442 ARBELA TETRAONIS. 

be seen projecting from the covered way. Therefore, when 
this latter is visible, it may be taken for granted that the insect 
which formed the particular covered way under inspection has. 
left if; 
Results of attack. 
This insect appears to be fairly wide-spread throughout 
the Casuarina plantations, and it has been reported to commit 
considerable damage in some. Information is still far from 
complete, but damage is undoubtedly committed in Ganjam | 
North Arcot, Godavari, Cuddalore and Nellore. 
In feeding upon the bark the insect in its younger stages 
only consumes the more tender and greener portions of the 
outer thin bark, but as it grows older it eats right down to the 
sapwood and even irto it, either in a continuous ring or in small 
irregular patches. Thus the trees are often seen to have holes. 
and pits through the bark reaching to the wood beneath. These 
“weather ’’ and at times coalesce. Inthe plantations I visited 
I noticed that some trees were much more severely infested than 
others, and in these the action of tne caterpillars had almost. 
ringed the trees. There can belittle doubt that when thus badly 
attacked the trees die, Both young and old trees are equally 
subject to attack and the larva feeds equally upon the thicker 
bark at the base of the tree and the thinner near the top. The 
covered ways are, perhaps, shorter in the lower portion of the 
tree. 
Towards the end of 1900 the District Forest Officer of 
North Arcot reported that these caterpillars had nearly ruined 
the Anunundi Plantation. The plantation appears to be infested 
in patche. In the Agusti Nowgam Plantation near Chatrae 
pur, in Ganjam, where the insect would seem to have only recently 
appeared (it being pointed out to the Divisional Officer by the 
Conservator in December 1902), the attack was confined to one 
patch of the area, the rest being entirely free. A private 
plantation, about a couple of miles away, was unattacked, 
whereas the Chatrapur Plantation, about 4 miles from the 
Agusti Nowgam ene andamile or so from the private one 
was badly infested in parts. The attack doubtless spreads 
