Pheidole providens, Sykes, collects large stores of grass seeds, on which it subsists from February to October. Colonel Sykes observed these ants bringing up their stores of grain to dry, and they utilize species of aphis, coccus, cercopis, centrotus, membracis.
Ant-lions are not ants, but the larvm of species of Myrmelon. Their form at the lower part resembles that of a spider, but the head is armed with a sharp, strong pair of claws. These excavate in gardens, and fields, and roadways, small cone shaped cavities, with exquisitely smooth edges and sides, at the bottom of which the ant-lion lurks, so that any insect approaching the lip of the cone immediately falls to the ambush below, and is seized and destroyed. In its perfect state it resembles the dragon-fly, but it is seldom seen.
The trap-door spider is abundant in many parts of British India, and particularly so about Ghooty in the Ceded Districts. It is a species of the genus Cteniza, and is of considerable size. It excavates for itself a house in the ground, of dimensions quarter the size of this page, and forms a trap lid, which fits with great nicety, and closes the instant the prey falls inside.
No country is exempt from the injuries inflicted by insects. In Great Britain, in 1881, the turnip crop suffered heavily from various insect pests. The ' fly ' attack proved a heavy visitation over a large area of both England and Scotland. In some parts of Scotland, a small weevil, the Ceutho rhynchus contractus, was quite as injurious as the fly, and in the south of Scotland this weevil and another closely allied joined with the fly, the result being a very heavy destruction. A ground caterpillar, the caterpillar of the turnip - moth, Agrestis segetum, was very mischievous in Suffolk and Kent. Cabbage also suffered from fly in Kent and Essex. In Scotland, the maggot of the cabbage-fly (Anthomyia brassies, and possibly in some cases Anthomyia radicum) was unusually and seriously injurious to garden crops of cabbage. The beet-fly (A. betm), which first appeared to any serious extent in 1880, still holds its own. Hops suffered from the froghopper, or cuckoo fly, Euacanthus interruptus. Planters round Alton made a machine of tarred boards on which the creatures stuck when taking their tremendous leaps, and the damage was checked. Daddy
long-legs' attacks in 1880 were disastrous. The customary corn pests are wireworm, red maggot, and aphides. A wheat saw-fly made its appear ance, and near Rochdale grass saw-flies of some species of Dolerus appeared in great numbers. The Oscinis frit or frit-fly is at times exceedingly de structive in Sweden. The oak suffered from the leaf-rollers and other caterpillars. Saw-fly cater pillars were injurious to pines; and near Berwick, a small beetle, Orchestes fagi, caused much damage to the beech leaves. Their presence is a constant source of anxiety; not unfrequently of ruin, to the farmers and planters in all parts of the world, but particularly in tropical climates. The injury from insects is not less than that from the several diseases, caries, must, and ergot, which infest the cereal grains, produced by minute cryptogamic plants (mushrooms), which alter the perisperm, and sometimes destroy it altogether. (See Cereals.) Insects in their perfect state are not long-lived, and it is in the early stages of their existence that they cause most destruction.
The Diptera order has many insects which irritate and greatly annoy man, although not destroying life.
The Peepsa is one of these ; it is a very small black fly, which floats like a speck before the eye. Its bite leaves a small spot of extravasated blood under the cuticle, very irritating if not opened. In British India they cling in myriads to any hanging thread, and can be destroyed by en circling them by an open cone of paper, and setting fire to its edges.
Midas ruficornis is a dipterous insect of the S.E. coast of the Peninsula of India. But the most troublesome of the mosquitos on the east coast and in Ceylon, is a species of Culex (C. lani ger).
Wasps, scorpions, and centipedes often inflict painful stings and bites, which rarely prove fatal, but, except the hornets and wasps, they are rarely aggressive, only attacking man in self defence, or when alarmed. Some of the scorpions are black coloured, but the usual tints are various shades of brown, and in the forests of the Malay Islands they occur of a green colour, and 8 to 10 inches long. Their numbers in some parts of India are great. On the plain at the Gor Naddy, in 1840, they were multitudinous.