553 
"INDIA AND CEYLON INSECT PESTS."* 
(Third Notice.) 
THE CEDRELA TOONA MOTH — BAMBOO INSECT — THE 
MANGO WEEVIL — THE BOLLWOBM. 
We give, as of local as well as general interest, 
the description of 
y.— The Cedrela Toona Moth. 
Magiria robusta, Bloore. 
Plate III, fig. 3, a moth, b pupa, c larva; all natural size: 
Specimens of this pest have been received from Mr. 
B. K. Grefin,of Ceylon, who writes that the Iarvas dam- 
age Uedrela loona trees which are cultivated on the 
coffee estates for firewood and timber-supply. 
Mr. Green writes f : — 
" The larva? appear to affect the new growth only, 
living on the succulent tops and devouring the pith of 
the stems and leaf stalks. The effect of the borer is 
to kill off the leading shoot, after which numerous ad- 
ventitious shoots appear below the point of injury. The 
presence of the borer may be detected by the accumu- 
lation of the excreta at the mouth of the tunnsl where 
they are fixed and woven together with silk by the 
larva." 
The following extract is taken from a paperj signed 
T. S. 6. that appeared iu the Indian Forester in 1876, 
and which appears to apply to the same species : — 
" The insect almost yearly attacks the young shoots 
of the toon tree, boring its way along the pith which it 
seems to live upon, and leaving behind it an unsightly 
looking mass of transparent gummy exudation. The 
larva? is white with black and yellow spots. ... It 
attacks trees both in plantations and in the forests, and 
prefers those about three feet in height and of strong 
growth. It seems to attack, however, more particu- 
larly those trees which grow in cleared lad or near 
roads, while others growing close by, in grass or with 
other trees, have been comparatively unharmed." 
Some larvas of this insects have been sent to the Mu- 
seum by the Sub-divisional Officer of Alipur, Western 
Dcoars, who found them in the wood of some young 
mahogany trees. In this case, whowever, it seems pro. 
bable tbat most of the injury was done by some Coleop- 
terous larvae that were also found in considerable num- 
bers. 
Mr. Moore, in his Lepidoptera of Ceylon, Vol. Ill, 
p. 366, quotes from Thwaites that the larva? feed within 
the branchlets of mahogany. 
From the Director of the Forest School, Dehra Dun, 
have been received specimens of what appears to be the 
caterpillar of this moth, found by the Forest Ranger 
of Nilsmbur, Madras, "attacking the succulent branches 
of experimental mahogany plants." 
Caterpillars of this insect were also obtained from the 
Museum of the Forest School, Dehra Dun, where they 
were marked as having, in June 1886, proved destruc- 
tive to the seed§ of Cedrela toona. 
Mr. Moore, in his Lepidoptera of Ceylon, classes the 
insect in the family Fhycitidse. 
The following is his description: — 
" Female. Fore wing, pale ochreous-browo, very 
thickly speckled with cinereous-wbite along the ante- 
rior border, and sparsely speckled with black scales 
along the posterior border ; all the veins, except- 
ing the submedian, lined with black, crossed by a 
discul, denticulated, whitish-speckled line ; marginal 
points white ; hind wing, ocbreous-white, semi-hyaline, 
rightly opalescent, with a pale ochreous-brown slender 
marginal border ; cilia white, with a brown inner line. 
Body, palpi and legs ochreous-brown: sides of collar, 
teguhu, and base of abdomen with a cluster of black 
speckles; fore legs above dark-brown, with white bands; 
middle and hind legs whitish speckled ; a brownband on 
middle tibia', and whitish bands on the tarsi. Expanse 
of the female one and three-tenths of an inch." 
* Indian Museum Notes, issued by the Trustees, 
Vol. L, No. I. Notes on Indian Insect Pests-, 
t Letter dated 7th January 1889. 
Indian Forester, Vol. I, p. l l J7(lS76i) 
This may possibly be a mistake, 
70 
"Pupi, dark purple-brown, enclosed within an elong- 
ated slight silken cccoon attached to the stem of the 
foe 1-plant. 
Mr. Green describes the larva as follows : — 
" Colour dull pu pie. Head black — second and thir- 
teenth, segments e chwith two black corneous dorsal 
plates. Other segments each with a transverse series 
of six raised black corneous spots, with a second row of 
two similar spots on each of the fifth to the twelfth 
segments. A small dull orange-coloured lateral spot 
on second and fifth to twelfth segments, Spins a 
compact whitish cocoon." 
The larvre reared by Mr. Green were full fed about 
the end of September, the moths appearing towards the 
end of October. 
Cedrela toona and Mahogany, allied species, are badly 
attacked at Peradeniya, but "at 4,000 to 6,000 feet, the 
red-foliaged toon has in our experience escaped. The 
white toon, on the other hand specially libale to 
attack, while its branches and the tops of trees are 
broken by wind. 
Clothes moths are noticed, and naphthaline as a 
remedy. The Bengal rice Hispa (Hispa anescens, 
Baly) is prevalent all over India, but is not men- 
tioned in connection with Ceylon, We quote aa 
follows : — 
From the reports that have been received, it seems 
that the pest appears often in Tast numbers during 
the rains when the rice has just been planted out 
and is still young and tender, the insects feeding 
on the parenchyma of the leaves and stalks, leaving 
the fibre exposed, so as to give the plants a white 
and withered appearance. The insect pupates on 
the plant. 
The effect of the pest would seem to be to stunt 
and weaken the plants and cause them to yield but 
a small crop. The rice is apparently in no case 
completely destroyed by the insect, but the outturn may 
be reduced by from twtlve to fifty per cent. 
No very definite information has yet been received 
with regard to remedies: the only two that are men- 
tioned as adopted by the cultivators, being the smok- 
ing the insects out of the field, and the letting out 
of the water. 
A curious superstition prevails with repard to the 
insect, and is entirely believed in by the cultivators. 
The notion being that the surest way to get rid of 
the pest, is for a man or boy who has been born in 
the month of Bhadro, to walk over the field and stick 
a leaf of a date tree in some part of it, then to pinch 
off the heads of some of the insects and bury the 
headless bodies in the field. The superstition has so 
strong a hold on the minds of the cultivators that 
whenever the pest appears they invariably (and some- 
times at great expeuse) seek out a Bhadro-horn man 
or boy and get them to perform the ceremony. 
The tree bark borer seems to have no local in- 
terest. The following we must quote : — 
10. Bamboo Insect. 
Mr. G. Anderson, of Munzerabad, Mysore, sends 
pieces of jungle wood attacked by an insect locally 
known as "Cootee." * He writes : — 
'• This class destroys bamboos, Watties (basket-reeds) 
and many jungle woods. The natives have a super- 
stion that no jungle poles or bamboos should be cut 
when the moon is full, as they argue that the sap is 
then very abundant, and unless the bamboos are well 
soaked in a tmk and subsequently preserved with 
plentv of smoke they will be rapidly destroyed by the 
cootee and other borers The advice is excellent and 
shoulc, be invariably adopted, but it would be interest- 
ing to know what actual effect, the moon has on the 
motion of the sap iu growing trees. These insects 
also attack the pod, or capsule of cardamoms, and, I 
think, are propagated iu the forest rubbish ; but the 
fact that I have fouud the insect iu the larval and 
perfect state inside the capsule, suggests the proba- 
bility tbat the female purct ires the outer skin, lays 
its eggs therein, and the grubs, having passed the 
pupal stage, emerge as perfect beetles by tho small 
A Canarese word, 
4 
