is supposed to eat the roots of the rice plants, but its prey more especially is said to be the stalk and juices of the plant; for obtaining the latter of which it cuts the plants at the joints, after which the ear whitens without filling. The natives attribute the drying up of the ear and plant, to the drinking of its milk (sap), by the grub, which prevents the due formation of a full sized grain. The visitation of locust flights is the only remaining evil to be contended with by the cultivators from the insect world. There have been three annual but trivial visitations of these destructive animals within the last five years. They arrived on these occasions in May, and remained four or five days each time. Whence they came or whither they went, could not be ascertained. The natives here say they come from the plains and from the west. The Newars indemnify their losses by the locusts by collecting them in large quantities and eating them. They remove the wings and either fry or make curry of them, and consider them very good. I have seen them dressed, and tasted the dish, but cannot praise its taste or flavour. The fruit trees of the valley gardens, are the prey of a most formidable and destructive species of grub. It is about an inch and a half long, sometimes bluish coloured, sometimes yellow; it makes its attacks on the roots as well as the stems of the apple, pear, plum, and apricot trees, drilling a hole like a gimlet right into their substance, where apparently revelling on their sap, and completes their ruin as fruit bearers, and often destroys their lives. When, this animal makes its entrance into the stem from without and above ground, it leaves a round hole fit to receive a common pea, and sends out behind it small grains the colour of the tree wood, which on handling crumble into the finest powder.
The appearance of these grains and their dry sapless structure induce the belief that they have been passed from the animal per anum.[1] The
- ↑ This grub is an inch and 1-8th long, 1-6th inch in diameter at the head, some thing in vent, as its head is the largest part and the body tapers to the tail. The head is a brownish red colour, and is formed of a very hard shell-like substance, on the anterior aspect of which there are a few delicate white hairs. The upper part of the mouth as well as both sides are formed of this shelly hard substance, the lower part of it, of a white soft substance like the body of the animal. The body is formed of twelve distinct rings of an uniform yellowish white colour. Along each side of the animal close to its belly is a row of brownish coloured spots, one on each ring. The animal has altogether 8 pairs of feet, distributed as follows: 3 pair sharp pointed directed towards and attached to the three first rings from the head; 4 pair shorter, close together, pointing to the ground, and to the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th rings; and lastly, 1 pair similar to the last or abdominal ones, at the vent attached to the last or 12th ring. Its body when cut open, discharges a thin clear and slightly viscid fluid, sap doubtless.
