HYPSIPYLA ROBUSTA, MOORE. 315 



perfectly protected against birds, etc.) ina few days only to 
spend some 6 to 8 weeks on the wing. 
The larvze of the second generation appear at the beginning 
of August. They confine themselves entirely to tunnelling into 
the young terminal twigs of the tree, since there are no longer 
either flowers or fruits to attack. At the end of September 
they become full-fed, The pupal stage lasts through the first 
half of October, the moths emerging about the middle of the 
month, 
This is as far as the life history has been carried. Mr. Covens 
try suggests with some probability that, as the tén tree loses 
its leaves at the beginning of November in the plains of the 
Punjab, the eggs are not unlikely to be laidon the stems of the 
trees, spending the winter in this condition. I consider with 
him that this is more likely to be the case than that the 9 moths 
live through the cold Punjab winter and lay their eggs in the 
spring. 
In feeding upon the inflorescences and fruits the petals of 
the flowers are eaten by the caterpillars and the young fruits are 
entirely consumed. Older fruits, however, whose outside has 
become harder, are burrowed into and the contents devoured, 
leaving nothing but an empty shell with a round hole in it: 
Having devoured the contents of a fruit, the larve leave it 
and proceed to attack the next in the same way, the inflores- 
cences and bunches of fruits thus becoming a tangled mass of 
white silk. 
In attacking the tin shoots, the larva almost invariably 
tunnels in at the axil ofa leaf or of a smaller offshoot, the 
young bud being eaten. Theentrance hole can be recognized 
by the gummy exudation which takes place from it. Once 
inside the shoot, it mines up the pith, destroying all the interior, 
the attack causing the death of the branch, which withers up. 
As I have already mentioned, the life history will vary 
slightly with the climate and elevation of the localities at which 
the tree is growing (vide /njur ious Insects, Pp. 123). 
Locality from where reported, 
This insect is widely distributed in India, it having been 
reported from the Punjab (Changa Manga Plantation), United 
