516 
LNPIPOPTERA. 
destructive to rice ; the larva rolls a leaf and lives within, being able 
to live in water or air ; the moth is white, speckled with black and buff. 
Wood-Mason describes the larva and pupa of a species which Hampson 
thought might be N. fluctuosalis, Zell., under the name Paraponyx ory- 
zalis, W. M. (Rice Pest of Burma, Calcutta, 1885), but this is likely to be 
the above species, which is known from practically all rice tracts in India. 
Other species live upon aquatic plants in tanks and rivers, the moths 
commonly found at light and in grass. N. affinialis , Guen., is found 
commonly in rivers, feeding on aquatic plants. 
Scopariince. —Three genera of small moths whose larvae “ feed on 
mosses and lichens, and the imagos rest on rocks and trees” (Hampson). 
All recorded are hill species. 
Pyraustince. —A very large assemblage of moths with over 90 genera 
and 500 species in India. The larvae are often leaf rollers, a few living 
exposed or boring in plants. Many can be readily reared on their com¬ 
mon foodplants or can be captured in the plains, and this sub-family 
includes the larger number of Pyralids, the student will commonly find 
or rear. Only the more common species whose larvae will be found, can 
be noticed in this place. Zinckenia fasciaiis, Cram., is deep brown with 
white markings. The larva is green, with white lines and with black 
crescents on the thorax below the lateral line. The leaves of cultivated 
Amaranthus are commonly webbed up by this larva, which can be found 
in almost any garden during the warmer months; the moth is common 
on plants and comes to light. There are other foodplants such as beet¬ 
root, maize and other garden plants. 
A common moth in moist localities is the little dusky-fringed buff- 
coloured Cnaphcdocrocis medinalis , Guen. The larva lives on the leaf 
of rice and some grasses, folding over the edge of the leaf and fastening 
it with a few silk strands; it is an occasional pest of rice and widespread 
over the plains. The male is conspicuous by the erect tufts on the upper 
surface of the forewing. Marasmia trapezalis, Guen., behaves very simi¬ 
larly on maize, juar and bajra during the rains. (Indian Insect Pests, 
p. 138.) It folds over the edge of the leaf and lives in the fold, emerging 
to eat the epidermis outside. It is a pest only to small plots of maize 
and is not sufficiently abundant, being checked by parasites, to do any 
harm to large areas of crops. 
