Description, Bionomics and Control of the Giant Mealybug, Drosicha stebbingi, Green (Homoptera: Coccidae)

Abstract

The giant mealybug, Drosicha stebbingi, Green, which occurs in Northern and Central India, was described for the first time in 1900. Observations on its life-history and control have been made by Stebbing (1899–1903) at Dehra Dun, Lefroy (1908) and Dutt (1925) at Pusa, Richards & Sharma (1934) at Cawnpore, and Misra & Rao (1938) at Benares. Savage (1914) investigated the respiratory system of the female. Hingston (1929) made observations in Central India. Beeson (1941) has briefly recapitulated its life-history and control. Though it has thus been the subject of investigation by a number of workers since 1900, the information so far collected is far from complete. No effective control has yet been devised, for the existing methods of combating it are directed towards preventing the fertilised females from descending the trees and entering the soil to oviposit, and this is after the damage has been done. Its habits, which have an important bearing on its control, have not yet been fully studied, and the present investigations were, therefore, undertaken in 1938. The results are presented in this paper.