ete BRACHY TRUPES ACHGTINUS. 

lying on the nursery beds or near the mouth of the burrows. ! 
will be found that these latter are made all over the loose sandy 
soil of the specially prepared beds and will also occupy all sandy 
patches of soil in the neighbourhood of these beds, even as much 
as a hundred yards or more away. The presence of the insects 
can at once be recognized by the round openings of these burrows 
pitted all over the surface of the beds, and other favourable situ- 
ations. Green. portions of seedlings will often be found pro- 
truding from these openings, and the paths to them from. the 
nursery, as well as the beds themselves, will be strewn with 
half-eaten fragments or whole seedlings dragged up from the soil 
or cut off at the ground level. This cricket is apparently omniv- 
orous in its feeding but in the attack in the Kaptai nursery India- 
rubber (Ficus elastica) seedlings, with which the nursery was 
chiefly stocked, were. its favourite food, young teak seedlings 
where found being also consumed. 
Protection and Remedies. 
In choosing sites for nursery operations, whether temporary 
or permanent, the area should be carefully inspected to see 
whether this insect is at work in the neighbourhood, and en- 
quiries should be made as to whether its presence has been 
noticed. . ' 
When the insect has appeared in a nursery in numbers the 
crickets should be dug out of their holes and killed. Boys can 
be put on to this work at small expense, and satisfactory re- 
sults will be obtained. For the ones which visit the nursery 
from outside, perfectly fresh young seedlings, poisoned by being 
dipped in a solution of the arsenical powdér known as Paris 
green, should be scattered about the nursery after sunset and also 
uear the holes and runs of the insect outside the nursery. This 
will get rid of alarge number. In October, when the crickets are 
pairing, every hole should be carefully dug up and the eS found 
in them killed. 
In the Chittagong Hill Tracts this insect is esteemed a great 
delicacy by the Mugs, etc., who dig it up eagerly and roast and ~ 
eat it with great relish. 
