Pupal Parasites of Holcocera pulverea, Meyr. (Lep.), an Enemy of the Lac Insect

Abstract

Caterpillars of the moth Holcocera pulverea, Meyr., along with those of Eublemma amabilis, Moore, do great damage to lac cultivation by feeding upon the living insects. Misra* and Imms & Chatterjee† have pointed out that H. pulverea may be found in even greater numbers than E. amabilis, though the predacious nature of the latter is more generally recognised. I have been able to confirm this observation with North Indian species of lac insects growing on Butea frondosa and Schleichera trijuga. However, in South India the wild species of lac, Lakshadia communis, at least in Mysore, is entirely free from the attack of H. pulverea, while Lakshadia mysorensis, the species commercially cultivated on Shorea talura, is never attacked by H. pulverea to the same extent that it is by Eublemma amabilis. With L. mysorensis this is partly due to H. pulverea being heavily parasitised. In the pupal stage this moth is attacked by the Chalcid, Eurytoma pallidiscapus, Cam. Imms & Chatterjee mention that only four examples of this parasite were reared by them during the entire course of their study, indicating its rare association with North Indian species of lac insects. In Mysore it is far from being scarce, which has enabled its life-history to be traced as a pupal parasite of H. pulverea. Fig. 1, a, shows a pupa of this moth from which a female, Eurytoma pallidiscapus, was reared on 14th November 1922.