XI CAPSICUMS 377 
to 15 cents per 1,000, and in the market 30 cents per 
1 , 000 . 
Dried chilies are sold at 15 cents per lb., averaging 
750 chilies to the pound. This appears to be the price 
given for C. annuum. Consul Cane, in a report in 
1897, gives the average price of bird’s-eye chilies in 
Zanzibar as 2*37 dollars per frasila of 30 lbs., against 
2 '5 7 dollars in the previous year. 
N. Mukerji gives the price of capsicums ((7. an- 
nuum) in Bengal as 4 to 7 rupees a maund. 
Neff, in California, gives 35 to 75 cents (American 
dollar) as the value of sun-dried capsicums, and 1|^ to 
12^ cents for evaporated. 
In Australia they are quoted as saleable at 3d. per 
lb. fresh and 6^d. dry. 
In Singapore, dried capsicums cost for the last few 
years from 16 to 24 dollars a picul imported from India. 
PESTS 
Aloa lactinea, an Arctid moth, the caterpillar of 
which is very destructive to all kinds of herbaceous 
crops, attacks capsicums also in India, and has been 
reported very injurious in Baroda [Indian Museum 
Notes). The caterpillar is at first grey, then as it grows 
it becomes reddish brown, and in three weeks becomes 
sluggish, and dark brown sometimes, nearly black on 
the back. It is then in. long, and J in. through. 
When full-grown it migrates to the hedge, where it 
pupates. The pupa is ovate, dark brown, f in. long. 
After from two to ten months the moth comes out. 
The moth is 1^ in. across the wings. The upper wings 
are white, with a red margin on one side, and a few 
black dots scattered over them, one black spot much 
more distinct at the insertion of the wings ; the lower 
wings are white with no red edge, and the dots larger 
and more pronounced. The body is striped alternately 
black and red. 
The caterpillar eats all kinds of cotton plants. 
