, 
BRACHYTRUPES ACHGTINUS. " 
zig-zag manner for some 2 feet and having a diameter of } to 
a ofaninch. At the end it is enlarged into a small chamber 
Holes examined were found to contain one, two, or as many as 
three larvae. Up to the time the monsoon bursts the insect is a 
voracious feeder, gnawing off the leaves and top-shoots of young 
seedlings or cutting off the young plants at the level of the soil and 
dragging them away to its burrow to eat. It is a most wasteful 
feeder, as often, after biting through the stem of a voung plant, 
it leaves it and proceeds to the one next to it, which is treated in 
the same way and then left to die, no part of it having been eaten 
by the insect. It is a nocturnal feeder and will only be found 
out of its burrow in the day time in very dull cloudy weather. 
In the evening it sits at the mouth of its hole and may be 
recognized by its shrill piping. After the burst of the monsoon 
the insect apparently disappears for eight to ten weeks, as all 
injury ceased for this period and the holes were ceserted. 
About September, however, when the rains are slackening, the 
insects again make their appearance and are then seen to be 
full grown, being about 23 to 2} inches in length and having fully 
developed wings. They now begin again to feed voraciously, 
and in October may be found in the holes in pairs,a ¢ and 9 
living together in each burrow. These mature insects disappear 
at the beginning of November after’ probably laying their 
eggs in the ground near young vegetation. ~ 
Areas from which reported. 
This insect was found attacking a young plantation at 
Kaptai in the Sitapahar Reserve in the Chittagonz Hill Tracts. 
The cricket has also been reported as very destructive in tea 
nurseries in the Jorhat District, Assam, and to jute and rice crops 
in Comilla, and is likely to have a. wide range in the country. 
Relations to the Forest. 
The ravages of this insect in a nursery, if unchecked, are 
most serious. In addition to the large numbers of young plants 
it actually eats, when swarming in numbers, a very considerable 
quantity are wantonly bitten through by the pest and left 
