Cerosterna gladiator, a longicorn beetle, eats the bark of the Casuarina trees, and has caused heavy losses to their planters. Cocoanut trees have great enemies in the shape of two beetles. One of these is a large Curculio (Rhynchophorus, Sack.), called the red beetle, nearly as big as the stag-beetle of Britain ; the other is the Oryctes rhinoceros, so called from its projecting horn. The red beetle is so called from the red mark on the upper part of its breast. Its attacks are said to be on the nut, but those of the rhinoceros beetle are on the terminal bud of the palm stem. When so injured, the bud dies, and, the crown of the leaves falling off, leaves the cocoanut tree a mere bare stem. The same result occurs to other palms, the palmyra, the betel, in which the top bud'or cabbage, as it is called, is lestroyed.
Batocera rubus, the Curuminga beetle of Ceylon and S. India, penetrates the trunk of young cocoa nut trees near the ground, and deposits its eggs near the centre. The grubs, when hatched, eat their way up through the centre to the top, where they pierce the young leaf-buds, and destroy the trees.
Sphmnophorus planipennis, a weevil of Ceylon, is destructive to cocoanut trees.
Dr. Mason mentions that he found the young leaves of a Lagerstrmmia, Indica half devoured every morning, yet could not discover a single insect throughout the day ; but, on visiting it at night with a light, he found dozens of a small cockchafer beetle, species of Melolonthidm, eating with great avidity.
The many dialects of Hindi, and the languages and dialects of the 'Dravidian and Kolarian branches of the Turanian, 'offer a great obstacle to any attempt to trace through their vernacular names the injurious insects of British India, but some of them may be named. The sursuri of Hindustan is bred in grain, the ghoon is destructive to wood and grain, and the rig is a bird-louse.
Mr. Wright mentions that in the district of Cawnpur, a spider, known as the Agia or Makari, attacks the bud of the Sorghum vulgare before the flower forms, and no grain follows ; he says it is chiefly due to want of rain. In the month Bhadon, the pith of the stem is attacked by the thuntha, also due to want of rain, and in drought the lassi attacks it.
The Bangka, also called Katua in Hindustan, is a water-beetle which eats rice plants. It is said to take a leaf for a boat and to paddle itself from stalk to stalk. It is harmless when the water is let off from the field.
The larva of the Heliocopis cupido attacks the cotton plant in its bud.
The larva of the weevil Deprescaria gossipiella, the toka of the natives of Hindustan, attacks the cotton seeds in harvest.
The larva of Heliocopis cupido is dispersed by sprinkling ashes over the plant. That of the Deprescaria gossipiella can be checked before storing.
As the rainy season approaches, the Blifingo, hairy caterpillar, preys on the stem leaves. The myna eats and the starling (tilie) destroys multi tudes of these insects.
The t'hela disease is caused by a viviparous wingless parasite, the Aphis lanigera, with a flask shaped body, six feet, two antennm, two tubes at abdominal extremity, a haustellum for puncturing, and a sucker for extracting, and within this trans parent sucker a perfect apparatus resembling a hand-pump ; the sucker is fixed, the miniature piston plays, and the sap—the life-blood of the plant—is absorbed, and its leaves are destroyed.
The oily (t'hela) honey-dew on the leaves is greedily eaten by the red and brown ants, Formica rufa, and F. fusca ; and should the exudation be scanty, the ants, with their antennm, stroke and fondle the aphis until a supply be secreted. Both sexes only exist in August, and one congress yields the young for six generations. After pairing, the female deposits eggs, which in four days animate. Immediately from every pore in their bodies springs a cottony substance, which covers and protects them, and they eat the leaf. As they grow their white cover vanishes, and pale-orange, wingless insects appear, the Koongnee of the Jets.
The Aphis lanigera does not attack cotton plants growing near hemp. They are destroyed by the lady-bird (Coccinella) and by the lace-wing (Chyrosopus).
The cucumber family'of plants is largely preyed upon by a twelve-spotted beetle like a lady-bird, which, alike in the grub and the perfect state, feeds on the leaves and flower-buds._ Some of the Hylesini bore to the centre of the felled Cheer (Pinus longifolia) to the depth of a foot, attacking in vast numbers, but only if the bark be left on. Moon of Hindustan seems a generic term for all beetle-like insects which attack timber, grains, etc. Timber and bamboo traders destroy the timber ghoon by depriving them of air, by immersing the affected articles in water for a few weeks. They are also killed by being buried. Tar or paint havo no effect on them. The Hylesini are the genus Apato of Pabrichis.