay- 
ing a new batch of eggs. As the cardamom grows, 
as far as I know, in South India and Ceylon only, it is 
certain that it cannot be the legitimate food-plant of 
this butterfly throughout its great range. Mr. Green, 
however, appears to have been the first to breed the 
insect, and thus to discover at least one of its food- 
plants. It is probable, like other pests, that L. elpis 
feeds upon some jungle plant, but that, finding the 
cultivated cardamoms quite to its taste, it has taken to 
them and rapidly increased in numbers, owing to its new 
food-plant being provided for it in such great abundanoe. 
Damage of the Pest. — Mr. Owen estimates the da- 
mage done by this pest to be sometimes as much as 80 
to 90 per cent to young plantations. Mr. Green states 
that " ordinarily from 5 to 10 per cent of the fruit 
capsules are perforated by this insect." 
Remedies. — Mr. Owen states that '• applications of 
wood-ash, lime, or anything of a like nature are said to 
be beneficial." It should be remembered that Mr. 
Owen did not know what insect constituted the pest, 
or its life-history. I imagine his remedy is meant to 
be applied to the earth surrounding the plants, 
which might keop away slugs and worms, but would 
be absolutely useless in the case of this insect. The 
only remedy I can suggest is to catch and kill all the 
j butterflies that can be seen. Small boys, provided 
with butterfly nets, should be able to satisfactorily 
account for the greater number of butterflies fre- 
quenting a given area, to prevent the females laying 
their eggs being the object of the slaughter. The 
butterflies h ive a slow, flapping flight, and are very 
conspicuous, so their capture is very easy. Once the 
eggs are laid no further remedy is possible, I think. 
To prevent the increase of the butterfly it would be 
advantageous to hunt for, and collect, all the capsules 
with holes in them, and to destroy them by fire or 
burial. This search for affected fruits would, however, 
be very tedious and expensive, so I fear impracticable. 
To kill one gravid female butterfly, with perhaps two 
or three hundred eggs in her body, each egg represent- 
ing the loss of a capsule, would be a much more 
effectual remedy. 
Further notes on "the Wheat and Rice Weevil" 
are too long to be quoted ; a notice of the sugar 
borer moth, Diatraa saccharalis, is interesting 
locally only because of the statement that about the 
year 1856 the insect did great damage to cane in 
Mauritius, into which island it was supposed to be 
introduced from Ceylon. The sorghum borer does 
not specially concern us in Ceylon, the larger 
millets being but scantily grown here. 
GEMS AND GEMMING 
occupy a good deal of local attention in connection 
with the two Syndicates already registered, and 
through the enterprise of private individuals who are 
exploiting on their own account. Our Sabara- 
gamuwa correspondent reports the arrival of an 
expert in the person of Mr. Baddely connected 
with Mr. Siedl e of Colombo. Mr. Harding, one 
of the promoters of the Company employing Mr. 
Barrington Brown, has arrived and is busy, the 
latter bei^g Cae in a few days. For the second 
Syndicate registered in London which has to 
do with Southern India as well as Ceylon 
and with plumbago as well as gems, Mr. 
Wm. Gow has been collecting information 
and otherwise preparing the way for work. Several 
of the chief promoters of this Company have 
South African experience. Mr. Barrington Brown's 
report will be eagerly looked for. 
TOBACCO AND MANURE. 
The following extract is taken from Nature of 
August 29th. The British Consul at Bogota, in his 
last Report to the foreign Office on the agricultural 
condition of Colombia fays that for tobacco cultivation 
in that country no manure is used, and the same 
land is u s ed over and over again for an indefinite 
number of years In some districts, where disease 
has completely exterminated the tobacco plantations, 
it has been found that when plants are brought from 
other districts they are not attacked for a few years, 
but ultimately they are also destroyed. This, perhaps, 
might be avoided by constantly importing fresh seed ; 
but the experiment was tried on some of the best 
tobacco land in Colombia, with the result that as the 
seed brought from inferior districts began gradually 
to improve by transportation to the better soils, it 
became more liable to disease, whiln the plants grown 
from seeds brought from the better districts were 
attacked at once. Another instance of the ignorance 
of scientific agriculture in Colombia appears in the 
case of cocoa. It is most carelessly cultivated, though 
it is a crop which requires constant care and labour 
to weed and clean the ground, and free the trees of 
the numerous insects, especially the caterpillars, which 
infest them. A most destructive disease has lately 
attacked the trees in the south of the Tolima, which 
is one of the very richest districts in Colombia. This 
disease does not seem to have been investigated, and 
no remedy has been suggested, but the extent of its 
ravages will be understood from the fact that one 
of the plantations attacked produced only 175 pounds 
instead of 18,000 pounds of cocoa.— British North 
Borneo Herald. 
