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Journal of the

Bombay Natural History Society

Vol. 56, No. 1

Editors

sALIM ALI & H. SANTAPAU, s.).

APRIL 1959

Rs. 15

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91, Walkeshwar Road, Journal of the Bombay Natural

Bombay 6. History Society.

' '

CONTENTS OF VOLUME 56, NO. 1

PAGE

THE LOVE AND LIFE OF FIDDLER CRABS. By Rudolf Altevogt. (With six plates) 1

SOME EDIBLE WILD PLANTS FROM THE HILLY REGION OF THE POONA DISTRICT,

BomsBay STATE. By V.D. Vartak. (With a sketch map) a ya yas

UNUSUAL AND SUPPLEMENTARY FOOD PLANTS OF KUMAON. By K.S. Bhargava 26

OBSERVATIONS ON THE MACKEREL FISHERY OF THE NETRAVATI ESTUARY, WEST

Coast, SourH INpIA. By P. C. George, M. H. Dhulkhed, and V. Rama-

mohana Rao. (With three text-figures) .. Hot ats Sm 7.

THE LiFE-HISTORY AND BIOLOGY OF THE WAxX-SCALE, Ceroplastes pseudoceri-

ferus GREEN (COCCIDAE : HoMoPreERA). By T. Sankaran. (With two Tables

and three Plates) .. “y , oe sett 43509399.

SOME NEW AND INTERESTING FORMS OF Oedogonium FROM UTTAR PRADESH.

By G.S. Venkataraman. (With eighteen figures) 4 i. 60

NOTES ON THE BUTTERFLY GENUS Ypthima. By Sir Keith Cantlie and Dr.

T. Norman. (With a text figure) ae e = avg, O8

ZOOGEOGRAPHIC CONSIDERATIONS ON THE INDIAN AVIFAUNA. By S. Dillon

Ripley i Ae i ae Bs sede

THE BIOLOGY OF THE WEEVIL Alcidodes bubo (FABRICIUS) (COLEOPTERA : (CURCU-

LIONIDAE). By T.R. Subramanian. (With two plates) ae st (62

OBSERVATIONS ON THE FLORA OF MARUNDUVALMALAI, KANYAKUMARI (CAPE

ComorINn). By C. A. Lawrence. (With a map) hah Ae ee DD

THE BIOLOGY OF Sclerogibba longiceps RICHARDS AND Sclerogibba Embiidarum

(KIEFF). (SCLEROGIBBIDAE : HYMENOPTERA) PARASITIC ON EMBIOPTERA. By

K. S. Ananthasubramanian and T. N. Ananthakrishnan. (With one plate) .. 101

REVIEWS :

1. Animals in India (E.P.G.) ssh oy re .. 114

2. Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula (E.G.S.) .. ae ett S

3. The Young Naturalist’s Year (Barbara J. Tufty) ae oe del 7.

4. The Love-life of Animals (D.E.R.) .. Be a a. 8

5. The Living Forest (D.E.R.) ay ate a seme te)

6. Practical Animal Biology for the Tropics (M.R.R.) ee 54, 120

7. The World of Butterflies and Moths (D.E.R.) .. oe seh 7A

8. The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809-1882 (D.E.R.) eg 122

11 CONTENTS OF VOLUME 56, NO. 1—(contd.)

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES :

1. Urine of bats as a means of offence. By J. L. Harrison (p. 125). 2. The

Flying Fox of Addu Atoll, Maldive Islands—A correction. By W. W. A. Phillips

(p. 125). 3. ‘ Wild’ Cattle in northern India. By H. K. Dang (p. 127). 4. Notes

on a tame Takin (With a plate). By Editors (p. 128). 5. Does the Takin produce

twin calves? By Editors (p. 130). 6. An albino Barking Deer (With a photo). By

Editors (p. 131). 7. Communal nest-feeding in Babblers. By Malcolm Macdonald

(p. 132). 8. A composite Swift-Swallow nest (With a photo). By Joseph George

(p. 134). 9. Artificial nests for Swallows and Swifts (With 1 plate and 1 text-figure).

By Joseph George (p. 135). 10. A Leathery Turtle Dermochelys coriacea (Linnaeus)

coming ashore for laying eggs during the day. By S. Jones (p. 137). 11. The

Gouramy Osphronemus gourami in Ceylon. By E. R. A. De Zylva (p. 139). 12. A

preliminary note on the food and feeding habits of Pseudorhombus elevatus Ogilby.

By M. J. Pradhan (p. 141). 13. Observations on the breeding of Indian carps in the

Garua Nala (Bhopal) (With a map). By Mohammad Sagirullah Khan (p. 144). 14.

Two new fish records from Assam. By K.L. Sehgal (p. 147). 15. A quick and easy

method of mounting fish specimens (With a text-figure). By A. H. Musavi (p. 149).

16. Some leaf-miners of agricultural importance in Nizamabad district of Andhra

Pradesh. By D. V. Murthy (p. 151). 17. Notes on the nymphal instars of Laccotre-

Dhes griseus (Guer.) (Nepidae: Heteroptera) from India (With six text-figures). By

T. K. Raghunatha Rao (p. 155). 18. Individual host discrimination by blood sucking

insects. By G. B. Dashputre (p. 158). 19. Identification of certain crustaceans

collected from rainwater pools near Pilani, Rajasthan. By N. S. Sidhu (p. 159). 20.

The leaves of Alseodaphne semecarpifolia Nees. By H. Santapau (p. 160). 21. The

‘red triangle’ Bougainvillea. By K.N. Kaul (p. 160).

NOoTES AND NEWS ees “he - Be ee .. 163

CORRIGENDUM ie wae ig eg hy .. 164

JOURNAL

OF THE

BOMBAY NATURAL

HISTORY SOCIETY

1959 APRIL | Vol. 56 No. 1

The Love and Life of Fiddler Crabs

RUDOLF ALTEVOGT, DR. RER. NAT.

Dozent at Miinster University, Germany

(With six plates)

Back in 1953 I met the first fiddlers of my. life on a muddy

stretch of beach some 15 miles from Bombay. These swift-footed and

keen-sighted crabs (genus Uca) inhabit the mud banks and sand shores,

sometimes by the thousand—as seen from a distance. But as soon as

I tried to approach their living quarters the flat seemed completely

deserted. Walking across a fiddlers’ mud flat is like wading through

some miraculous lake with the waves receding before one’s feet:

in front, the waves of hundreds of fiddlers vanish with the crabs dashing

underground into their burrows, only to emerge again in the wake

of the person causing the general alarm. Thus, in spite of patience

and tele-lenses I did not get any satisfactory shots of live fiddlers

that year (R. Altevogt 1955 a, b) and was comforted only by the thought

that even in the ‘professional’ literature there were hardly any.

But in 1955 I was back in India. This time it was only fiddlers,

and my wife was with me to assist in observation and perseverance. We

were settled to spend a full Indian summer on nothing but crabs on

the beach. Much was to be done as theré were quite a number of'

blank spots on the behaviour chart of tropical crabs in general and of

fiddlers in particular. There were open questions with regard to the

feeding technique of these mud-eaters: the ‘meaning’ and function of

_ the waving movements of the crabs’ big claws was still an argument

among some zoologists; and nobody had so far seen any copulation

in the Indian species, the total number of fiddler copulations seen in

2 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

the field amounting to a meagre five witnessed some years ago in

the Americas by Miss J. Crane (1941-1944).

There we sat on the sunbaked beach and waited for the turn of

the tide and for the fiddlers to come out of their holes in which,

guided by some miraculous rhythm, they know how to spend the high

water period. And no sooner had the water left the mud flat than

the first fiddler peeped out of his, or rather her, hole, for she was a

female. Somewhat dazed by the glaring brightness after the dark six

hours underground, she made an easy victim for a forced portrait on

my wife’s thumb. Watching her running along in the field she

seemed a terrifyingly small object for the camera’s eye though she

was of quite an average fiddler’s size. The largest Indian species

(Uca marionis) is at best about 32 mm. broad at the ‘shoulders’ (i.e.

front of carapace) and, because of their extreme shyness, photo-

graphing fiddlers in the field is about as difficult as camera-stalking

the domestic fly in the laboratory (though the latter activity definitely

affords less perspiration). Gradually the flat became covered with

fiddlers, all feeding eagerly. The females with their small claws of

equal size used them alternately in picking up ‘handfuls’ of mud

while the males could only eat with one hand, one of their claws

being grossly enlarged to serve less ‘primitive’ functions than eating.

Weeks later we had found out about the mechanism used in separat-

ing the edible contents from the inedible material of the soil. Highly

specialized mouth parts with hundreds of ‘spoons’ on tiny hairs strain

out the particulate matter from the mud in a process comparable to

the flotation procedure of the gold washer with bowl and sieve. The

coarse particles of the soil are rejected from the mouthparts and

deposited in the form of pellets besides the advancing crab. Typical

patterns are thus formed on the ground which have also been found

in fossil deposits and were mistaken for extinct starfishes and

crinoids.

With the feeding activity ceasing, the fiddlers entered the second

phase of their daily routine, that of waving, fighting and copulating.

‘Waving’ denotes a typical movement which gave the fiddlers their

popular name and which has been referred to as ‘beckoning’. The

type of waving differs with the species. In the Indian Uca marionis

it is a relatively simple affair: the animal rises on tiptoes, and at

the same time the major cheliped moves upwards and outwards.

According to motion picture analysis this takes from 3 up to several

seconds. Then follows a very precise-looking and constant down-

ward and inward movement of the claw during which the body is

lowered again to its normal position touching the ground. After at

least #? of a second the next waving movement is commenced, and

Journ. BomBay Nat. Hist. Soc. PLATE I

SNe

Fig. 1. Typical habitat of fiddler crabs.

Sympatric population of Uca annulipes and Uca triangularis. (After R.

Altevogt 1957b)

SSS.

SANS

SERRE

PICS

WEG

Fig. 2. Fiddlers migrating to new habitats (see text)

Photos: R. Altevogt

JourN. BomsBay Nat. HIstT. Soc. PLATE II

Fig. 3. Female (left) and male Uca marionts feeding mud. Scale I cm.

Fig. 4. Traces of mud-feeding fiddlers : rejected mud balls in linear patterns

radiating from crab’s hole. Scale 10 cm.

Photos: R. Altevogt

THE LOVE AND LIFE OF FIDDLER CRABS 3

so the crab goes on and on, often for hours. In another smaller

Indian species, Uca annulipes, waving is quite different and shows a

wide outward flexion of the cheliped to an extremely lateral position

and then a rapid inward and downward movement. Travellers in

the tropics have time and again been fascinated by the attractive

spectacle offered by a densely crowded population of waving fiddlers,

and there has been much arguing about the meaning and function

of this remarkable feature.

We thought of all this while sharp shells gradually made their

way through the mud to our naked feet, and the field glasses before

our eyes became wet with perspiration. Six hours of low tide on a

steamingly hot muddy or sandy beach is quite a long time when you

have to sit absolutely motionless on some barnacle-fringed stone with

your feet in an oozy mud of some 105 degrees F. and yet, what an

exciting experience was provided by each ebb tide session out on the

beach through all the months. The slightest motion on the part of

the observer sends the fiddlers scuttling down their holes. Thus, it

was exasperating, when Leica and movie tele-lenses had been care-

fully focussed on a spot where we confidently expected a fiddler’s

copulation or some ardent fight between two rival males to take

place or a nuptial couple to indulge in iove affairs, to find this

happening in an adjacent spot just out of the camera’s range and

focus!

Finally, however, we learned how to ‘handle’ the fiddlers, and were

able to make a full movie (R. Altevogt 1957a) on their life and

love. Almost every scene had to be taken with reasonable teles, and

the quick movements of the tiny animals rapidly changing their

distance from the cameras made sharpness of definition and focal

depth quite a problem.

I would not say that in the long run the fiddlers of Bombay,

Madras, and Rameshwaram fed right from our hands, but feed them

with sweets we did, offering paper rolls soaked with sugar solution.

Remarkably enough the little gourmets very readily found out the

genuine sugar ‘candies’ from the array of paper rolls presented them

soaked with solutions ranging from bitter quinine and salts to arti-

fical sweetners like saccharine and dulcine. The fiddlers’ ability

to distinguish genuine sugars from artificial sweet substances in choice

tests is shared, for instance, by the honey-bee (but not by the

domestic chicken). If offered food which was different from the

usual mud diet, our fiddlers would always prefer the former. ‘This

fact suggests that it may be out of selectional and ecological com-

petition and necessity that fiddlers were forced to take to their

4 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

difficult and time-consuming technique of mud-feeding a long time

ago in the course of evolution.

The love affairs of fiddlers are highly intricate. In order to

shadow the individuals and to trace their ways through the crowds

of fellow fiddlers we painted several dozens of them with bright

colours using my wife’s nail polish as the base to make the colours

last through the high and low tides for several days. We thus found

out that individual crabs left their living place, supposed to be their

‘territory’, all of a sudden and without any apparent reason, moving

away as far as 66 m. from their first hole within the period of four

hours. There were many others travelling 30-40 m. within the same

period. Sometimes groups of 20-25 fiddiers, male and female, would

gather, form a ‘goose line’, and leave their native quarter to migrate

to a new habitat which did not differ a bit with regard to its

ecological data—pH, moisture, temperature, salinity, and so forth.

Such a striking behaviour sometimes reminded us of the routine

migrations of ‘army crabs’ on the shores of south-east Asia and

Australia. Apparently, however, one must group such spontaneous

mass migrations under the heading of ‘sport’ as there is no apparent

reason for the animals to indulge in this kind of ‘wanderlust’.

Sporting in fiddlers is also seen when a couple, or two or three Ucas

run closely together and seem to really enjoy it. As such sprinting

couples are sometimes males only, sometimes females only, and

sometimes mixed, the activity seems to have no sexual significance,

and one cannot but call it ‘sport’. There is another kind of sport in

some American fiddler species: sometimes funnels or igloo-like

superstructures are erected over the entrance of the holes (fig. 7, show-

ing such structures in the closely related Indian Dotilla blanfordi,

another crab of the fiddler family), and repeatedly fiddlers have been

seen to deliberately tear down the neighbour’s igloo. Others seal the

entrance of the neighbour’s hole by plugging it with mud balls.

Thus, quite a number of almost human ‘nasty’ traits of behaviour

can be seen on a fiddlers’ beach.

Almost human, too, are the females’ reactions to the males’ often

frantic waving efforts. In Uca marionis, the largest Indian species,

this is not nearly so pronounced as in the smaller Uca annulipes

or Uca triangularis. 1n the former, the males, becoming pale white

with excitement, chase the females often over a considerable distance

always waving their claw until they finally get hold of the female

and mount her for copulation. Surprisingly enough, this had not

been observed so far by former authors reporting on Uca marionis,

and this lack of information was apparently one of the reasons for

the assumption that waving in fiddlers was a means of demarcating

JourN. BomBay Nat. HIstT. Soc. PrArEe iy

Fig. 5. Male Uca annulipes feeding sugar-soaked paper rolls in choice test.

Scale 10 cm.

Fig. 6. Male fiddler crab (Uca marionts). Note big waving and

small feeding claw. Stalked eyes can be folded down sideways.

Scale I cm.

Photos: R. Altevogt

JoURN. BomBay Nat. Hist. Soc. PLATE IV

Fig. 7. “Igloos”’ of the Indian crab Dotilla blanfordi, a relative of Uca. Each

igloo contains one crab. Scale 10 cm.

Fig. 8. Top display of male Uca annulipes. Note wide lateral flexion of big

claw which has totally bleached. Scale 1 cm. (After R. Altevogt 1957b)

Photos: R. Altevogt

THE LOVE AND LIFE OF FIDDLER CRABS 5]

permanent living and feeding ‘territories’. It became quite clear to

us, however, that waving is definitely a means of courting ana

attracting the opposite sex. This was especially obvious in Uca

annulipes. The males of this small species would wave their cherry-

red to white claw frantically as soon as a female, inconspicuously brown

and almost hidden by her superb camouflage, approached the love-

hungry creatures. Sexual excitement tends to bleach claws, legs, and

carapace in this species also, and at the height of the display a male

sports a dazzlingly white claw which he waves at top speed once

every quarter second (in the larger Uca marionis the maximum

frequency of waving is about one per second). If a nuptial female

responds to the male’s ardent love efforts she approaches him, and

he—after a final beckoning movement with a deep bow on his knees—

goes down into his hole, and she follows him into that subterranean

chambre d’amour where copulation is accomplished. In_ several

hundreds of female responses we have only twice seen that a male

did not stick to the codes of the tribe forbidding the rape of the

female and the copulation above ground by force. We could

photograph one of these extremely rare occurrences of copulation

above ground in Uca annulipes, in spite of the very bad light in the

early morning.

From all our experiences it became clear that waving, courting,

and copulating were intimately connected with each other. Some-

times the males’ drives and activities were so vigorous that, for a

moment, even males were mistaken for females and intense display

wavings were aimed at them until they showed their big claw

identifying them as males themselves.

The fights turned out to be well-regulated, too. When two oppo-

nents met each other, their big claws were opened in threat, and

then inserted so that a push and pul! game resulted, until finally one

gave way and moved off. Never have we been able to observe a

deadly hit in these often gruesome-looking fights. Often the urge for

a fight was so strong that a peacefully feeding male was approached

from distances of 1-2 meters and challenged to a fight which was usually

accepted. This active spoiling for a fight suggests that fighting in

fiddlers is also a means of stimulation, as it is in a number of other

animal species, e.g. birds.

A real thriller was our discovery that lovesick fiddlers will fight

their own image in a mirror. This is so surprising because in the

realm of invertebrates a clear reaction to the own mirror image has

so far been found only in the octopus. But the octopus has eyes

functionally and anatomically resembling the human type whereas

fiddlers, being typical arthropods, possess compound eyes of the

6 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

insect type which seemed not too well suited for the perception of

patterns. Mirrors placed in the field of nuptial fiddlers evoked

ardent fights against the fictitious opponent who seemed somewhat

“rregular’ as he would not (and obviously could not) insert his claw

for the typical push-pull fight. ‘Sometimes two males were engaged

in this type of shadow-boxing in front of one mirror. Often these

fights came to an end when the puncher finally got hold of the

mirror’s edge, apparently ‘thinking’ that after all the opponent had

inserted his claw for the push-pull. In such cases usually the mirror

was uprooted from its place in the mud, and neatly turned ‘on its

back’. One could well understand the little fighter congratulating

himself upon his victory!

Thus it seemed that, with fighting for fun and stimulation and with

plenty of opportunities for courting, the fiddlers were having a nice

time while out on the beach. There were some enemies, however,

trying to catch fiddlers and other semi-terrestrial and aquatic crabs.

Most cunning of the enemies from the animal world—for, as we shall

see, man is also a persecutor. of fiddlers—is the Indian House Crow,

Corvus splendens, so common on the beach and yet so difficult to

photograph because of its clever alertness. Next come the Paddybird,

Ardeola grayii, a small heron with a dull brown and white plumage.

and the Whimbrel, Numenius phaeopus. The last is a specialist in

catching fiddlers. With his long curved beak this bird probes into

the fiddlers’ holes and pulls the inhabitants out by their big claw.

Even when the crab autotomizes this limb the bird is not bluffed

or distracted by the manceuvre. He calmly drops the claw from his

bill and seizes the escaping victim. Several smaller mammals of the

cat relationship (e.g. civet cats, mongooses) and the jackal are also

known. not to despise shore crabs. Finally, man himself often goes

out ‘crabbing’, even as a non-zoologist. In Europe, where southern-

most Spain is the only known habitat of fiddlers—-Uca tangeri lives

there, a species which vanished from Tangiers long ago—man is a

grave enemy of these crabs. Up to modern times the big claw of

Uca tangeri was an important accessory in the typical costume of the

local Sefioritas—the ladies wore them as a sort of necklace on their

blouses. But the Sefiores in southern Spain, where we went on a

crabbing tour in 1956 and 1957, seem to be not any friendlier to the

fiddlers, as they eat the claws cooked and soaked in wine. Significantly

enough we were not able to find any really full-grown fiddlers on the

sandy mud shores of the Guadalquivir River. Only small to medium-

sized males were met with, whereas the size of the females was

definitely larger. This does not go with general zoology, since in

crabs the males are usually larger than the females. And the Spanish

JOURN. BomBay Nat. HIstT. Soc. PLATE V

Fig. 9. Copulation in Uca marionis. Male abdomen unfolded, female’s left

claw and legs visible between male’s legs. (After R. Altevogt 1957b)

Fig. 10. Male Uca marionis starting the mirror fight (see text). Note bleached

carapace and claw

Photos : R. Altevogt

Journ. BomBay Nat. HIstT. Soc. PLATE VI

Fig. 11. Two fiddler males (Uca marionts) ready to insert big claws for the

fight

Fig. 12. An unsolved problem in fiddler biology : ‘“‘ Posing’’, a sort of trance

in which the animal’s reactions are markedly blocked. Scale 1 cm. (After R.

Altevogt 1957b)

Photos: R. Altevogt

THE LOVE AND LIFE OF FIDDLER CRABS 7

gourmets soon gave us the explanation of this fact; large males are

caught and, after amputating their big claw, they are let loose again

in the field. After some weeks a new claw begins to develop which,

however, will never reach its original size. Hence, there is a real.

‘harvesting’ of fiddlers’ claws in Spain which provides a_ typical

indigenous item (‘bocas’) on the menu card. Talking of the only

European fiddler Uca tangeri we might mention that the type of

waving and copulating has only recently been cleared up (R. Altevogt,

in the press). 6

With the low tide advancing, the fiddlers’ fighting and courting

activities gradually turned over into the last of the typical inter-tidal

phases, that of hole digging. Sometimes a fight would ensue for a

hole already existing, but equally often the crabs built a new hole

by carrying mud balis with their small claw and legs and depositing

them about half a yard or so from the hole’s entrance. After the

hole had become sufficiently deep and wide-—the deepest holes opened

by us went down as far as 90 cm.—the fiddlers receded into it and

closed the entrance. with a plug of mud. About 10 minutes before

the tide reached the bank all fiddlers had vanished from the scene

awaiting the water in their underground shelters and ready to emerge

again after these dark six hours.

Whether any environmental factor gives a clue to the fiddlers, guid-

ing them in their wonderfully synchronized inter-tidal activities, or

whether some internal rhythm tells them about the tide’s come and

go, is only one of the many open problems in the field of fiddlers.

REFERENCES

The following papers contain the bulk of quotations on Uca by former authors:

Altevogt, R.(1955a) : Beobachtungen ——— (1958): Zur Okologie und

und Untersuchungen an indischen Win- Ethologie von Uca_ tangeri (Eydoux),

kerkrabben. Z. Morphol. u. Okol. Tiere Europas einziger Winkerkrabbe. Proc.

43: 501-522.

———(1955b) : Some studies on two

species of Indian fiddler crabs, Uca

marionis nitidus (Dana) and U. annulipes

(Latr.). JBNHS 52: 702-716.

———(1956): Der Mechanismus der

Nahrungsaufnahme bei Winkerkrabben.

Naturw. 43 : 92-93.

———(1957a): Zur Biologie indischer

Winkerkrabben. MHochschulfilm des In-

stituts fiir den Wissenschaftlichen Film,

Nr. 756.

———(1957b): Untersuchungen zur

Biologie, Okologie und Physiologie in-

discher Winkerkrabben. Z. Morphol. u.

Okol. Tiere 46: 1-110.

———(1957c): Beitrage zur Biologie

und Ethologie von Dotilla blanfordi

Alcock und Dotilla myctiroides (Milne-

Edwards) (Crustacea, Decapoda). Z.

Morphol. u. Okol. Tiere 46: 369-388.

of the XV Internat. Congress of Zoology,

London. ia

— —(1958): Okologische und etho-

logische Studien an Europas einziger

Winkerkrabbe, Uca tangeri Eydoux. Z.

Morphol. u. Okol. Tiere (in press).

Crane, J. (1941) : Crabs of the genus

Uca from the West Coast of Central

America. Zoologica (N. Y.) 26 : 145-207.

———(1943a): Crabs of the genus

Uca from Venezuela. ibid. 28 : 33-44.

———(1943b) : Display, breeding and

relationships of fiddler crabs (Brachyura,

genus Uca) in the north-eastern United

States. ibid. 28: 217-223.

———(1944) : On the color change of

fiddler crabs (genus Uca) in the field.

ibid. 29: 161-168.

—— (1957): Basic patterns of display

in fiddler crabs (Ocypodidae, genus

Uca). ibid. 42: 69-82,

Some Edible Wild Plants from the

Hilly Region of the Poona District,

Bombay State —

V. D. VARTAK

M.A.C.S. Laboratory, Poona 4

(With a sketch map)

The area dealt with in this work covers the hilly region of the

Poona District along the Western Ghats. It is loosely known in

Maharashtra as the Mawal Hills. The area consists of the Mawal,

Mulshi, and Bhor Talukas, Velhe Mahal, and the south-western

part of the Haveli Taluka (see map).

This region has always been known for its food scarcity. Its local

food produce is hardly sufficient to make up about two-thirds of the

local requirements. Thus, for about four months in each year some

of its unfortunate inhabitants have to migrate to the neighbouring

cities, and the remainder are obliged to subsist on a starvation diet.

During the harvest, and also afterwards, these people use many

plants occurring naturally in neighbouring jungles as supplementary

food which alone enables them to carry on with their half-starved

existence.

The young leaves of some plants are used as food (e.g. Chloro-

phytum tuberosum Baker, Cassia tora L., Smithia conferta Sm., etc.).

In some cases it is the flowers which are used as food (e.g.

Clerodendrum serratum Moon, Dioscorea pertaphylla L., etc.). The

fruit, whole or part, is also sometimes used as food (e.g. Salmalia

malabarica Schott, Ficus glomerata Roxb., Meyna laxiflora Robyns,

etc.). In some cases underground tubers or rhizomes are useful as

food (e.g. Ceropegia lawii Hook., Ceropegia hirsuta Wight & Arn.,

Vigna capensis Walp., etc.). In the summer even the gum from soma

trees is utilised as food. During the monsoon, several types of

puffballs and toadstools spring up, some of which serve as a valuable

supplement to the diet.

Some of these wild plants can be used as food without much

preparation, while in some cases they have to be washed, fried, and

mixed with standard food.

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SOME EDIBLE WILD PLANTS OF POONA DISTRICT 9

It is possible that large scale use as food of some of these plants:

may lead to harmful effects. For example, it is believed that tubers

of Ceropegia when eaten frequently cause temporary blindness. Hence

it would be worth while to make a thorough investigation of their

useful properties and harmful constituents.

On the other hand the extensive use of these plants as food results

in a rapid decrease in their occurrence and some of them are already

on the verge of becoming extinct. Hence botanists must find out

ways and means to preserve them. Similarly if some other non-

indigenous plants could be grown in these areas as supplementary

food, they would be a boon to the indigenous population. This can

indeed be looked upon as an important adjunct to the ‘Grow More

Food Campaign’ of the present day.

The author has recorded a number of plants used as food in the

course of his study of the vegetation of this region. The information

thus gathered has been counterchecked with that available in other

places. The author has himself tasted most of the plants listed. Even

though some of them may not be quite tasty from urban standards,

they are extensively used as food in rural areas.

In this paper a brief account of some wild edible plants found

within the Poona District is given. Under each species will be found

(i) its botanical name, (ii) reference to Cooke’s FLORA OF THE BOMBAY

PRESIDENCY to which one should refer for complete morphological

description of the species, (111) the family to which it belongs, (iv)

common local name, (v) habit, habitat, exact locality with frequency.

A check-list of these species and their distribution where worked

out is given in this note. Further lists will be published from

time to time as material accumulates. )

A complete set of the species referred to in this paper is deposited

in the Herbarium of the Maharashtra Association for the Cultivation

of Science, Poona 4. The arrangement of families, genera, and species

in the following list is according to Cooke’s FLORA OF THE BOMBAY

PRESIDENCY. It is hoped that this will prove useful to research workers

and others interested in this particular problem.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author is grateful to Prof. V. V. Apte, Fergusson College,

Poona 4, and Rev. Father H. Santapau of the St. Xavier’s College,

Bombay, for kindly going through the manuscript and suggesting im-

provements. He is also grateful to Dr. S. P. Agharkar, Director,

M.A.C.S. Laboratory, Poona 4, for his valuable guidance and

encouragement from time to time.

10 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

LIST OF PLANTS

1. Nymphaea pubescens Willd. (= N. lotus Hook. f. & Thoms.) Cooke

1:25. (Nymphaeaceae) Kamal kakdi.

An aquatic herb occasionally seen in tanks or in shallow wells.

Roots, petioles, and peduncles are collected and eaten locally.

The roots, which contain a large quantity of starch, are usually boiled,

though sometimes eaten raw; the stems are cooked in curries; the

unripe fruit is eaten as vegetable and seeds are parched (Watt).

Cooke states that the seeds are also eaten and this may account for

the rarity of fruits.

Localities: (1) Khandala: in Khandala village tank—common,

Santapau; (2) Malavli: in village tank—-common, Vartak.

2. Capparis zeylanica L. (= C. horrida L. f. Suppl.) Cooke 1 : 48. (Cap-

paridaceae) Vaghati ; Govindphal.

A rambling shrub armed with recurved stipular spines.

Common plant along the hedges in the low rainfall tract of the

area:

The ripe fruits are occasionally used to prepare chatni which is

usually used during the fasting period. The chatni is not tasty and

hence not so popular among the local people.

Localities: (1) Khandala: occasionally seen, Santapau; (2) Katraj:

along hedges—common, Vartak; (3) Sinhagad: along hedges—com-

mon, Vartak; (4) Nasrapur: common, Vartak.

3. Portulaca oleracea L. Cooke 1:68. (Portulacaceae) Gholu.

A succulent sub-erect herb; leaves obovate, sessile, fleshy.

Common in moist waste places, usually ee the village streets,

or in the cultivated land.

The leaves and succulent stem are used as a vegetable.

Localities: Common throughout the area.

4. Garcinia indica Chois. Cooke 1: 76. (Guttiferae) Kokam; Amsul.

A small evergreen tree usually seen in the ravines of high rainfall

region. It bears a conspicuous spherical purple fruit, the size of a

small orange, which ripens about April. |

The rind of the fruit is used locally for pickling; the pulp is eaten

and has a delicious flavour. —

Localities: (1) Khandala: in the ravines—common, Santapau;

(2) Bhutande: near Rajgad—-common, Vartak.

SOME EDIBLE WILD PLANTS OF POONA DISTRICT 11

5. Salmalia malabarica Schott. & Endl. (= Bombax malabaricum DC.)

Cooke 1: 120. (Bombacaceae) Savar ; Katesavar ; Lal-savar.

A tall deciduous tree usually seen along the slopes in the open

forests. It is also planted along the roads, or in the cultivated land.

Flowers bright red, 5-7 cm. across, arising before the leaves.

_ The flower buds and young fruits, locally known as Suirdceodhe,

are used as a vegetable.

Localities: Fairly common throughout the area. (1) Khandala:

common, Santapau; (2) Sakhar: fairly common, Vartak; (3) Katraj:

near the base of the ghat—common, Vartak; (4) Sinhagad: in the

ravines and along the roads—common, Vartak; (5) Torna: near

the base—common, Razi and Vartak; (6) Malavli and Bhaja: culti-

vated, Razi and Vartak.

6. Grewia abutifolia Vent. Cooke 1: 144. (Tiliaceae) Makad meva.

A straggling shrub fairly common along the nalas in moist

shady places. Drupes 1.5 cm. across, fleshy, minutely stellately hairy,

obscurely 4-lobed, wrinkled.

The fruits are eaten by local people. The village boys use it as

a snack while tending grazing cattle.

Localities: (1) Khandala: on Monkey Hill and Battery Hill

plateau—occasionally seen, Santapau; (2) Lohogad: occasionally seen

along the hedges, Vartak; (3) Katraj: near Padmavati along the sides

of the stream, Vartak; in ravines near Bhelare Wadi, Vartak; (4)

Sinhagad: near Atkar Wadi—common, Vartak.

7. Zizyphus mauritiana Lamk. (= Z. jujuba Lamk.) Cooke 1: 240.

(Rhamnaceae) Bora ; Ran-bor.

A large, much-branched crooked shrub armed with stipular spines.

Common in open forests, or along the slopes of the denuded hills.

The fruits are of various sizes and taste. Some agreeable types

are eaten by the local people.

Localities: More or less common throughout the area. (1) Khan-

dala: along railway line; by the side of the main road—common,

Santapau; (2) Sakhar: common, Vartak; (3) Sinhagad: near Atkar

Wadi—common, Vartak; (4) Katraj: along the ghat—common,

Vartak; (5) Torna: near the base—common, Vartak and Razi.

8. Zizyphus rugosa Lamk. Cooke 1: 243. (Rhamnaceae) Toran.

A rambling shrub heavily armed with spines forming impenetrable

thickets along the edge of the forest.

The ripe fruits are eaten by the local people for quenching thirst.

The taste of the pulp is similar to Mimusops elengi L.

12 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

Localities: Common, all over the region. (1) Khandala:

common, Santapau; (2) Rajgad: common, Vartak; (3) Sinhagad: near

Budhla Machi—common, Vartak; (4) Torna: along the slopes—

common, Vartak and Razi. ;

9. Rhus mysurensis Heyne Cooke 1 : 273 (Anacardiaceae) Amani.

A much-branched shrub armed with spines.

Common in the -open forests, along the slopes of the hills in the

low rainfall tract. Drupes 3-4 mm. across, greenish brown.

The author has noted that the fruits are bitter to taste

with, however, very good effect for controlling thirst. The fruits

are collected and eaten by village boys.

Localities: (1) Poona: hills near about, Woodrow, Vetal Hills—

common, Vartak; (2) Katraj: along the ghat—abundant, Vartak.

10. Buchanania lanzan Spreng. Cooke 1: 275 (Anacardiaceae) Char.

A tree, 20-25 metres high, tolerably common along the hill slopes

of the low rainfall region. Drupes obliquely lentiform, 1-1.5 cm. long,

black, stone hard, 2 valved. The fruit is eaten by the local people.

Localities: (1) Katraj: along the ghat—Woodrow; along the

northern slopes—common, Vartak; (2) Sinhagad: in the ravines—

Woodrow; near Atkar Wadi—occasionally seen, Vartak.

11. Indigofera pulchella Roxb. Cooke 1: 320 (Papilionaceae) Nerdi;

Nichardi.

An erect shrub 2-3 metres high; flowers numerous, purple, in close

short-peduncled racemes. ,

Common in open forests.

The flower-buds and flowers are used as a vegetable.

Localities: (i) Katraj: along the ghat, Kanitkar, fairly common,

Vartak; (2) Rajgad: along the slopes—very common, Vartak; (3)

Sinhagad: along the slopes—common, Vartak; (4) Raireshwar: along

the slopes—very common, Vartak; (5) Torna: along the slopes—very

common, Vartak and Razi.

12. Smithia conferta Sm. (= Smithia geminiflora var. conferta Baker)

Cooke 1 : 336. (Papilionaceae) Barka ; Naichi-bhaji.

Annual sub-erect profusely branched herb.

A common herb growing in grass fields or on grassy slopes.

Usually seen growing in moist soil or sometimes in liquid mud along

the banks of streams.

Leaves are extensively used as vegetable. It is said that mixed

with crab legs, it makes a very palatable dish.

SOME EDIBLE WILD PLANTS OF POONA DISTRICT 13

Localities: (1) Khandala: very common, Santapau; (2) Rajgad:

near Gunjavani—very common, Vartak; (3) Sinhagad: near Poona

Machi—common, Vartak; (4) Bhor hills: near Padmavati—common,

Vartak; (5) Raireshwar: near Korla—common, Vartak.

13. Phaseolus khandalensis Santapau (= Phaseolus grandis Dalz.)

Cooke 1 : 375. (Papilionaceae) Ran-shevga.

An erect woody herb, fairly common in open forests of the

high rainfall region.

The seeds are eaten by the local people. It is said that frequent

use of these seeds may lead to temporary blindness.

Localities: (1) Khandala: along Kune stream—abundant; Bhoma

-Hills—abundant, Santapau; (2) Purandhar Fort: northern slopes—

abundant, Santapau; (3) Rajgad: along the slopes—common, Vartak;

(4) Katraj: along the ghat—occasional, Vartak; (5) Sinhagad:

northern slopes—abundant, Vartak.

14. Phaseolus radiatus L. (= Phaseolus sublobatus Roxb. = Phaseolus

trinervius Heyne) Cooke 1: 377. (Papilionaceae) Ran-mug.

A perennial herb, twining when it meets a support.

Common along the edge of the forest, and by forest paths. The

seeds are eaten by the local people in times of scarcity.

Localities: (1) Khandala: very common, Santapau; (2) Rajgad:

along the slopes—very common, Vartak; (3) Katraj: along the ghat—

common, Vartak; (4) Sinhagad: near Atkarwadi—common, Vartak;

(5) Torna: near Velhe—common, Vartak and Razi.

15. Vigna capensis Walp. (= Vigna vexillata R. Rich.) Cooke 1 : 379

(Papilionaceae) Halunda.

A twining herb, root fusiform.

Common in open forest, usually along the foot paths.

The fusiform roots and seeds afe eaten by the local people. Boiled

or roasted roots constitute one of the major food articles of the hill

tribes.

_ Localities: (1) Khandala: common throughout the area, Santapau;

(2) Rajgad: near Gunjavani—abundant, Vartak; (3) Lohagad: near

Bhaja—common, Vartak; (4) Sinhagad: near Atkarwadi—common,

Vartak.

16. Cassia tora L. Cooke 1: 420 (Caesalpiniaceae) Takla ; Taroti.

An erect woody herb, fairly common in waste places along

the road, or in the forest in open spaces.

The tender young leaves are extensively used as vegetable. The

leaves give a typical odour which perhaps caused the elimination of

14. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

this particular type from the city markets, otherwise the vegetable is

quite tasty.

Localities: More or less common _ throughout the area;

(1) Khandala: fairly common, Santapau; (2) Rajgad: near Gunjavni—

common, Vartak; (3) Sinhagad: near Atkarwadi, common; (4) Torna:

near the base—common, Vartak and Razi.

17, Acacia arabica Willd. Cooke 1: 443 (Mimosaceae) Babhul.

A middle-sized crooked tree seen usually planted along the road-

side or in the cultivated land.

The raw or slightly fried gum is eaten by local peoples in times

of scarcity.

Localities: A common species seen cultivated or wild in dry

region of the area.

18. Terminalia bellerica (Gaertn.) Roxb. Cooke 1 : 478 (Combretaceae)

Beheda.

A large deciduous tree. Fruits remain hanging on the tree for a

long time.

Common in ravines of the hilly region of the high rainfall tract.

The hard seed coat is removed and the inner starchy portion is used

as food in times of great scarcity. If taken in excess it is said

to produce intoxication.

Localities: (1) Khandala: fairly, common, Santapau; (2) Rajgad:

wild and cultivated, common, Vartak; (3) Sinhagad: near Atkarwadi—

common, Vartak; (4) Ambavade: in the ravine—common, Vartak:

(5) Torna: along the slopes occasionally seen, Vartak and Razi

19. Anogeissus latifolia Wall. Cooke 1: 482. (Combretaceae) Dhavda.

A middle-sized deciduous tree.

Common along the slopes of the hills of the medium rainfall

tract.

The gum after a little frying is used as food.

Localities: (1) Khandala: on Monkey Hill and Meroli Hill,

Santapau; (2) Katraj: along the ghat—very common, Vartak:; (3)

Sinhagad: near Atkarwadi—-common, Vartak. 7

20. Syzygium cumini (L.) Skeels (= Eugenia jambolana Lamk.) Cooke

1: 492. (Myrtaceae) Jambul.

A middle-sized evergreen tree usually seen in wild condition

on the hill-tops of the high rainfall tract.

The fruits of some varieties are commonly and extensively used

by local people.

SOME-EDIBLE WILD PLANTS OF POONA DISTRICT 15

Localities: (1) Khandala: Forbay—common, Santapau; (2)

Rajgad: near Chirmodi—common, Vartak; (3) Bhor: along the hill—

common, Vartak, (4) Torna: near Velhe—common, Vartak and Razi;

(5) Sinhagad: near Atkarwadi—common, Vartak.

21. Momordica dioica Roxb. Cooke 1: 529. (Cucurbitaceae) Kartoli.

A much-spread climbing herb with tuberous roots.

Common in the crevices of rocks or boulders along the slopes of

the hills in the dry region of the area. .

The fruits are eaten as vegetable and are in great demand in the

local market, especially by the Gujarati community.

Localities: (1) Khandala: common, Santapau; (2) Poona: near

Khadakvasla, Cooke; Kothrud, 3 miles SW. of Poona, Kanitkar;

Vetal Hills—occasionally seen, Vartak; (3) Katraj: along the ghat

common, Vartak.

22. Cucumis melo L. var. agrestis Naud. Cooke 1: 535 (Cucurbitaceae)

Meki; Takmak.

Annual climber covered with stiff hairs.

‘The fruit is pale green, 1.5-1.8 cm. in diameter, with 10 longi-

tudinal stripes which are white or yellow in colour.

Common in the open forest, along the slopes.

‘The fruit is refreshing and ‘is very popular by the local name

meki. It is used extensively by the village children.

Localities: (1) Khandala: very common, Santapau; (2) Rajgad:

near Gunjavani—Common, Vartak; (3) Sinhagad: Mahar-dara—

common, Vartak.

23. Melothria heterophylla Cogn. (Lour.) (= Zehneria umbellata

Thwait.) Cooke 1: 539. (Cucurbitaceae) Gomaiti.

A deciduous slender climber with tuberous roots.

Usually seen near cultivated land on hedges or in open fields.

The fruits are eaten by the local people.

Localities: (1) Khandala: common, Santapau; (2) Rajgad: near

the base of the hill—common, Vartak; (3) Sinhagad: near Atkarwadi—

common, Vartak; (4) Katraj: along the ghat—common, Vartak;

(S) Varandha Ghat: common, Vartak; (6) Raireshwar: common,

Vartak.

24, Meyna laxiflora Robyns (= Vangueria spinosa Hook.) Cooke

1:607. (Rubiaceae) Alu.

A small tree armed with strong spines.

Common along the slopes of the hills.

The fruit looks very much like that of Achras sapota (Chikku)

but is of poor quality. It is eaten by the local people.

16 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

Localities: (1) Khandala: very common, Santapau; (2) Rajgad:

near Gunjavani—very common, Variak; (3) Sinhagad: along the

slopes—common, Vartak; (4) Malavli to Bhaja: along the slopes—

common, Vartak and Razi.

25. Launaea nudicaulis Hook. f. Cooke2:62 (Compositae) Pathri.

A prostrate or suberect herb. Leaves radical forming a rosette on

the ground.

Common in waste places, weed in cultivated land; fairly common

throughout the area.

The leaves are eaten mixed with the standard vegetables.

Localities: (1) Khandala: Kune stream bed—tolerably common,

Santapau; (2) Rajgad: near Sakhar—common, Vartak; (3) Katraj:

near Bhelerwadi—common, Vartak.

26. Mimusops elengi L. Cooke2: 95 (Sapotaceae) Waoli; Bakauli.

A large evergreen glabrous tree. Fruit ovoid 1-1.5 cm. long

yellowish when ripe.

Occasionally seen in the ravines.

The ripe fruits are eaten by the local people. Large use of these

fruits causes a choking feeling in the throat.

Localities: (1) Khandala: in ravines—occasionally seen, Santapau;

(2) Nasrapur: near Baneshwar—cultivated, Vartak; (3) Bhor: along

the hill—occasionally seen, Vartak.

27. Diospyros melanoxylon Roxb. (= D. tupru Buch.-Ham.) Cooke

2:99 (Ebenaceae.) Yamray ; Temburni.

A middle sized deciduous tree. Fruits ovoid, 1.5-2 cm. long, yellow

when ripe.

Common along the slopes of the hill in the medium rainfall tract.

The fruit, though astringent, is eaten and much appreciated during

the hot season (Cooke).

Localities: (1) Katraj: along the ghat—very common, Vartak;

(2) Poona: near Vetal hills-—-common, Vartak.

28. Jasminum malabaricum Wight Cooke 2: 111 (Oleaceae) Kusar,

Ran mogra.

A large climbing shrub. Fruits oval or globose, polished black

when ripe.

Very common in ravines of the high rainfall tract.

The fruit, which is popularly known as gugharya, constitutes one

of the important articles of food. A side dish locally called usal

is prepared by frying and cooking the fruits.

Localities: (1) Khandala: very common, Santapau; (2) Rajgad:

along the slopes—common, Vartak; (3) Sinhagad: along the slopes—

SOME EDIBLE WILD PLANTS OF POONA DISTRICT at),

common, Vartak; (4) Raireshwar: along the slopes—-common, Vartak;

(5) Lohogad: along the slopes-—common, Vartak and Razi; (6) Torna:

along the slopes—common, Vartak and Razi; (7) Malavli to Bhaia:

along the slopes—common, Vartak.

29. Carissa congesta Wight (= Carissa carandas Graham non Linn.)

Cooke 2: 124. (Apocynaceae) Karvand.

A large evergreen shrub armed with divaricated thorns. Fruit

very variable, spherical or ellipsoid. The coiour changes from deep

green to purple, and purple to jet black. Some varieties have a bitter

taste.

Very common along the slopes of the hills of the medium and

high rainfall tract. |

The fruit is eaten locally; it is collected and sold in local bazars.

Localities: (1) Khandala: very common, Santapau; (2) Rajgad:

along the slopes—very common, Vartak; (3) Katraj: along the ghat—

common, Vartak; (4) Raireshwar: along the slopes—very common,

Vartak, (5) Malavli to Bhaja: along the slopes—common, Vartak

and Razi; (6) Lohogad: along the slopes—-common, Vartak and Razi.

30. Wrightia tinctoria R. Br. Cooke 2: 137. (Apocynaceae) Kala-

kuda.

A middle-sized tree, fairly common in open forests of the

high rainfall region. Flowers appear generally when tree is leafless

and they are very abundant.

The flowers are occasionally used as vegetable. The vegetable

is slightly bitter in taste and it requires thorough washing.

Localities: (1) Khandala: from Thakurwadi to Behram’s

Plateau—common, Santapau; (2) Rajgad: near Gunjavani—common,

Vartak; (3) Raireshwar: near Korla~—occasionally seen, Vartak; (4)

Hirdoshi: occasionally seen, Vartak. 3

31. Holostemma annularis (Roxb.) K.Schum. (= H. rheedei Wall.

= H. rheedianum Spreng.) Cooke 2: 156. (Asclepiadaceae)

Shindoli ; Choose.

A large climbing shrub seen usually in lantana thickets along

the slopes of the hills. The flowers are very much like Calotropis.

The flowers contain sweet juice and, hence, are frequently used

by the local people. This may account for the relative scarcity of

the plant in the district.

Localities: (1) Khandala: occasionally seen, Santapau; (2) Katraj:

along the ghat—occasionally seen, Vartak.

18 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

32. Ceropegia lawii Hook. Cooke 2: 175. (Asclepiadaceae) Kharpudi.

An erect, slightly succulent herb, 30 cm. in height. Common in

open forest along the grassy slopes.

The tubers are used like potato. The plant is extensively hunted

for its tubers and thus becoming gradually extinct.

Localities: (1) Khandala: rare, Santapau; (2) Purandhar: fort

area—common, Santapau; (3) Sinhagad: common, Vartak; (4) Bhor

hills: occasionally seen, Vartak; (5) Rajgad: very common, Vartak;

(6) Torna: along the slopes—common, Vartak and Razi.

33. Ceropegia hirsuta Wight & Arn. Cooke 2:177. (Asclepiadaceae)

Khantodi.

A slender climber, stem hirsute and much branched. Flowers

similar to the previous species.

Common in open forest along the slopes of the hilly region. ‘Lhe

tubers are used like potato. This species is also on the verge of

extinction due to indiscriminate hunting.

Localities: (1) Katraj: along the ghat—very common, Vartak;

(2) Sinhagad: along the ravines—common, Vartak; (3) Vetal Hills:

occasionally seen, Vartak.

34. Ceropegia oculata Hook. Cooke 2: 177. (Asclepiadaceae) Khantodi.

A slender herb; twining, up to 4-5.5 metres long. Corolla

7-9.5 cm. long like the head of a snake, yellowish greea in colour

with purple dots in the throat. The local name is given on account

of the peculiar shape of the flower.

The tubers are used as potatoes.

Localities: (1) Khandala: rare, Santapau; (2) Rajgad: occasionally

seen, Vartak.

35. Caralluma fimbriata Wall. Cooke 2: 180. (Asclepiadaceae) Makad

shingi. |

An erect fleshy, almost leafless herb, reaching about 20 cm. high.

The plant looks like small cactus.

Common in crevices of rocks along the slopes of the denuded

hills. The entire plant is eaten as a vegetable mostly by Punjabis

and northern people.

Localities: (1) Parvati—common, Vartak. (2) Vetal Hills:

common, Vartak, (3) Katraj: very common along the ghat, Vartak.

36. Cordia dichotoma Forst . (= C. obliqua Willd. = C. myxa L.) Cooke

2: 199. (Boraginaceae) Bhokar.

A moderate-sized deciduous tree, reaching about 9 metres high.

Common in the ravines along the streams; occasionally planted along

the roads.

SOME EDIBLE WILD PLANTS OF POONA DISTRICT 19

The young tender leaves are used as vegetable. The ripe fruit is

eaten and the unripe fruit is pickled by the local people.

Localities: (1) Khandala: not common, Santapau; (2) Katraj:

along the ghat—common, Vartak; (3) Sinhagad: near Atkarwadi--

common, Vartak; (4) Hirdoshi: common, Vartak. |

37. Ipomoea aquatica Forsk. Cooke 2: 246. (Convolvulaceae) Nalichi

bhaji.

A prostrate herb, trailing on liquid mud or floating. Leaves elliptic

oblong, cordate, or hastate.

The young shoots, leaves, and roots are eaten as a vegetable.

Localities: (1) Poona: near Mutha river side—-occasionally seen,

Vartak; (2) Bhosari: along the margin of the tank—very common,

Vartak.

38. Solanum indicum L. Cooke 2: 266. (Solanaceae) Chicharti; Dorli ;

Mothi ringni. . ;

A much-branched under-shrub armed with recurved prickles.

Fruits globose, 0.8-1 cm. in diameter, dark yellow when ripe. —

Fruit used in curry preparation; the chatni prepared from these

fruits is very popular among the local peopie.

Localities: (1) Khandala: very common, Santapau; (2) Katraj:

along the ghat—common, Vartak; (3) Sinhagad: along the slopes—

very common, Vartak; (4) Malavli to Bhaja: along the slopes—

common, Vartak and Razi; (5) Raireshwar: along the slopes—

common, Vartak.

39. Clerodendrum serratum (L.) Moon Cooke 2: 432. (Verbenaceae)

Bharangi.

An erect shrub, reaching 1.2 metres in height. Flowers numerous,

pale blue, showy, collectively forrning a long lax terminal, usually

pyramidal erect, panicle, 20-25 cm. long.

Very common along the edge of the forest or in the open forests

of the high rainfall tract.

The flowers are extensively used and very popular as a vegetable

among the local people. Graham mentions that the leaves are eaten

as greens; like Santapau, I have not been able to confirm this parti-

_ cular use. However, I have seen the common use of the flowers

as vegetable, and have tasted the vegetable.

Localities: (1) Khandala: common, Santapau; (2) Katraj: along

the ghat—occasionally seen, Vartak; (3) Sinhagad: near Atkarwadi—

common, Vartak; (4) Rajgad: near Gunjavani—common, Vartak:

(5) Raireshwar: near Korla—-common, Vartak, (6) Torna: near Velhe

—common, Vartak and Razi.

20 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

40. Gmelina arborea Roxb. Cooke 2: 425. (Verbenaceae) Shivan.

A moderate-sized unarmed deciduous tree reaching 8-15 metres

high. The fruit is a drupe 2-2.5 cm. long, ovoid or pyriform, smooth,

orange-yellow when ripe.

Common in open country along the base of the hills.

The fruit is occasionally eaten by the local people.

Localities. (1) Khandala: not common, Santapau; (2) Rajgad:

near Chirmodi—common, Vartak; (3) Katraj: along the ghat—

occasionally seen, Vartak; (4) Sinhagad: along the slopes—common,

Vartak; (5) Poona: along the Vetal Hills—occasionally seen, Vartak.

41, Celosia argentea L. Cooke 2: 485. (Amaranthaceae) Kurdu ;

Kombda.

An erect herb, 50-80 cm. high.

Common weed in. the cultivated land, common in grass land.

- Occasionally seen in waste places and in the river beds.

The young tender leaves used as vegetable.

Localities: (1) Khandala: very common, Santapau; (2) Rajgad:

in the cultivated land—very common, Vartak; (3) Katraj: in the

cultivated land—very common, Vartak; (4) Sinhagad: in the cultivated

land—very common, Vartak; (5) Lohogad: in the cultivated land—

common, Vartak and Razi; (6) Malavli to Bhaja: in waste places—

common, Vartak and Razi.

42. Amaranthus spinosus L. Cooke 2: 488. (Amaranthaceae) Kante-

math.

An erect woody herb, fairly common throughout the area in

waste places, rubbish heaps, and in cultivated land. The plant

grows well in moist damp soil.

The leaves make a fairly good spinach, though difficult to pick

owing to axillary spines.

Localities: Common throughout the area. (1) Khandala: in

waste land near the railway station, Santapau; (2) Malavli to Bhaja:

in. water-logged cultivated land—common, Vartak and Razi; (3)

Torna: near Velhe—common, Vartak and Razi.

43. Amaranthus polygamus L. Cooke 2:490. (Amaranthaceae)

Tandulja.

An erect much-branched succulent glabrous herb, seen usually as

a weed in cultivated land.

The tender stem and leaves are used as vegetable.

Localities: A common weed in cultivated land.

SOME EDIBLE WILD PLANTS OF POONA DISTRICT 21

44. Aerva sanguinolenta Blume (= Aerva scandens Roxb.) Cooke 2 : 492.

(Amaranthaceae) Mada.

A climbing under shrub; branches straggling, more or less pubescent

or tomentose.

The plant is fairly common in crevices of rocks along the slopes

of the hilly tract. The plant shows luxuriant growth in shade.

The tender leaves are used as spinach.

Localities: (1) Khandala: in the dense forest and grassy banks—

common, Santapau; (2) Rajgad: along the slopes—common, Vartak:

(3) Sinhagad: along the slopes—common, Vartak; (4) Katraj: along

the ghat—common, Vartak.

45. Elaeagnus conferta -Roxb. ( = E. latifolia L.) Cooke 2: 543.

(Elaeagnaceae) Amegul.

A large much-branched scandent shrub, often running over high

trees. Fruits 1.3 cm. long, ellipsoid with 8 strong blunt ribs.

The fruit is edible and sold in the market on the hills. It has

sub-acid flavour.

Localities: (1) Khandala: at the edge of the forest—common,

Santapau, (2) Raigad: near Gunjavani—common, Vartak; (3)

Varandha: along the slopes of the ravine—common, Vartak; (4)

Raireshwar: on the plateau—-common, Vartak.

46. Ficus glomerata Roxb. Cooke 2:654. (Moraceae) Umber.

A large evergreen tree, receptacles from the old wood, on the

trunk, clustered, at first green, later red.

Common near villages, near roadside, and along streams and

rivers.

The receptacles are used in vegetable after removal of the minute

flowers.

Localities: (1) Khandala: common _ throughout the area,

- Santapau; (2) Rajgad: in the ravine—common, Vartak; (3) Sinhagad:

near Atkarwadi—common, Vartak: (4) Raireshwar: ta the ravine

along the stream—common, Vartak; (5) Malavli to Bhaja: along the

side of the stream, Vartak and Razi; (6) Torna: near Velhe, Vartak

and Razi; (7) Katraj: along the ghat—cultivated, Vartak and Razi.

47. Curcuma pseudomontana Grah. Cooke 2: 730. (Zingiberaceac)

Kachora; Shindalvan.

Herb with root stock; bearing small almond-like tubers at the

ends of the fibrous roots, tubers pure white inside.

Common as undergrowth along the slopes in the dense forest.

22 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

Localities: (1) Khandala: very common throughout the area,

Santapau; (2) Ambavada: in the ravine—common, Vartak; (3)

Rajgad: in the ravine—common, Vartak; (4) Sinhagad: near Machi—

common, Vartak; (5) Varandha: near Hirdoshi—common, Vartak.

48. Ensete superbum (Roxb.) Cheesman (= Musa panes Roxb.) -

Cooke 2: 740. (Musaceae) Chaeen.

A herb-like banana but not so tall.

Common along the steep slopes of the hills of the high rainfall

tract.

Locally young fruits are pickled, young inflorescence (spike) is

eaten as a vegetable. The sprouting buds are used as vegetable.

Localities: (1) Khandala: common all over, Santapau; (2)

Sinhagad: near Kalyan gate—common, Vartak; (3) Rajgad: near the

top—very common, Vartak; (4) Raireshwar: along the steep slopes

—very common, Vartak.

49. Dioscorea pentaphylla L. Cooke 2: 758. (Dioscoreaceae) Shend-

vel; Mohor. |

A climbing shrub usually seen overtopping the small shrubs.

Bulbils many, globose or cylindrical. Staminate flowers numerous

in compound racemes, pistillate flowers in pendulous spikes.

Common in open forest.

The flower-buds, especially the staminate ones are extensively

used as vegetable by the local people.

Localities: (1) Khandala: fairly common, Cooke, Gammie,

Meebold, Santapau; (2) Purandhar: common, Bhide, Santapau; (3)

Sinhagad: fairly common, Bhide, Vartak; (4) Rajgad: near Gunjavani

—common, Vartak; (5) Raireshwar: near Korla Village—common,

Vartak. :

50. Dioscorea oppositifolia L. Cooke 2 : 758. (Dioscoreaceae) Tamboli.

A large climbing shrub, common in open forest or along the edge

of the forest.

The elongated tubers are used as food in times of scarcity. Before

making any preparation the tubers should be sliced and cleansed with,

running and salt water alternately in order to remove the alkaloid

dioscorine.

Localities: (1) Khandala: common, Graham, Cooke, Garade,

Santapau; (2) Sinhagad: common, Bhide, Santapau, Vartak; (3)

Rajgad: Gunjavani—very common, Vartak; (5) Katraj: along the

SOME EDIBLE WILD PLANTS OF POONA DISTRICT 23

ghat—occasionally seen, (5) Torna: along the slops—common, Vartak

and Razi: (6) Malavli and Bhaja: along the slopes--common, Vartak

and Razi.

51. Smilax zeylanica L. (= Smilax macrophylla Roxb. non Willd)

Cooke 2: 763. (Smilaceae) Ghotvel.

A climbing shrub, fairly common in secondary scrub forests.

The tender young branches and leaves are used as vegetable.

Localities: (1) Khandala: very common, Santapau; (2) Sinhagad:

common, Vartak; (3) Rajgad: common, Vartak; (4) Raireshwar:

common, Vartak; (5) Hirdoshi: very common, Vartak.

52. Chlorophytum tuberosum Dalz. Cooke 2: 772. (Liliaceae) Kulai.

A low herb with root tubers.

Common in moist gravel soil along the slopes.

The leaves are extensively used as vegetable.

Localities: (1) Khandala: common, Santapau; (2) Katraj: along

the ghat—common, Vartak; (3) Poona: along the Vetal hill—very

common, Vartak.

_ 53. Chlorophytum sp. (Perhaps C. borivilianum Santapau & Fer-

nandes, in JBNHS 52: 827.) (Liliaceae) Kulai.

The morphological features are more or less similar to the previous

species except that the roots are fascicled.

Common in moist gravel soil along the slopes.

The leaves are used as a vegetable.

Localities: Sinhagad: near Machi--very common, Vartak.

54. Ariopsis peltata Nimmo Cooke 2: 827. (Araceae) Ran alu; Gargat.

A small herb, tubers small, green, clustered with many slender

root fibres, leaves solitary, membranous, peltate.

Common on trunks of trees or on rocks during the first half of

the monsoon.

The leaves are used as a vegetable.

Localities: (1) Khandala: common, Halberg, Blatter, Santapau,

(2) Ambavada: common, Vartak.

55. Remusatia vivipara Schott. Cooke 2: 828. (Araceae) Rukalu.

An epiphytic herb with bulbiferous shoots, seen quite commonly

on large trees in the ravines of moist forests.

Locally the leaves are used as vegetable and occasionally the

tubers are eaten, but they require careful boiling in order to free

them of the crystals which may cause mouth troubles, |

24 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

Localities. (1) Khandala: Bhoma hills—common, Santapau; (2)

Lohogad: near the base of the fort—-common, Vartak and Razi; (3)

Rajgad: in the ravines—common, Vartak.

56. Phoenix sylvestris (L.) Roxb. Cooke 2:801. (Palmae) Shindi.

A middle-sized palm sometimes reaching 10-12 metres high, fairly

common in open country. The fruit is orange-yellow, and edible.

The fruits are collected and eaten by village boys.

Localities: (1) Khandala: tolerably common, Santapau; (2)

Katraj: cultivated (!), Vartak; (3) Hirdoshi: near Ambeghar—very

common, Vartak.

57. Bambusa bambos (L.) Voss ; (= Bambusa arundianacea Hook. f.)

Cooke 2: 1046. (Gramineae) Bamboo ; Kalak.

A giant grass, fairly common in thick forests and ravines of the

high rainfall region. /

The seed resembles unhusked rice and is eaten by the local

people like cereal. The young shoots are cut when tender, and eaten

like asparagus.

Localities: (1) Khandala: common, Santapau; (2) Sinhagad: near

the base of the hill, cultivated (!); (3) Rajgad: near Chirmodi—

common, Vartak; (4) Hirdoshi: near Kalakai rahat—very common,

Vartak; (5) Raireshwar: on the plateau—common, Vartak.

58. Lastrea felix-mass Presl. var. cochleata Bedd. (Filicineae) Marud.

A dioecious fern, fairly common as undergrowth in high rainfall

region. ,

The tender leaves are used as vegetable.

Localities: (1) Raireshwar: on the plateau—very common,

Vartak.

59. Lycoperdon sp. (Gastromycetes) Bhuiphod.

During the monsoon, little white puff-balls growing in the grass

of pastures and heath-like small snow-balls, soft and spongy, and

sparsely lodged with colour in the pulpy interior. It is in the group

of fungi locally known as bhui phod, as it springs up suddenly from

the soil. The puff-balls are used extensively by the local people,

during the monsoon. After slightly frying they taste like well-cooked

mutton.

Localities: Throughout the area.

60. Agaricus sp. (Basidiomycetes) Alimb.

This fungus is popularly known as Alimb. This particular species

SOME EDIBLE WILD PLANTS OF POONA DISTRICT 723)

grows éxtensively during monsoon and a bit after.

I have noted that even the raw fungus is

Several members of the family to which

is used in preparing curry.

eaten by the local people.

The entire fungus

Agaricus belongs are, however, poisonous and one should be very

cautious about eating those that have been gathered by inexperienced

people.

The author feels that there is much scope for confirming the

different edible species and experimenting for good yields.

Localities:

Throughout the area.

REFERENCES

Blatter, E. & d’Almeida, J.F. (1922):

The Ferns of Bombay. Bombay.

Cooke, T. (1901-1908) : The Flora of

the Presidency of Bombay. London.

Hooker, J.D. (1872-1897) : The Flora

of British India. London.

Razi, B.A. (1952) : Some aspects of

the vegetation of Poona and neighbour-

ing districts. Jour. Poona Univ., Sci.,

1 (2): 1-57.

Santapau, H. (1950): The Genus

Dioscorea in Bombay State JBNHS

49: 624.

— — — (1951): A contribution to

the flora of Sinhagad Hills, Poona

District, Poona Agri. College Mag. 41

(4): 270-284.

——— (1953): The Flora of

Khandala on the Western Ghats of

the Flora of Sinhagad Hill,

India. Records of Botanical Su

India 16 (1). ete

ae Ecinanees, R.-(1955): A

new species of orophytum JBNH,

52 (4): 897 oi 2

Vartak, V.D. (1953): Contribution

to the Flora of Torna Hill, Poona

nee Jour. Poona Univ., Sc., 1 (4):

— — — (1957): Some imperfectly

known plants from Poona and Satara

ees, Jour. Poona Univ., Sc., 10:

— — — (1957): Some additions to

e | Poona

District. Poona Agri. College Mag. 47

(4): 265-272.

Watt, G. (1889-1893): A Dictionary

of the Economic Products of India.

Vols. 1-6. London.

Unusual and Supplementary Food

Plants of Kumaon

K. S. BHARGAVA, Ph.D.!

D.S.B. Government College, Nainital, U.P.

India is desperately short of food. We have to depend on a

variety of imports from other countries. Apart from cereals the

amount of vegetables and fruits produced is also very inadequate.

To most people either these are not available or, when available, they

are not in sufficient quantities. These foods are almost certainly

consumed in inadequate quantities. ‘This results in malnutrition and

several deficiency diseases.

The Kumaon region of the western Himalayas is very rich in

vegetation. It includes three districts, namely Almora, Nainital, and

Garhwal. Most of the area is mountainous and the land is not very

fertile. Irrigation is also very poor. The cultivators have to depend

on the monsoons or some natural springs for water. The majority

of the local population is economically poor and cannot afford to

purchase fruits and vegetables.

It is well known that our ancient sages lived in the forests

and derived their sustenance solely from them. Many of the wild

plants yield fruits and vegetables which are gathered by local people

and sold in the market. There are others which are gathered but

are not sold. They are utilised as a means of subsistence. Such

plants have on occasion provided much needed food and variety to

mountaineers, tourists, and touring officers, and the local population

has to fall back on them in times of scarcity.

This investigation was undertaken in order to collect data “aLeede

the wild edible plants of this region and to study the food value of

different products consumed by the local population.

The information may help in adding variety to the monotonous

diet and publicising the hitherto unknown sources of supplementary

food to many visitors to this region. A beginning has already been

made in this direction in our laboratory. Gupta and Gupta (1958)

have studied the sugars in the fruits of some wild plants occurring

in this area.

* Now at Botany Department, Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur, U.P.

SUPPLEMENTARY FOOD PLANTS OF KUMAON 25 |

Different parts of plants have been utilised according to their

palatability and these will be taken one by one in the following

order:

1. Roots, tubers, and rhizomes.

2. Shoots, including stems and leaves.

3. Buds and flowers.

4, Fruits and seeds.

Roots, TUBERS, AND RHIZOMES

Dioscorea is an important genus supplying starchy food in normal

times as well as in scarcity and famine conditions. D. quinata,

(=Magiya, Munia), D. pentaphylla (=Taigun, Takuli), D. aculeata

(=Man-alu), and D. deltoidea (=Gun) produce underground tubers

which are cut into pieces, steeped in water, and boiled. Some varieties

have insipid taste and are made edible by repeated boiling and

washing. Other species of Dioscorea, viz. D. versicoior, D. bulbifera

(=Genthi), and D. sagitatta (=Tarur) produce axillary tubers. Apart

from boiling, the tubers of some varieties are baked. Collectively

they constitute an important article of food in times of scarcity. The

tubers of D. versicolor also yield a food for invalids.

Another plant whose tuberous roots are much prized is Pueraria

tuberosa (=Bilai-Kand, Biralu, Birali panwa, or Sural). Though not

so tasty as Dioscorea, it is used as an alternative. Its tubers are

considered as demulcent and refrigerant in fevers, and useful as

cataplasm for swollen joints. ,

The rhizomes of Nelumbium speciosum (=Kanwal, Ambaj,

Bhasinda) are eaten as a vegetable. They are collected on a large

scale and sold in the market at a high price. They are either boiled

and cooked, or roasted in ashes. Sometimes they are pickled. This

plant comes under semicultivation for this purpose. In the absence

of any vegetables, and in times of extreme scarcity, a search is made

for the rhizomes of Colocasia himalensis (=Dhakol) which is cooked

like cultivated forms.

Finally there is Scirpus kysoor (=Kaseru) which is significant on

account of its starchy roots. It is a very rich source of starch and is

eaten both raw and cooked.

SHOOTS, INCLUDING STEMS AND LEAVES

Young shoots of various plants form an important source of

vegetables. Some are taken as delicacies, others in time of scarcity

only. Fronds of Asplenium polypodioides (=Lingura), Nephrodium

odoratum (=Kutra), and Polystichum aculeatum (=Kuthiore,

28 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

Kuthurka) are gathered in spring and sold in the market. They are

cut into small pieces, boiled in water, and then made into curry.

Young shoots of Dendrocalamus polypoides (=Bans) and Bambusa

arundinacea (=Kanta bans) are also greedily eaten. These are cut

into small pieces, cooked, and eaten in curries. They are commonly

made into pickles and preserves. Young tender shoots of Asparagus

racemosus (=Kairuwa) are a delicacy and fetch a handsome price

in the market. Apart from being used as a vegetable, they are used

in omelets also. Ficus virgata (=Beru), F. macrophylla (=Timila),

Paenia emodi (=Sujuniya), and cultivated cucumbers also provide

edible young shoots which are used on a large scale after cooking.

In most hilly places two shrubs, Urtica dioica and U. parviflora

(=Shishona, Kaniyali), are very common. These are much shunned

because of the stinging hairs. But the tender shoots with young

leaves are made use of by a large number of people living in villages.

Young shoots are collected with the help of gloves made of gunny

bags or thick cloth and then put in boiling water for an hour or so.

The water is then decanted off. It is then made into a curry by add-

ing a little mustard oil and other condiments and eaten with the bread

prepared from Eleusine coracana (=Mandua). Cattle are also fed on

young shoots of these plants. |

In extreme conditions tender shoots of Adhathoda_ vasica

(=Basinga) and those of Smilax parviflora (=Kukar-daru) form a

very good substitute. They are first boiled and then taken with

common salt, sometimes mixed with curd also. Another important

substitute is Commelina obliqua (=Kana, Kanjura), stems and leaves

of which are used as vegetables.

LEAVES

In contrast to roots, rhizomes, and tubers, which are rich in starch.

leaves ensure a supply of vitamins and minerals. Leaves gathered

from wild herbs or shrubs provide a substitute for cultivated leafy

vegetables for those who cannot afford to buy such vegetables or

whenever no vegetables are available in the interior of the forests.

Some are used only in time of scarcity. These are used in a variety

of ways. |

Leaves of Chenopodium album (=Bethuwa), Amaranthus tricolor

(=Chaulai}, Portulaca oleracea (=Kulphi, Looni), and Brassica

ramosa (=Thechri) are used after cooking and regularly used as

vegetables. When in abundance, they are also dried in the sun and

kept for use in times of extreme scarcity.

Raw leaves of Nasturtium officinale (=Paniyan) are used in

salads. Some people regard this plant as having an offensive smell.

SUPPLEMENTARY FOOD PLANTS OF KUMAON 29

It is then boiled and cooked as 4a vegetable. Leaves of Oxalis

corniculata (=Chalmori) and Rumex hastatus (=Almora, Bhilmora)

contain some acidic-taste and are used in chatni and pickles.

Another common use of leaves of some plants is to fry them in

oil or clarified butter together with gram flour (i.e. made into

pakauras) which gives a tasty preparation. Young leaves (=Gaba),

of Colocasia himalensis Phytolacca acinosa (=Jarak), Rhubarb

‘sp. (=Robar, Doh), and Vitis sp. (=Grape) are used for this purpose

by a large number of inhabitants. Young rolled leaves (=Gaba) of

Colecasia himalensis are also eaten as a vegetable when cooked with

Raphanus (=Mooli). Whenever available stalks of leaves (=Papar)

of Colocasia himalensis are gathered, cut into small pieces, and

dried in the sun. They are used in making curries and vegetables

in winter time when very few vegetables are available in colder

regions.

Leaves and young stems of Cassia tora (=Banar, Panwar) are used

as vegetable curry while some people prepare a kind of tea from these

leaves. In times of extreme scarcity pulp of Aloe vulgaris (=Gaikwar)

is also eaten.

BUDS AND FLOWERS

Though not used as staple articles of food, buds and flowers of

many plants are used as supplementary items in the diet. Tender

buds of Bauhinia variegata (=Kachnar, Bhairal, Kweral) are collected

in large numbers and even sold in the market at a high price. They

are much appreciated as a vegetable and are also boiled and mixed

with curds. Similarly the flowers of Indigofera gerardiana (=Sakina)

are widely used as fresh vegetables or dried and kept for emergency

periods. Various other wild species with edible flowers are Dillenia

indica (==Chalta, Chalita), Orthanthera viminia (=Chapkiya), Bombax

malabaricum (=Semal), and Rhododendron arboreum (=Buruns).

The juice from the last named species forms an excellent jelly.

The flowers of Berberis petiolaris (=Kilmora) are mixed with

spinach, mashed, and taken as salad, while those of Woodfordia

fruticosa (=Dhaula) are gathered and sucked by children for the

nectar.

FRUITS -AND SEEDS

Fruits and seeds of wild plants have been used in the diet from

times immemorial in our country. Mostly they are eaten raw, but

some of them are used in cooked preparations also. They form a

very rich source of vitamins and mineral salts so essential for human

30 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

beings. Apart from being consumed at once, many of them are

dried and stored.

Wild fruits which are gathered and eaten for the flavour and as

an agreeable addition to the monotonous diet include Myrica nag?

(=Kaphal), Rubus lasiocarpus (=Kala _ hisalu), Rubus ellipticus

(=Pila hisalu), Rubus lanatus (=Hisalu), Berberis aristata (=Chuchar),

Berberis asiatica (=Kilmora), Fragaria indica (=Kiphaliya, Bhiula),

Prunus armeniaca (=Chuaru), Prunus pudum (=Payinya), Pyrus

lanata (=Gilyan, Mehali), Pyrus pashia (=Mehal), Pyrus vestita

(=Mauli), Ribes nigrum, and R. glaciale (=Karn dakh). Fruits of

Pyrus pashia are gathered in large numbers, dried, and stored. They

are then ground and mixed with flour of Eleusine coracana

(=Mandua). Berries of Rubus spp. mentioned above are made into

preserves and those of Ribes are dried also. Further work on these

plants may throw light on the usefulness of introduction of cultivated

varieties of Rubus and Ribes in this part of the country.

Other fruits which are eaten raw include those of Leea aspera

(=Kumali, Kurmali), Grewia oppositifolia (=Bhemal), Crataegus

crenulata (=Ghingaru), Debregeasia velutina (=Tushiaru), Punica

granatum (=Darim), Eugenia frondosa (=Dabruk), Morus serrata

(=Kimu), Aegle marmelos (=Bel), Spondias mangifera (= Amra), and

Zizyphus jujuba (=Beri). Fruits of Elaeagnus latifolia, E. umbellata

(=Ginwai), and Cornus capitata (=Bamaur) are either eaten raw or

cooked with sugar and made into preserves.

Fruits of three species of Ficus, viz. F. faveolata (=Beduli), E.

virgata (=Bedu), and F. macrophylla (=Timila), are eaten when

ripe. Unripe fruits are often cooked and made into curries. Full

grown fruit of Dillenia indica (=Chalita) is also eaten raw or cooked

—chiefly in curries. It is also made into pickles or jellies.

In times of extreme scarcity, the local population is forced to

collect fruits of Tribulus terrestris (=Gokhru) and acorns of oak

(=Lekwal, Likhwal), which are ground and made into meal.

Similarly Fagopyrum tartaricum (=Phapar) provides much needed food

in famine conditions.

Among the wild plants Bassia butyracea (=Chiura) holds a very

important position. The pulp of fruits is eaten but it yields soft

vegetable butter also, which is used as a cooking medium and is

largely used as an adulterant. Seed cake is also edible. Chiura

Jaggery (=Gur) is also sold in the market. It is very delicious.

Seeds from many wild plants are made use of in various ways.

Seeds of Pinus longifolia (=Siyut), Coriaria nepalensis (=Makol),

Schleichera triguga (=Kusum), Paspalum longiflorum (=Kana, Kuna).

and Euphorbia augustifolia (=Dudhila) are eaten raw or roasted,

SUPPLEMENTARY FOOD PLANTS OF KUMAON 31

while those of Bauhinia vahlii (=Mala, Malu) are fried in butter

and eaten.

Dendrocalamus polypoides (=Bans), which flowers very rarely,

produces abundant seeds when it does so. The seeds which resemble

wheat have proved of great value in supplementing food supplies in

times of famine.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to Sri. D. L. Sah, Retd. Chief Conservator of Forests,

Uttar Pradesh, for kindly going through the manuscript and giving

useful suggestions.

REFERENCES

Gupta S.C. & Gupta D. R. (1958): in some wild fruits of Nainital I. Proc.

Chromatographic examination of sugars 45th Ind. Sci. Cong. Pt. iii : 146.

Observations on the Mackerel

Fishery of the Netravati Estuary,

West Coast, South India’

P. C. GEORGE, M. H. DHULKHED, AND V. RAMAMOHANA RAO

Central Marine Fisheries Research Unit, Mangalore-I

(With three text-figures)

INTRODUCTION

The present communication relates to observations on an unusual

fishery of the Indian Mackerel Rastrelliger kanagurta (Cuvier) in the

Netravati estuary near Mangalore, lasting for about nine weeks from

the latter half of January 1958. Normally the mackerel fishery is

most active along the Konkan, Kanara, and Kerala coasts during

the September-March period, and the catches comprise mostly

immature forms ranging from 180-215 mm. in total length. There are

no previous records of mackerel fishery of any appreciable extent

from our estuaries, although Pradhan (1956) has recorded the fish

entering the estuarine waters of the Kali River at Karwar, ascending

along the tidal current up to a distance of 14 miles during April and

May when the range of salinity of the river is between 29.73°/,, and

34.07 7/780 :

The estuary at Mangalore is formed by the confluence of two

rivers, the Gurpur River from the north and the Buntwal or Netravati

River from the south, and is situated a few furlongs south of

Mangalore town. The Gurpur River is comparatively narrower and

more shallow. The active zone of the usual estuarine fishery in the

Netravati River is limited to the area in between the Ullal bridge and

the river mouth. The estuary is rich and supports an active fishery

almost throughout the year. During the monsoon months the catches

are mostly Etroplus suratensis, Mugil spp., Gerres filamentosus,

Sillago spp., Platycephalus spp., and many species of cat fishes. In

the post-monsoon months, with increased salinity and other favour-

able conditions, more and more marine species enter the estuary and

* Published with the kind permission of the Chief Research Officer, Central

Marine Fisheries Research Station, Mandapam.

MACKEREL FISHERY OF THE NETRAVATI ESTUARY 33

SKETCH MAP OF THE :<4

NE TRAVATI ESTUARY. NG

3 MILES

| ee |

Fig. 1. Map maapted from Admirality chart No. 746 showing th

estuary and observation centres. g the Netravati

34. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

by early January the usual fishery is supplemented to some extent

by the occurrence in smaller numbers of Hilsa kanagurta, Sardinella

fimbriata, Belone spp., smaller carangids, prawns, and crabs. Shore-

seines commonly called ‘kai-rampani’ and cast nets operated from

canoes are the more common gear in use in the estuary. Beyond the

bridge area, the fishing is generally done only for pearl-spots, mullets,

‘cat fishes, and clams and it is in this and in the upper and interior

centres (Fig. 1) that the mackerel shoals were noticed.

During the estuarine mackerel fishery season, the river was never

deeper than two fathoms. The fishery extended up to Pavur, a

village about six miles from the river mouth (St. V in Fig. 1), but

never beyond. Five stations were selected in the estuary to study the

salinity influence and related conditions in the river, with the river

mouth marked as station I, Ullal bridge (a distance of one mile) as

station II, Adamkuduru as station III (a distance of three miles from

estuary), Perivala (a distance of 44 miles from river mouth) as station

IV, and Pavur as the last station. The fishery at the river mouth

up to station II near Ullal bridge was of the mixed type, including

smaller numbers of mackerel. The catches except that of mackerel

‘were poor at stations III, IV, and V. It is apparent that the shoals

moving with the ebb tide in the first few hours after dusk contributed

to the catches in the upper centres in the small hours of the morning.

‘During this period no oil sardines (Sardinella longiceps) of any size;

were caught at any.of the centres in the estuary, although their

fishery was fairly active in-the adjacent inshore seas during the

period.

THE MACKEREL FISHERY

The mackerel catches from the estuary were first noticed on 26

January when about four baskets of large-sized mackerel were found

kept along with the estuarine catches in the fish market. On enquiry

‘It. was found that mackerel started appearing in the river catches in

small numbers on 25 January. Field enquiries showed that fishermen

from Bolar and neighbouring centres, anticipating good catches of

fish based on the stray records of previous days, were making pre-

parations to carry out regular night-tishing for mackerel in the

estuary and in the sea. The goodwill of the local fishermen was’

made use of to conduct on-the-spot studies from the different areas of

‘the estuary while they were carrying out fishing from midnight into

the early hours of the morning. The fishery continued actively for

about seven weeks bringing - in an. average. of about two hundred

“mackerel each day.

MACKEREL FISHERY OF THE NETRAVATI ESTUARY . 35

About eight thousand mackerel were brought to the Mangalore

main market alone from the estuary during this season. The

mackerel catches from the sea of Mangalore during this period com-

prised purely small specimens with appreciable difference in size and

maturity, as can be seen from Fig. 2. A similar phenomenon of

R60

Av)

Le)

(eo)

| “De COAST

DOMINANT SIZE GROUPS .Cmm,.)

[@)

200

490 3 ;

I auf Ill LV i I jbl IV

FEBRUARY 53 MARCH ‘553

Fig. 2. Graph showing the distribution of the dominant size groups of mackerel

in the Netravati estuary, Malpe and Mangalore coasts during the estuarine mackerel

pots season.

Becker! ascending the estuary was observed in the latter half of

February in the Chandragiri River also at Kasargod, about thirty

miles south of Mangalore. The fishery, unlike that at Netravati.

‘was of short duration and the catches of smaller magnitude. But as

‘regards dominant sizes, maturity conditions, hydrological and related

ecological factors, they were quite comparable with the conditions

Observed at Mangalore. The mackerel obtained from the estuary

36 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

were considered by the fishermen to be quite distinct from those

caught in the open sea during this time of the year, due to their

conspicuously large size, heaviness, and high palatability on account

of the increased fat content.

Size Groups: The estuarine catches were comprised almost

entirely of adult-sized specimens. The smallest size recorded from the

catches was 210 mm. of a stray specimen and the largest 273 mm.

(total length). The dominant size of the fishery was 240-250 mm.

size. The gear was not selective to include only the largest ones,

since the other fishes caught along with the mackerel were of much

smaller size. The size range of specimens stood in great contrast

to that of the catches from the open coast centres of this zone from

Malpe to Kasargod, where only mediumu-sized specimens with a

dominant size range of 180-215 mm. alone were obtained (Fig. 2).

Maturity Conditions: The large estuarine mackerel re-

vealed gonadal conditions of partially spent, spent, and also recover-

ing stages. The presence of small gonads with a body length up to

273 mm. along with other characters indicates the possibility that

these belong to a subsequent spawning generation. The testes were

found to be much reduced in size, quite flabby and bloodshot, and.

also indicated spent conditions. The partially spent testes on teasing

released sperms which under an oil immersion lens were found te

be motile. It was noted that the spent testes, although collapsed and

shrunk, still retained motile sperms. The scales also revealed growth

checks comparable to the ones observed from the large mackerel

obtained from the sea during the monsoon season. ‘Thus the studies

tend to show that these very large specimens that enter the estuaries

belong to a distinct age group, different from the main catches along

the coast.

PLANKTOLOGICAL AND HYDROLOGICAL CONDITIONS

Water samples were collected from all the five centres of the

estuary during the fishery season, both during ebb tide and also

during low tide. The zone of active mackerel fishery was between

stations II and III and the range in subsurface salinity was 14.10 °/,.

to 23.50°/,,. The highest subsurface salinity noted at Station V

during the season when stray specimens were collected was only

6.79°/,,. The depths at all the centres were never more than two

fathoms, and no difference was noted in the salinity values of the

surface and bottom samples in the different centres. The plankto-

logical conditions revealed a dominance of marine conditions up to

station II and slightly beyond, The significant difference from the

MACKEREL FISHERY OF THE NETRAVATI ESTUARY 37

marine plankton of the corresponding weeks was the predominance

of the copepod /sias tropica, and scarcity of diatoms in the estuarine

samples. |

FooD AND FEEDING

The food and feeding conditions of mackerel collected from the

estuary were analysed and studied to find out whether there was any

significant variation in the nutrition of the fishes from the different

habitats and from the observations made earlier from this coast

(Bhimachar and George, 1952). The studies showed that the pre-

dominance of the respective ‘edible’ elements in the marine and

Fig. 3. Semi-diagrammatic sketches showing sub-equal and normal caudal fin

lobes. A.—Sub-equal lobes. B.—Normal lobes.

Tiverine stations were more or less proportionately reflected in the

gut-elements, and that estuarine specimens showed active feeding

during their movement up the estuary.

38 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

ABNORMAL CAUDAL FIN LOBES

An unusually large number of specimens were found to have

sub-equal caudal fins, the lower lobe being the shorter (Fig. 3). It is

quite likely that this condition may have been formed by mutilation

at an earlier stage of life, or due to pathological conditions or even

to some genetic factor. In any case, it is interesting that only one

lobe should be affected. The possibility suggested by local fisher folk:

that the lower caudal fin lobe might have been smoothly rounded off

during the sojourn up due to constant friction with the sandy bottom

would appear erroneous, as fin margins were not ae nor did they

show any trace of wear and tear.

CONCLUSION

The presence of an active and continuous mackerel fishery in the

estuary indicates the capacity of the shoals to withstand lower salinity

conditions. The fishery is interesting in that it is supported mostly

by a larger size group distinctly different from that of the catches

from the open coast centres. The occurrence of partially spent and

recovering stages in very large numbers during this season indicates

the possibility of a longer or subsidiary spawning season for the fish

along this coast. The large incidence of sub-equal caudal fin lobes in

the estuarine specimens also adds to the general interest.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors are grateful to Dr. S. Jones, Chief Research Officer,

for his interest in the investigations, and for valuable suggestions

in the preparation of this account. The helpful comments made by

colleagues on the fish material exhibited at the meeting of mackerel

and sardine workers at Ernakulam during March 1958 are also

acknowledged. 3

REFERENCES

Bhimachar, B .S., and George, P. C. Pradhan, L.B. (1956): Mackerel fishery

(1952) : Observations on the food and of Karwar "Ind. Jour. Fish. 3 (1): 141-185.

feeding of the Indian Mackerel, Rastrel-

liger kanagurta (Cuvier). Proc. Indian

Acad. Sci. -36 (3): 105-118.

The Life-History and Biology

of the Wax-scale, Ceroplastes

pseudoceriferus Green

(Coccidae: Homoptera)”

T. SANKARAN, M.Sc., Ph.D., F.R.E.S.

Department of Zoology, Banaras Hindu University, Banaras?

(With two Tables and three Plates)

CONTENTS

PAGE

1. INTRODUCTION. . = sie is Sersice eb)

2. OCCURRENCE OF THE ne eres As ES oe Al

3. COPULATION ; os oe a0 a ee 42

4. OVIPOSITION .. : se 43

5. ECLOSION AND SETTLEMENT OF THE YOUNG ONES ON THE HOST 2. 46

6. POST-EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT a: ae eee soy AO

(a) First stage larva .. i M 2. 48

(b) Male line: Second instar eva a oe a WOO!

Third instar (Propupa) me oe a. AOR

Fourth instar (Pupa) Be Ey Se e52

Adult male aS Be be olen?

Third instar-larva _ Be .. 34

Adult female Be e pe Se150

7. SEASONAL HISTORY i He av oe ees:

8. SUMMARY is ie oor - es:

9. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ef ce af a: Sea

10.

REFERENCES Bia Be ae Bo “5 59

1. INTRODUCTION

The Wax-scale, Ceroplastes pseudoceriferus, was described by

Green in 1935. The adult female of this species is very similar to

that of the Indian Wax-scale, Ceroplastes ceriferus (Anderson),

especially in the characters of the test and is, therefore, easily con-

fused with it. The differences between the two species are as

1 This paper formed a part of a thesis approved by the Banaras Hindu Univer-

sity for the Ph. D. degree in 1954.

2 Present pest: c/o Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine & Storage,

New Delhi 1

40 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

follows: In C. pseudoceriferus the dorsum of the denuded insect ‘is

less highly convex and the marginal areas are somewhat depressed

and out-turned. The caudal process is shorter and conical and

directed upwards, forming approximately an equilateral triangle in

outline. The spines on the stigmatic areas are relatively larger, more

numerous, and more crowded. The submarginal conical processes,

also, are larger and more prominent.’ In C. ceriferus the denuded

insect is ‘bacciform, with the sides approximately - perpendicular.

The caudal process is long and cylindrical. The stigmatic spines are

more scattered, fewer in number, and smaller in size.’

Green recorded the species on an undetermined plant from Ceylon,

and on Azadirachta indica and Diospyros montana from India. He

also found a single specimen on Japanese Maple, imported into

England from Japan. This suggests that the species may have a

wider distribution than is known at present. Since it has for a long

time been confused with C. ceriferus, it seems probable that in some

of the earlier records this species has been mistakenly reported as

C. ceriferus. Green himself cites one such mistaken record in his

description.

C. pseudoceriferus occurs in Banaras on the following host

trees: (1) Mangifera indica; (2) Ficus religiosa; (3) F. glomerata;

(4) F. benghalensis; (5) Artocarpus heterophylla (=integrifolia);

(6) Madhuca indica (=Bassia latifolia); (7) Mimusops hexandra;

(8) Terminalia chebula; (9) Holoptelea integrifolia.

In addition to the above, specimens of C. pseudoceriferus have

also been collected by the present author on Madhuca (Bassia)

longifolia near Nagapattinam in south India. At Banaras, the

infestation is severe on some trees of Mangifera indica, Ficus

glomerata, and Madhuca indica, but in other cases mild (Plate 1,

fig, 1).

Two other species of Ceroplastes, namely C. floridensis Comst.,

and C. actiniformis Green, also occur in Banaras, the former on

mango and the Jatter on mango and F. glomerata. These two species

were however found only in smali numbers and therefore could not

be used for detailed study.

In spite of the wide distribution and host range of the genus, our

knowledge of the life-history and biology .of many species of

Ceroplastes is still incomplete. As early as 1896, Newstead (1896)

gave a brief account of the young and adult females and of the

adult male of C. ceriferus, and added that there was ‘much to learn

of its habits’, In his monograph on the Coccidae of Ceylon, Green

(1909) describes and figures the tests and denuded females of some

species of Ceroplastes, but gives practically no information on their

THE WAX-SCALE, CEROPLASTES PSEUDOCERIFERUS_ 41

biology. Kuwana (1923) has described the biology of three species

of Ceroplastes occurring in Japan. The life-history of C. rubens

was studied by Blumberg (1934) in Australia; of C. rusci by Bodkin

(1927) in Palestine; and of C. floridensis by Balachowsky (1933) in

France. C. rusci and C. sinensis have been studied by Silvestri (1919,

1920, and 1927) in Italy. However, the accounts of the life-history

by these authors are largely fragmentary and often incomplete.

The life-history and biology of C. pseudoceriferus were studied in

detail by the present author.

2. OCCURRENCE OF THE MALES

An important discovery in the course. of the present studies is

the occurrence of males in large numbers. The males of some species

of Ceroplastes are reported to be unknown. According to Blumberg

(1934) parthenogenesis is the rule in the case of C. rubens in

Queensland, but fertilization by males is reported from Japan.

Silvestri (1927) observed males in the case of C. rusci in Italy, but

Bodkin (1927) in his short account of the life-history of this species:

in Palestine makes no mention of this sex. Balachowsky (1933)

writes of C. floridensis: “Le male n’a pas €té observé au cours de

cet élevage, ni dans la nature 4 l’endroit du prélévement, la reproduc-

tion de l’espéce parait exclusivement, parthénogénétique’, and adds

‘au Japon la reproduction de Ilespéce se fait par voie sexuée’.

Kuwana (1923) has observed the males of all the three species

studied by him. Green (1909) wrote about the male of Ceroplastes:

‘The male in any stage is extremely scarce and has been observed

only by Newstead, who describes the male puparium and imago of

C. ceriferus. Newstead accidentally came across some males in the

debris of a parcel containing females on the stems of Asclepiadron,

sent to him from Madras in 1893. His description (1896) of the male

puparium and imago, referred to by Green, is all too brief and

incomplete, having been based on this scanty and imperfect material

received by him. Some of his remarks and diagrams of the male

scale and of the genitalia need revision.

The reason for missing the males of Ceroplastes may be that the

larval stages of the male are often mistaken for the young stages of

the female. By closely following back the immature stages of the

male it is possible to distinguish the sexes in the larval stages also.

At Banaras, fertilization occurs and _ bisexual reproduction

appears to be the only method of propagation in C. pseudoceriferus.

Large numbers of females were dissected from the time of appearance

of the males in the field, and the reproductive organs were mounted

42 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

for microscopic study. In almost every case the spermatheca was found

to contain a bundle of sperms. With a view to obtain some idea.

of sex ratio in the population of a colony of C. pseudoceriferus,

random samples of ten leaves of a severely infested tree of Madhuca

indica were collected and statistically analysed. The total number

of male and female larvae on each side of the ten leaves was counted

with the help of a binocular microscope. The surface area of the

leaf was also graphically estimated. The result are set forth below:

TABLE 1: SHOWING THE NUMBER OF MALES AND FEMALES

FOUND IN A SMALL COLONY

No | Total area of Underside | Upperside

| leaf in sq. inches 3 Scr oe

1 11-53 | 159) ute ! 23) ane

2 18.43 26! 2 45 —

3 12.13 | 103-2 45 3

4 12.28 Span iG0 sa8 1Go1\ 2

5 13.46 | 133" 5 15 —

6 10.44 | SY 13 1

a 14.67 | 116. .i,-5 1 _—

8 17.21 ip 1 7 =—

9 11.67 | 159-22 38 2

10 9.81 | at — an =

Total No. of scales examined es 1304 =.25 198 8

_ An examination of the table shows that (1) the males preponder-

ate in number over the females, (2) very few females develop on

leaves as compared to the males, and that (3) the larvae, irrespective

of their sex, show a marked preference for the undersides of the

leaves. When it is considered that a sample of just ten leaves had

on them 1502 male larvae, the abundance of the males in nature can

easily be visualized.

3. COPULATION

Copulation takes place between December and March, when

most of the males complete their development and emerge. The

spermatheca of the female is small for -the greater part of the third

THE WAX-SCALE, CEROPLASTES PSEUDOCERIFERUS 43

instar and only attains its adult structure at the time of the third

moult. All the females which were seen to be engaged in copulation

with males in the laboratory were in the early fourth (adult) stage.

. The males are active creatures with well-developed antennae, three

pairs of ocellanae, three pairs of legs, and a single pair of large wings.

Two of the three pairs of ocellanae are dorsal; and one pair ventral.

One of the two pairs of dorsal ocellanae, i.e. that situated somewhat

anteriorly, and the ventral ocellanae are large. The posterior dorsal

ocellanae, being very small, are easily overlooked. The abdomen of

the male terminates in a long tapering stylus and two small conicai

lobes,.one on either side of the stylus. In repose, the wings are held

over the abdomen somewhat after the manner of a housefly (Plate III,

fig. 9). The males can fly short distances but are dispersed mainly

by wind. They crawl about in search of the females on the twigs.

On approaching a female, the male mounts on the dorsum of its test

and tries to locate its genital opening. The depression at the caudal

end of the test, in which the opercula are situated, is a helpful

landmark which enables the male to distinguish the caudal from the

cephalic end of the female (Plate III, fig. 4). Having found the

caudal end, the male deflects the terminal part of its abdomen and

sounds the test with the tip of the stylus at various points in the

caudal region. Whenever the stylus touches the opercula the female

reacts by slightly lifting the two valves of the opercula, which

thereby become separated from each other. The stylus of the male

may be bent down to 90° or more from its original horizontal

position in level with the body. After some efforts the male

succeeds in finding the opening and thrusts its stylus into the

anal cleft, just below the opercula, where the female opening lies.

The test is held firmly by the legs, which by re-adjusting. their

grip keep the body in position. The wings are held over the abdomen,

as in repose. More than one male may copulate with a female. On

one occasion, three newly emerged males copulated with a single

female in succession, at 5 to 10 minutes’ interval. The duration of

copulation in these three cases was 2 to 5 minutes. 3

_ A few males were kept in covered petri dishes for determining

their longevity. The males survived for 2 to 5 days.

4. OVIPOSITION

Fgg-laying commences from August and continues till the middle

of November. Therefore, there is a long interval of time between

copulation and oviposition. During this period there is a gradual

increase in the number of ovarioles of the female rather than any.

marked change in the ovarioles themselves.

44. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

The process of oviposition was observed in the laboratory by

removing the mature scale insects from the trees and keeping them

in an upturned condition inside glass-topped pill boxes. Some of the

females were fixed to pieces of micro-slides by adhesives. This

permitted close observations being made through the transparent glass

on the ventral side.

The first signs of oviposition are furnished by small pellicles

or particles of wax secreted on the middle and the posterior parts of

the venter, the appearance of pellets of powdery wax at the cephalic

end of the postero-mesal furrow (which is nothing but the ventral

extension of the line of the anal cleft), and a slight contraction of

the venter inwards (Plate I, fig. 4). The small groups of wax

particles are generally disposed in transverse rows, but in some

cases they are very few in number and lie scattered at isolated

places on the venter. The wax particles and pellets later get mixed

up with the eggs. It is some time before the actual commencement

of egg laying, and during this period, which may vary from a few

hours to a day, the pellets of wax increase in number. Finally, the

posterior part of the body makes movements, expelling the eggs.

The rate of oviposition is very slow at first but, as the process’

continues, it quickens. In six of the specimens kept under obser-

vation in the laboratory, the egg-laying was completed in 8, 8, 19,

19, 20, and 26 days respectively. The daily output of eggs was

estimated in four cases, and the data are given below:

(a) 177;°705, 10455 979,979, 992, S90) Es:

(b) 353, 1191;-1599, 1610, 1653, 1511, 927, 550,/<379- 336, oe:

Z203¢: 130% S3er 3235. le:

(c)-318, 1100; 991,709, 953, 1181, 1167, 1084; 878, 663, 510,

369, 276, 287, 180, 168, 89, 77, 5. |

(d) 200, 310, 302, 225, 661, 976, 865, 687, 472, 605, 383, 292,

£92... 157. 104.65. .34) a2:

It will be seen that the rate of egg production is slow in the

beginning, rises to a peak in the first few days, and then slows down

again. At first the eggs are laid singly, but as the process of laying

hastens they come out in a long chain. The chain increases in

length, becomes coiled, and may break up into bits owing to the

agitative movements of the venter (Plate I, fig. 3). By the time

Oviposition is completed, the eggs lie loosely under the body of the

female (Plate I, fig. 5). At the end of oviposition the body of the

female is little more than a double-walled chitinous cup sheltering

the eggs. The internal structures become pressed between the two

THE WAX-SCALE, CEROPLASTES PSEUDOCERIFERUS 45

layers, disintegrate, and ultimately dry up. One or two days after

the cessation of oviposition some of the scales were dissected and the

viscera examined. A number of unlaid ripe eggs and immature

ovarioles were found mixed up with the internal organs in a pulpy

mass. resto ae

During the course of oviposition certain cottony fibres are formed

by the venter at its anterior and posterior margins. The anterior

fibres are few but those at the posterior end increase in length and

number and form a small mesh in which some of the eggs get

entangled (Plate I, fig. 3).

The total number of eggs laid by a female is subject to consider-

able variation. In general, small scales produce fewer eggs than the

bigger ones. Many of the gravid females are parasitised and the

number of eggs laid by such females is affected by this factor also.

The influence of parasitism on oviposition has been discussed by

the author in another paper (Sankaran, 1954-1955). Table 2 below

gives the total number of eggs laid by each of 12 females:

TABLE 2: SHOWING THE NUMBER OF EGGS LAID

1. 10825 7. 8809

2. 5665 8. 4273

3. 9359 9. 4202

4. 6544 10. 1187

5 3625 11. 10525

6. 4802 12. 5019 (Parasitised)

While more than 10,000 eggs are laid by some females of C.

pseudoceriferus in Banaras, Newman, O’Connor, and Andrewartha

(1929) recorded only 900-1000 eggs for C. ceriferus' in Australia.

Blumberg (1934) found only 650-700 eggs in teased gravid females

of C. rubens. According to Silvestri (1920), C. sinensis lays on an

average about 2000 eggs in Italy. The same author (1927) found

800-1500 eggs in the case of C. rusci. The total number of eggs

laid by each of six specimens of C. floridensis in Banaras was counted

by the present author and found to be 145, 292, 132, 386, 405, and

334 respectively. When compared with all these species, C. pseudo-

ceriferus is highly prolific. The eggs are ovate in shape and covered

with a fine film of wax powder. They are pinkish in colour. The

maximum length and width of freshly laid eggs vary from 0.3 to

0.37 mm. and 0.17 to 0.19 mm. respectively.

ee,

+The species, originally recorded as C. ceriferus, has since been shown to be really

C. destructor Newst. (O’Connor, 1933).

46 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

5.. ECLOSION AND SETTLEMENT OF THE YOUNG ONES ON THE HOST.

_ The eggs hatch about 3 weeks after oviposition. Prior to hatching,

they become flat and broader at one end than at the other. At the

broader end the two ocellanae of the larva can be seen through the

egg-membrane. The larva makes its exit by cracking a vertical slit

on the chorion at the anterior end, and wriggling out of it. All the

eggs do not hatch at the same time. The process of hatching continues

for a week or more, corresponding to the duration of oviposition.

The newly emerged larvae (Plate 1, fig. 8) are very active, and come

out of the test through the small spaces between the test of the mother

and the surface of the twig.

The larvae prefer to settle on the undersides of the leaves rather

than on the upper sides. Larvae settling on the leaves orientate.

themselves in such a way that the long axes of their bodies are

parallel to the midribs or the larger side veins of the leaves (Plate

II, fig. 3). In the case of those that settle on stems and branches

a similar orientation is noticeable, their bodies being always parallel

to and never across the length of the stem. The orientation of larvae

settling on the stems and twigs is particularly significant, as most of

them are found to be females. As the females grow in size, the

lateral margins of their body are applied to the sides of the stem or

twig, and the shape of the test also bears a permanent impress of this

curvature. This enables the females to adhere to the twig.

The behaviour of the young larvae is interesting in that the ~

female-producing ones show a marked preference for the stems and

twigs. The male-producing larvae settle down mostly on the leaves

and remain there throughout their development. It may be seen from

Table I that out of a total of 1535 young scales that were found on

ten leaves of Madhuca indica only 33 were females, the rest

being males in different stages of growth and development. The

difference in the selection of site by the male and female larvae

appears to be correlated with the subsequent career of each

sex. The males are very small, with a test that never exceeds 2.5 mm.

in length, and are short-lived, surviving for about three months, at

the end of which they copulate and die. The females, on the

contrary, live for nearly a year and grow to a large size, the test in

many cases attaining a length of 10-12 mm., and a width of about

10 mm. As the female increases in size it would become difficult,

on purely mechanical grounds, for the insect to maintain its hold on

the even surface of a leaf. During two years, the present author ~

came. across scarcely a-dozen adult females on. leaves: whereas count-

less nurabers of females were collected from twigs or small branches

THE WAX-SCALE, CEROPLASTES PSEUDOCERIFERUS 47

and occasionally from leaf-stalks. As already pointed out, females

growing on stems, branches, or leaf-stalks have the advantage that

the lateral parts of their body can curve round these objects and thus

fix them in position. The second and early third stage females are

capable of changing place. Some of the female larvae that were

growing on potted seedlings were found to move from the leaves and

to settle upon the main stem.

Some of the host trees in Banaras (Terminalia chebula, Mangifera

indica, Ficus religiosa, and Madhuca indica) shed their leaves in the

months of February and March. It is interesting to note that this

phenomenon coincides with the completion of the development of

the males, most of which emerge from their tests before the

leaves fall. Some fallen leaves of Terminalia chebula were picked

up and examined in February. In addition to empty tests of

‘males some propupae and pupae were also found on these leaves.

Such specimens may either complete their development on the ground

or perish. The twig-infesting habit of the female has, therefore, an

increased survival value in contrast to the maie.

In some species of Ceroplastes the larvae have been reported to

migrate from the leaves to the branches and young shoots. According

to Newman et al. (1929), the newly emerged larvae of C. ceriferus'

in Australia first crawl on to the leaves where they settle down and

secrete their waxy coverings. Many of them fall to the ground and

die, but after three weeks the surviving larvae migrate to the young

wood for permanent settlement. Bodkin (1927) has also observed

in Palestine that the larvae of C. rusci migrated to ‘the stems of the

leaves or to the upper, more tender portions of the young shoots’

after a month following their first settlement. Silvestri (1927) has

reported from Italy similar migration of the females of C. rusci from

the leaves to the branches. In this case, however, the migration

occurred about 5 months after original settlement and the females

remained on the branches for the rest of their lives. Except in the

case of a few female larvae, the present author has not noticed large

scale migrations of the larvae of C. pseudoceriferus on the potted

seedlings. All males which completed their development and reached

the adult stage remained on the leaves right up to the time of emergence

of the winged adults. This was so in the case of the trees in

the field also. In the hosts which shed their leaves during February

and March, the female larvae may migrate to the branches before

leaf-fall. When a leaf is about to be shed the circulation of sap in

its vascular system is gradually cut off owing to the formation of a

1 See footnote on page 45.

48 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

cork-layer at the base of the petiole. The larva that grows on the

leaf feeding on the sap would naturally get a timely warning of the

impending danger from the cessation of sap flow. An analogous

situation was found in the drying up of infested leaves which were

removed from the host-tree and kept in the laboratory: this caused

the female larvae to withdraw their stylets and crawl about in search

of fresh spots. Such movements were exhibited only by the second

and early third instar female larvae. The presence of male propupae

and pupae on fallen leaves may be correlated with their dormancy

and with the absence of feeding during these stages.

6. POST-EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT

The post-embryonic transformations of the male and female of

C. pseudoceriferus were followed in the laboratory by rearing the larvae

on seedlings of mango. The seedlings were grown inside a wire-net

cage on the terrace of the Zoology Department. At frequent intervals

the different developmental stages were examined in situ on the

plants with a hand-lens. These observations were mainly used for

general guidance and for appraising the duration of the different

instars. Large numbers of scales of either sex, corresponding in age

to the stages observed on the laboratory seedlings, were collected

from the field and used for detailed study and for control. In

the early part of the work, moulting was missed in some cases on

account of aerial disturbances that caused the exuviae to be blown -

off. This difficulty was later obviated by smearing a thin film of

vaseline on the leaves and stems, near the hind extremities of the

scales. The exuviae were trapped and retained intact by the vaseline

film. |

(a) First stage larva

The newly emerged larva is very active. The body is dorso-

ventrally flattened, oval, and widest in the thoracic region. The

anterior end is smoothly rounded and the two ocellanae are visible

as two black pigmented spots. The narrow posterior end of. the

body is marked off by the anal.cleft into two lateral lobes. At the

base of the anal cleft on the dorsal side are the two anal plates or

opercula, each carrying apically. a long anal filament. The larva has

a. pair of antennae and three pairs of well-developed legs. These,

together with the mouth parts, are situated on the ventral side, but

the antennae and the legs extend beyond the margin of the body while

crawling. The larva measures about 0.41 mm. in length and 0.23 mm.

THE WAX-SCALE, CEROPLASTES PSEUDOCERIFERUS 49

in breadth. It is naked, devoid of any waxy secretion, and has a

brown colour.

Within 24 hours of emergence from the test of the mother, most

of the larvae settle down on suitable places and commence to secrete

wax. After remaining for some time at one spot, a larva may crawl

away to another place, if necessary. In 24 hours after settling, two

wavy median longitudinal streaks of wax appear on the dorsum,

connected by thin transverse bands of the same material. A speck

of wax appears at the anterior end, and two pairs of wax points just

above the two pairs of stigmatic clefts. Then follows another pair

of wax points at the posterior margin, a little cephalad of the caudal

end. In about 48 hours the two dorsal streaks become more

pronounced and show signs of becoming confluent; at the same time

the lateral margins of the body bear a series of wax points includ-

ing the three original ones (Plate II, fig. 1). After two days the

secretion of more wax results in the formation of a single high ridge

of wax on the dorsum, and the marginal points of wax grow still

further and become differentiated into fifteen processes, viz. three at

the cephalic end, four pairs at the two sides, and two pairs at the

caudal end. In one week these fifteen processes become very pro-

minent and the dorsum is almost completely covered by the dorsal

ridge (Plate II, fig. 2). The dorsum of the insect is only visible in

the form of an oval outline at the base of the dorsal ridge. Green

(1909) refers to the dorsal ridge as the ‘median dorsal pad of white

wax’, while Blumberg (1934) mentions a similar hump on the larva

of C. rubens and calls it the ‘dorsal crest’. The central one of the

three cephalic processes is larger than the other two at its sides;

of the four pairs of lateral processes the two anterior pairs are

exactly above the stigmatic clefts and are broader and longer than

the remaining two pairs behind them; and the outer two of the four

caudal processes are larger than the inner ones. In the following

pages the four caudal processes will be referred to as the inner and

outer pairs, the term ‘dorsal hump’ is used for the dorsal ridge of

wax, and the lateral processes are referred to as such. The term

‘marginal processes’ is used collectively for all the fifteen processes.

The dorsal hump and the marginal processes together constitute the

nymphal or larval test. |

The dorsal hump of the first stage larva has a trapezoidal form

in lateral view, and leans towards the cephalic end (Plate II, fig. 4).

On magnification (x32 or more) it shows horizontal laminations,

indicating that the hump is secreted in successive layers which are

superimposed upon one another. The dorsal hump and the marginal

processes are brittle and formed of white wax. In some larvae the

50 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

terminal ends of some of the marginal processes are forked. ‘Through-

olit the first instar the anal filaments are retained by the larva, and

are directed posteriorly, extending to some distance behind the test.

The opercula are clearly exposed to view and are surrounded on all

sides by the basal parts of the caudal processes and the posterior

edge of the dorsal hump. In addition to the dorsal hump and the

marginal processes the first stage larva also secretes a fringe of short,

more or less conical processes formed by the juxtaposition of needles

of wax all round the margin of the body. The marginal fringe is

obscured from view by the bases of the marginal processes above

them, but in the second instar male, when the larva grows in thick-

ness, the marginal processes are raised from the leaf-surface and the

marginal fringe becomes conspicuous (Plate II, fig. 6).

The first moult occurs three weeks after settlement. The anal

filaments are shed off during the first moult. At the end of the first

stage the test of the larva measures about 1 mm., in length. The

moulted skin is pushed out of the hind extremity through a small

crevice between the test and the leaf or twig.

(b)) Ma Teal tae

Second instar larva: After the first moult the growth of the male

larva is rapid. Sexual differentiation becomes manifest in the second

instar, and the male and the female larvae can be distinguished about

five weeks after larval settlement. The male larva at this stage is

longer, narrower relatively to its length, and thinner than the second

instar female. Silvestri (1919) observes that in C. sinensis the

difference between the sexes becomes evident in the third stage

larvae. In five to six weeks after settling on the host plant the

test of the male larva attains a length of about 2 mm. ‘The dorsal

hump and the marginal processes are markedly grown and constitute

the most conspicuous features of the test (Plate II, fig. 5). At the

present stage it can never be mistaken for a female larva. As a result

of the addition of wax at their bases the marginal processes lengthen

out and become curved, with their tips often touching the leaf-surface.

The denuded insect is thin and flat with a broad median longitudinal

elevation on the dorsum and a depression running round the base of

the former. The dorsal prominences, which as will be seen later

are so characteristic of the second and older stages of the female,

are entirely absent in the male larva. Preserved specimens, when

examined under the binocular microscope with transmitted light, show

the presence of testes in the form of two longiiudinal long yellowish

bodies. The anal tube or ‘organo retrattile anali’ of Berlese can also

be seen in such specimens. :

Journ. BomBay Nar. Hist. Soc. PLATE |

Fig. 1. A colony of adult females of C. pseudoceriferus on mango, showing heavy infestation.

Fig. 2. Close-up of an adult female from its left side. Fig. 3. Ventral view of an ovipositing

female showing the eggs laid in chains. Fig. 4. Ventral view of a mature female showing waxy

secretion prior to oviposition. Note the transverse bands and the pellets of wax in the posterior

region of the body. Fig. 5. Longitudinal section of a dead female with the eggs massed below the

body. Fig. 6. Ventral view of a dead female with the empty chorionic cases after emergence of

the young ones. Fig. 7. Ventral view of an advanced adult female showing the segmentation of

the abdomen and the stigmatic bands of wax. Fig. 8. Newly hatched larvae on a mango twig

before settling.

ere

rats 29:

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deine

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Pa ACE a eae,

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‘ KS 9 ie ay)

; PA Vigta . Pe * vf

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A} c

THE WAX-SCALE, CEROPLASTES PSEUDOCERIFERUS 51

In the second instar larva the legs and antennae are closely applied

to the venter. The two pairs of stigmatic furrows running trans-

versely from the spiracles to the stigmatic clefts are filled with white

powdery wax.

After six weeks of growth, the male larva begins to show a bulge

on the dorsal side. This bulge is, however, confined to the anterior

two-thirds of the body and is caused by the development in this

region of the imaginal buds which are destined to give rise to the

different appendages of the head and thorax of the adult male. Asa

result of this bulging, the test becomes higher and the marginal

processes become raised from the surface of the leaf. The larva

secretes a thin layer of transparent glassy material, which lines the

inner surface, and also forms the sides of the test. This layer

appears to correspond to the puparium of the males of other lecanine

genera. There is, however, no indication of its division into separate

areas or shields. In C. singularis, Newstead (1910-11) found a similar

‘thin, opaque, white, glassy layer of secretionary matter’ below the

waxy processes. He says that ‘the true character of the glassy portion

can be seen only after carefully dissolving the outer waxen layer with

xylol’. The test is no longer parallel to the surface of the leaf but

becomes somewhat inclined upwards on account of the greater con-

vexity of the dorsum at the anterior end.

The larva continues to feed till the end of the second instar, when

the stylets and other cuticular structures are shed away with the

moulted skin. The second moult occurs 74 to 9 weeks after settle-

ment on the host plant. As in the first moult, the exuvium is cast

away at the hind end through the space between the test and the

leaf (Plate I, fig. 6). The mouth parts, YO and the anal tube

are shed once for all.

_ The first and second instar male larvae show a short, stout, and

conical tube of wax, protruding from below and beyond the opercula.

MacGillivray (1921) reports the presence of this tube in some lecanine

species and mentions that it is secreted by the anal ring cerores and

that it serves to expel the honey dew secreted by the larva away from

the body. The whole anal tube is often everted out by the larva,

when it can be seen to carry at its distal end six radiating pencils of

wax arranged in a circlet (Plate II, fig. 10). The tube of wax is

seen in the females also.

Third instar male (Propupa): ~The test of the second instar male

larva grows to a size of 2 to 2.5 mm. At the end of the second instar

the whole test, with the dorsal hump and the marginal processes

intact, can-be separated from.the body of the insect, which remains

adhering to the leaf. Apart from the larval test with its inner

52 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

glassy lining there is no separate puparium. It seems to the present

author that Newstead’s description (1896) of the so-called puparium

of C. ceriferus was based on tests from which the dorsal hump and.

the marginal processes had become separated. Newstead (1910-11)

seems to have mistakenly regarded this condition as normal for the

whole genus, and the presence of the waxy processes in the male

larva of C. singularis as something unique and singular.

After the second moult the male enters the quiescent propupal

stage. The body of the propupa is completely free from the test but

the test, as well as the body, remain attached to the leaf by an

adhesive substance which appears to exude from the venter and the

sides of the propupa. The hind end of the test is tilted up slightly

during moulting in order to let the exuvium escape.

The anterior part of the body of the propupa is narrower than

the rest, and the head, thoracic, and abdominal regions are incipiently

distinguishable. The abdomen bears marks of segmentation in the

form of faint transverse lines. The legs and antennae are in the

form of short, stout processes; the wing pads are small and applied

to the sides of the thorax and the anterior part of the abdomen.

Posteriorly, the abdomen terminates in three conical processes. The

central one, which is broad and blunt at the tip, is the rudiment of

the stylus or penis-sheath, while the other two, one on each side of

the stylus, are narrow and pointed and are the precursors of the

caudal tubercles of the adult male.

The propupal stage lasts for 7 to 10 days, after which the male

undergoes the third moult, which occurs generally between the 65th

and 70th days after larval settlement.

Fourth instar male (Pupa): The fourth instar in the male line is

a typical exarate pupa (Plate III, fig. 8). The division of the body

into head, thorax and abdomen is more pronounced than in the

propupa. There is a constriction behind the head; the limits of the

thoracic sclerites are visible; the legs and the antennae are longer

and thinner. The ventral ocellanae are represented by two black

spots. In very advanced pupae, the dorsal ocellanae can also be

seen. The wing pads of the pupa are longer and broader than those

of the propupa and are closely applied to the abdomen. The stylus,

and the caudal tubercles are better defined than in the preceding

stage. Mouth parts are wanting in both the stages.

Adult male (Fifth instar): The pupal stage lasts for 11 or 12 days,

at the end of which the fourth ecdysis occurs. The adult male does

not come out of the test immediately after the last moult, but remains

inside for two or three days. After this rest it lifts the posterior part

JOURN. BOMBAY NAT. Hist. Soc. PLATE II

Fig. 1. Young larva on a mango leaf after commencement of the secretion of the test. Fig. 2.

First instar larva about a week after settiement. Fig. 3. A group of advanced first stage larvae

on a mango leaf. Note the orientation of the larvae parallel to the vein of the leaf. Fig. 4. Lateral

view of a first instar larva. Fig. 5. A second instar male larva. Compare with the corresponding

stage of the female shown in Fig. 8. Fig. 6. A male larva after the second moult. The cast-off

exuvium and the fringe of wax processes below the marginal processes may be noted. Fig. 7.

Close-up of an advanced male larva. Fig. 8. A second instar female larva. Fig. 9. An early

third instar larval female after it has begun the secretion of the doughy wax. Note the doughy wax

at the bases of the dorsal hump and the marginal processes. Fig. 10. A second. stage male larva,

divested of its test, showing the everted anal tube and the circlet of wax pencils at its end. Fig. 11

Ventral view of a male pupa with its test turned upside down. Fig. 12. An adult male just after

emergence from its test.

JOURN. BOMBAY NAT. Hist. Soc. PLATE III

Fig. 1. Lateral view of a third instar female showing the doughy wax, the dorsal hump, and

the marginal processes. Fig. 2. A later stage than that depicted in Fig. 1,in which the doughy wax

has increased in volume. Fig. 3. A thizd instar female with a well-formed test. The dorsal hump

and the marginal processes are inconspicuous, being submerged in the doughy wax. Fig. 4. An

advanced third instar female with the test more or less in the definitive form. Note the depression

at the caudal end. Fig. 5. A third instar female denuded of wax to show the supra-marginal

prominences. Fig. 6. Sagittal section of an adult female showing the relationship of the insect

with the test. Fig. 7. Lateral view of an adult female on twig, denuded of wax, showing the

caudal process and the stigmatic clefts. Fig. 8. Ventral and dorsal views (left and right figures res-

pectively) of a male pupa. Fig. 9. Dorsal view of an adult male.

THE WAX-SCALE, CEROPLASTES PSEUDOCERIFERUS 33

of the test and crawls out. The stylus is wedged in below the

test and used as a lever in the process of emergence.

Soon after emergence the males are ready for copulation, but

males which are forcibly extricated from their tests immediately after

the fourth moult do not copulate at once. They remain quiet for

several hours at the same place. A series of males that were forced

out of their tests, and fixed and mounted after staining showed that,

during the quiescent period preceding copulation, the sperms descend

into the seminal vesicle.

Newstead (1896) in his description of the adult male of C.

ceriferus remarks: ‘the long anal setae in life would no doubt be

covered with white wax forming long white filaments, common in

all the males belonging to this division of the Coccidae. In all the

specimens examined the white covering was wanting and no doubt

was broken away during transit. The present author has examined

many freshly emerged males of C. pseudoceriferus but none of them

bore these thread-like filaments of wax at the caudal end (Plate IJ,

fig. 12 & Plate III, fig. 9). Perhaps Newstead surmised their existence

by analogy with the males of other Lecanine genera. MacGillivray

(1921) mentions that the caudal filaments may be wanting in some

genera of this group. Leonardi (1920) and Silvestri (1927) have

figured a pair of caudal wax filaments in the male of C. rusci in

Italy.

Second instar larva: Immediately after the first moult the larvae

of the two sexes do not differ in the external appearance of the test,

but later it is possible to distinguish them. The second instar female

is smaller in size, and the test measures about 1.2 mm. in length.

The anal filaments disappear after the first moult, as in the case of

the male larva. During the second stage, the body of the female

assumes a more rounded and discoidal form, the naked dorsum of

the insect showing itself in the form of a ring encircling the base of

the dorsal hump and also through the narrow spaces between the

marginal processes (Plate II, fig. 8).

In an upturned scale, the outline of the body of the second instar

can be easily seen to be different from that of the male. The stigma-

tic furrows are filled with pulverised wax. Bordering the margin

externally is a fringe of waxy processes, as in the male larva.

Denuded females of the second stage show that the dorsum is

raised into a number of supra-marginal prominences. In addition

to a broad, median, longitudinal ridge in the centre, there are three

54 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1) |

anterior prominences, the central one of which is larger than the

lateral ones; four prominences laterad of the median ridge on each

side; and a single large prominence at the caudal end. The first

two lateral prominences of each side are larger than the two hinder

ones and are situated exactly above the stigmatic clefts of that side.

These supra-marginal prominences correspond to and support the

anterior, lateral, and caudal wax processes of the test. The caudal

prominence, though single, bears all the four caudal wax processes.

The opercula are at the centre of the caudal prominence, and the

anal cleft extends cephalad on the latter to the region of the opercula.

The legs of the second instar female are functional and the larva

can crawl slowly on the surface of the leaves and stems. The second

moult in the case of the female occurs six weeks after settlement.

The exuvium is pushed out from below the posterior extremity.

Third instar larva: Following the second moult, the female larva

commences the secretion of wax of a new consistency, which is very

characteristic of the third and subsequent stages of the female. This

wax is of a doughy nature, creamy-white in colour and containing a

large proportion of a watery fluid. When the wax is pressed between

the fingers the watery fluid oozes out. Since the test of the adult

female of C. pseudoceriferus consists mostly of this doughy wax,

the formation of the definitive test of the adult may be said to begin

at this stage. Comparing the test of the female with the ovisac of

the other genera, MacGillivray (1921) says: ‘In Ceroplastes, if the

wax of the adult is considered as an ovisac, the formation of the

primary plates from which the wax of the adult is derived begins in

the first nymphal stage. The number of plates increases in each

stage and in many species the shape and symmetry of the plates is

lest by their fusion into a thick shapeless mass’. At least in so far

as C. pseudoceriferus is concerned, it would be erroneous to say that,

the wax of the adult is derived from the primary plates (dorsal hump

and marginal processes) of the larval test. The wax which forms

the adult test is of an entirely different nature, as described above,

from that of the primary plates, and is secreted only from the third

instar onward. The primary plates later become submerged in the

mass of doughy wax of the adult test but they constitute, if anything,

only an insignificant part of the latter. Further, the primary plates

are secreted by the male larva also, whereas the male never secretes

the doughy wax in any stage of its life-history. These facts have

been substantiated by a study of the cerores of the different stages -

in question. 43

The earliest specimen to start the secretion of the doughy wax

was observed to commence the process on the 45th day after settle-

THE WAX-SCALE, CEROPLASTES PSEUDOCERIFERUS 55

ment. There is a short lapse of time between the second moult and

the commencement of secretion of the doughy wax. For example,

in one case the female larva underwent the second moult on

the 47th day after settlement and the secretion of the doughy

wax began only on the 52nd day, showing an interval of 5 days. In

another case, the process’ in question lagged behind and the secretion

of the doughy wax began as late as on the 72nd day.

The doughy wax starts at first as a thin film on the whole of the

dorsum, filling up the spaces between the marginal processes and cover-

ing the area surrounding the base of the dorsal hump (Plate II, fig. 9).

The lateral marginal processes become separated from one another.

The first two processes of each side, corresponding to the stigmatic

clefts, travel far from each other as well as from the remaining

marginal processes. The three anterior processes remain close to one

another; similarly, the third and fourth lateral processes of each side

remain close to each other in all the subsequent stages. The caudal

processes show no change of position (Plate III, fig. 2). ‘The

approximation of the three anterior processes, and of the third and

fourth lateral processes is related to changes in the position

of the supra-marginal prominences of the underlying insect.

If a series of denuded females of the third instar of varying ages is

examined, it may be seen that the central anterior prominence be-

comes a large tubercle, while the two at the sides are very small and

emain close to the former; similarly, the third and fourth lateral pro-

riunences may be seen to come very close to each other. The caudal

prominence remains single as in the previous stages. The secretion

of doughy wax increases in quantity and in another few days the test

assumes the shape of a helmet, the dorsal hump being carried at the

summit of it; but, for lack of uniformity in the secretion of wax,

the dorsal hump may become slightly shifted to one side (Plate II,

figs. 1 & 2). In any case, the apex of the dorsal hump is always

directed away from the caudal end of the test. The growth of the

test proceeds rapidly, and in about 15 days the marginal processes

lose their identity and symmetry, being immersed in the doughy wax

to more than half of their length. The opercula and the two pairs

of caudal processes come to be lodged in a depression formed by the

growth of wax in the contiguous areas (Plate III, fig. 4). The dorsal

hump is still visible at the summit of the test which measures about

2.5 mm. in length.

During the third instar the wax forming the test often takes a

pinkish tinge. It is very soft, and, therefore, the insect can be

divested of it by means of a fine scalpel or any similar instrument.

56 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

Adult female (Fourth instar): Externally there is nothing to dis-

tinguish a late third instar female from an early fourth instar

specimen. The third moult occurs about 15 weeks after settlement.

The exuvium is pushed out at the caudal end of the test, through the

space between the latter and the twig. The extruded skin is squeezed

and dishevelled in the process of expulsion. There has been con-

siderable speculation about the method of moulting in Ceroplastes.

Green (1909) says: ‘It is difficult to understand how any complete

ecdysis can occur in such a genus as Ceroplastes, in which the body

is always enveloped in a closely adherent waxy covering. It is

possible that the ventral parts of the exuvia may be extruded from

beneath the test; but the dorsal parts are probably incorporated in the

waxy covering, though this has not been actually demonstrated’.

MacGillivray (1921) makes more or less similar remarks about ecdysis

in Ceroplastes and observes: “The number of moults undergone by

the individuals of this genus and the relation of the exuviae to the

wax is not understood.’ Blumberg (1934) has recorded that the

female of C. rubens moults three times and that the exuvium, in

the case of the first moult, is extruded from below the test at the

caudal end. Presumably, the subsequent ecdyses also take place in

the same manner. The female of C. pseudoceriferus also undergoes

three moults; each time the moulted skin is pushed out at the caudal

end of the test. While denuding a number of late third instar

females various stages in the moulting process could be found. Some

of the denuded insects were actually in the fourth instar but still

enclosed within the third instar skin; in others the old skin had

become ruptured on the dorsum and the greater part of the fourth

stage female was exposed dorsally. The legs appear to play the

main part in the process of kicking off the ruptured skin. It must

be noticed that when the third and last moult occurs the test of the

female is only about 3 mm. long. At this stage the opercula are

situated at the centre of the caudal prominence as in all the previous

stages and are more or less flush with the dorsum. A part of the

caudal prominence surrounding the opercula is chitinised strongly but

there is no caudal process or opercularia, as found in older adults.

Impregnation of the female occurs at this time. The caudal process

is a subsequent acquisition and begins to grow only when the body of

the adult female increases in size and the test becomes progressively

thicker owing to the accumulation of wax on its interior. The adult

C. pseudoceriferus lives for 7 or 8 months and the fully grown female

at the time of oviposition is three to four times bulkier than in the

younger stages. The external changes undergone by the adult female

from the time of the third moult to the time of oviposition consist

THE WAX-SCALE, CEROPLASTES PSEUDOCERIFERUS a7

of an increase in body size, the growth of the caudal process, and

the bulging of the dorsum which imparts to the female, in advanced

stages, a spherical appearance. The supra-marginal prominences are

pronounced in the early stages, but in old specimens they become

smoothened out by the dorsal dilation referred to above. The caudal

process develops as follows: in the early part of the adult stage the

dorsum surrounding the opercula is raised up into a short, stout

process carrying the opercula at its apex. Pari passu with the

increase in the size of the female and in the thickness of the wax

secreted by the dorsum, this process grows longer and also becomes

strongly chitinised (Plate III, fig. 7). The anal tube is drawn into the

caudal process and maintains its usual relationship with the opercula.

The anal cleft increases in extent: commencing from the opercula,

it now runs downwards on the posterior face of the caudal process and

extends cephalad on the venter to about a fourth of its length as a

postero-mesal furrow (Plate I, fig. 7). Since the caudal process

becomes strongly chitinised the part of the anal cleft running on it

is reduced to a mere suture.

The abdomen of the adult female shows marks of segmentation

on the ventral side. Five abdominal segments are clearly visible,

just in front of the ventral extension of the anal cleft (Plate I, fig. 7).

The cephalic and thoracic regions run imperceptibly into each other.

The legs and antennae are very small in proportion to the size of

the body. The adult female is stationary and the only bodily move-

ments exhibited by it are at the time of oviposition. The legs,

however, are retained throughout life.

During the fourth instar, as the test increases in size, the marginal

processes of the younger stages become completely covered over by

the doughy wax, and the test becomes massive and irregular in shape

(Plate 1, fig. 2). The wax turns hard at the end of the adult stage

owing to long exposure to the atmosphere and the sun and contains

less fluid matter in it than in the early stages. When two or more

females are close to one another their tests become fused at the

points of contact. In some cases the opercula of the females are

covered by the doughy wax and are no longer visible externally. The

dorsal hump of the nymphal test may also lose its identity in

advanced females.

After the death of the insect the empty tests may remain on the

twig for a year or more. During this period they may provide shelter

for various arthropods. The author has collected mites, psocids,

coccinellid larvae, and pseudoscorpions under such old tests,

58 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

7. SEASONAL HISTORY

C. pseudoceriferus has only one generation in the year. Egg-laying

begins in the middle of August and the first stage larvae appear from

September onwards. Oviposition continues till November, as females

with eggs and newly hatched larvae are found as late as in the last

week of November. The males complete their development in 24

to 3 months and adults are found from November to March, being

abundant in December, January, and February. During these months

most of the females reach the early adult stage and are inseminated

by the males. After copulation the females grow in size until they

attain their maximum size and oviposit in the following laying season.

8. SUMMARY

Ceroplastes pseudoceriferus Green occurs in Banaras on nine

different species of host plants and is univoltine. Males occur in

large numbers and the females reproduce bisexually. Eggs are laid

from August to the middle of November, each female laying from

about 1000 to more than 10,000 eggs, which are deposited below

the venter. The newly hatched larva begins to secrete the waxy test

immediately after settling. The larval test consists of a median

dorsal hump and 15 marginal processes. The first instar lasts for

three weeks. Sex differentiation sets in during the second instar.

The characters of the second instar male and female nymphs and of

all the subsequent stages of the two sexes are described, with special

reference to the secretion of wax. While most of the males settle

down and complete their development on the leaves, the female

larvae show a marked preference for the stems and twigs. ‘The males

moult four times and the total time taken by them to reach the adult

stage is about 24 months. The females moult three times; the fourth

or adult stage is reached in about 15 weeks after larval settlement.

The test of the second stage female nymphs is essentially of the same

form, i.e. with a dorsal hump and 15 marginal processes, as in the

corresponding male stage. But, from the third instar onwards the

female secretes on the dorsal side a creamy-white, doughy wax, which

increases in all the later stages and gradually covers up the marginal

processes. The males do not secrete this type of wax but change

into the adult stage under the nymphal test itself. There is no

separate puparium or cocoon, marked into shields, as in other

lecanine genera. The adult males are similar in general appearance

to those of Lecanium and Pulvinaria but the caudal wax filaments

are absent in this species, : |

THE WAX-SCALE, CEROPLASTES PSEUDOCERIFERUS 59

Fertilization takes place when the females are in the early adult

stage; the females have no caudal process at the time of fertilization.

The caudal process develops later as a backward and upward tubular

extension of the dorsal area adjoining the opercula. The females

retain their legs throughout life. They attain their maximum size by

July and commence laying eggs in August. Immediately after com-

pleting oviposition they die but their tests remain attached to the

twigs of the host plant for a long time after the young ones have

hatched and crawled out.

9. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author’s respectful gratitude is due to Prof. A. B. Misra,

under whose supervision this work was carried out by him in the

Zoology Department of the Banaras Hindu University. He is thank-

ful to the Ministry of Education, Government of India, for the

award of a Senior Research Scholarship which enabled him to under-

take and complete the above study.

REFERENCES

Balachowsky, A. (1933): Etude de la

biologie de Ceroplastes floridensis dans le

midi de la France. Proc. 5th Internat. Cong.

Ent., Paris, 1933 : 81-87.

Blumberg, B. (1934) : The life-cycle and

seasonal history of Ceroplastes rubens.

Proc. R. Soc. Queensland 46 : 18-32.

Bodkin, G. E. (1927): The Fig Scale

(Ceroplastes rusci L.) in Palestine. Bull.

ent. Res. 17: 259-263.

Green, E. E. (1909): The Coccidae of

Ceylon, London, Part 4.

at — (1935): On a species’ of

Ceroplastes (Hem.: Coccidae) hitherto

confused with C. ceriferus Anderson.

Stylops 4: 180.

Kuwana, I. (1923): Descriptions and

biology of new or little known coccids of

Japan. Dept. Agric. G@ Comm., Imp. Plant

Quarantine Sta., Japan, Bulletin No. 3: 67

pp.

Leonardi, G. (1920) : Monografia delle

Cocciniglie Italiane, Portici.

MacGillivray, A. D. (1921) : The Coc-

cidae, Urbana, Illinois.

Newman, L. J., O’Connor, B.A,, and

Andrewartha, H. G. (1929): Wax-Scale

(Ceroplastes ceriferus Anderson). J. Dep.

Agric. W. Aust. 6: 516-526. .

Newstead, R. (1896): Scale insects in

Madras. Indian Mus. Notes 3: 21-32.

— — — — (1910-11): Some further

observations on the insects of the Uganda

Protectorate. Bull. ent. Res. 1:185-199.

O’Connor, B. A. (1933) : Entomological

Notes. J. Dep. Agric. W. Aust. 10:

228-229,

Sankaran, T. (1954-55): The natural

enemies of Ceroplastes pseudoceriferus

Green (Hemiptera: Coccidae). J. sci.

Res. Banaras Hindu Univ. 5: 100-119.

Silvestri, F. (1919): Il Ceroplaste (o

cocciniglia) cinese degli Agrumi. Boll.

Lab. Ent. agr. Portici, 2:15 pp.

— — (1920): Descrizione e Notizie del

Ceroplastes sinensis D. Guerc. (Hemiptera:

sets tpt Boll. Lab. Zool. Portici 14:

-17.

— — (1927) : Il Ceroplaste (0 coccini-

glia) del fico. Circ. Lab. Ent. Scu. agric.

Portici 4: 11 pp.

‘Some new and interesting forms of

Oedogonium from Uttar Pradesh

G. S. VENKATARAMAN

Algal Lab., Botany Division, I.A.R.1., New Delhi-12

(With 18 figures)

The present communication deals with 13 forms of Oedogonium

collected by Dr. M. S. Randhawa from Fyzabad, Uttar Pradesh,

during 1937-39, including 3 new varieties and 1 new form.

1. Oedogonium hirnii Gutwinski. Tiffany, Oedogoniaceae, 1930, p. 73,

t. 14, figs. 136, 137.

Monoecious; oogonium subglobose to subovoid, single, poriferous,

pore superior; oospore globose, not completely filling the oogonium,

oospore membrane smooth; antheridia 1-2, subepigynous, sperms 2,

formed by horizontal division.

Breadth veg. cells 7.6-152402 length 266.2 :

» oogonia 38.0-41.8 pw ; i 38.0-45.6 pw;

,» OOSpores 30.4-34.2 pw; st 30.4-34.2 ws

antheridia 7.6-11.4 pw; - 3.8-7.6 pw.

Habitat : Free-floating, Fyzabad, July 1939.

2. Oedogonium plagiostomum Wittrock. Tiffany, Oedogoniaceae, 1930,

p. 80, t. 14, fig. 140.

Dioecious; macrandrous; oogonia obovoid-globose, single, pori-

ferous, pore superior; oospore globose to subglobose, filling -the

oogonium, oospore membrane thickened; antheridia 1-4-seriate,

alternating with the vegetative cells.

Breadth veg. cells 22.8-26.6 Le ; length 76.0-114.0 pw ;

A oogonia 45.6-49.4 uw; 3 53.2-57.0 p ;

53 oospores 41.8-45.6 w; 3 41.8-49.4 ps ;

antheridia 19.0-22.8 1; 4 7.6-11.4 p.

Habitat: Free-floating along with Oe. crassiusculum var. indica

Venkat. Fyzabad, July 1939. ; Reiss, “°

3. Oedogonium multisporum Wood. Tiffany, Oedogoniaceae, * 1930,

p. 131, t. 46, fig. 482.

var. unicellularis var. nov.

Dioecious, nannandrous, idiandrosporus; oogonium intercalary,

1-2, obpyriform, poriferous, pore superior; nannandria single-celled,

SOME NEW AND INTERESTING FORMS OF OEDOGONIUM 61

attached to the oogania; androsporangia 1-4; oospore globose, filling

the oogonium; spore wall smooth (text-fig. 1-3).

Dioica, nannandra, idiandrospora; oogonium intercalare, 1-2,

obpyriforme, poriferum; poro superiore; nannandria semel cellulata,

oogoniis insidentia; androsporangia 1-4; oospora globosa, implens

oogonium; parietibus levibus.

Breadth veg. cells — 12.0-16.0 p ; length 40.0-80.0 p ;

bs oogonia 28.0-32.0 p; . 32.0-44.0 p ;

¥ oospore 28.0-30.0 pu : Ms 28.0-30.0 pe ;

os androsporangia L220) ia be 4.0-5.0 pw.

This variety differs from the type and Oe. multisporum Wood var.

magnus Ackley in its unicellular nannandria. |

Habitat: Free-floating along with Zygnemopsis splendens Randh.

Fyzabad, July 1939.

Type: Randhawa collection No. 114, Indian Agricultural

Research Institute, New Delhi.

4, Oedogonium irregulare Wittrock. Tiffany, Oedogoniaceae, 1930,

p. 131, t. 46, fig. 447.

var. tenuis var. nov.

Dioecious, nannandrous, gynandrosporus; oogonium 1-2, pyriform,

poriferous, pore superior; oospore globose, filling the oogonium;

oospore wall smooth; nannandria attached to the oogonia; sperms 2,

formed by a transverse division (text-fig. 4).

Dioica, nannandra, gynandrospora; oogonium 1-2, pyriforme, pori-

ferum, poro superiore; oospora globosa, implens oogonium; parietes

oosporae leves; nannandria oogoniis insidentia; spermatia 2, formata

per divisionem transversalem.

Breadth veg. cells 13.5-14.9 po ; length 72.0-48.6 ;

“ oogonia 37.8-40.5 pe ; B 48.6-54.0 p ;

. androsporangia 10.8 p ; 7 8.1-9.5 pe ;

™ antheridia SSelith - Fn ORAL LB eS

_ oospores 37.8 ib: . 37.8 w.

This form agrees with Oe. irregulare Wittrock in its dioecious,

nannandrous nature, oogonia with superior pore, smooth spore wall;

but differs from the same in narrower vegetative cells, pyriform

oogonia, clearly globose oospores, smaller nannandria and antheridia.

Habitat: Free-floating, Fyzabad, June 1939.

Type: Randhawa collection No. 114, Indian Agricultural Re-

Search Institute, New Delhi.

62 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

5. Oedogonium irregulare Witt. var. condensatum (Hallas) Hirn. Tiffany,

Oedogoniaceae, 1930, p. 132, t. 46, figs. 448, 449. 3

Dioecious, nannandrous, idiandrosporus; oogonium single and

rarely in twos; oospore globose to depressed-globose, poriferous, pore

superior, spore wall smooth; dwarf male on oogonia; antheridia

exterior (text-figs. 5, 6).

Breadth veg. cells 15.2-19.0 pw ; length 30.4-38.0 ju;

se oogonia 38.0 p ; a 38.0-45.6 pw ;

As oospores 36.1 p ; 3 30.4-36.1 pe ;

as androsporangia 13.3-17.5 pw; i 95-1513 ie:

» nannandria 11.4: 5 i 22.8-24.7 bu ;

at antheridia 9.5 pb; : | 3.8-7.6 4.

The dwarf males in this form are not found in clusters as in the

type.

Habitat: Free-floating, Fyzabad, July 1937.

6. Oedogonium rufescens Wittrock. Tiffany, Oedogoniaceae 1930, p. 66

tom, nie. 105:

forma minuta forma nova.

Dioecious, macrandrous; oogonia 1-3, obovoid to depressed

obovoid-globose, pore median; oospore depressed-globose, not com-

pletely filling the oogonia, spore wall smooth; antheridium 1-6, sperm

single (text-figs. 7, 8).

Dioica, macrandra: oogonia 1-3, obovoidea vel depresso-obovoideo-

globosa; poro mediano; oospora depresse globosa, haud penitus

implens oogonium; parietes sporae !eves; antheridium 1-6 seriatum;

sperma unicum.

Breadth veg. cells 4.1-5.4 1; length 16.2-21.6 pu ;

- oogonia 203i (ie: - 17.62;

oospores Wickert: . 14.9 pu;

», antheridia Of pc a 11.4 6.

This form is characterised by its smaller dimensions, which serve

to distinguish it from the type and from the varieties exiguun (Eg.)

Tiffany and lundellii (Witt.) Tiffany. It further differs from the latter

varieties in its oospore not filling the oogonium completely.

Habitat: Epiphytic on Oe. multisporum var. unicellularis Venkat.

Fyzabad, July 1939. 2

Type: Randhawa collection No. 114, Indian Agricultural Research

Institute, New Delhi. 3 |

iis Oedogonium tapeinosporum Wittrock f. fowlingense Jao in Sinensia

8 : 299-313, 1937.

Dioecious, macrandrous; oogonia 1-8, pyriform or pyriform-globose

or depressed globose, operculate, division median, narrow but distinét;

JouRN. BomBay Nat. Hist. Soc.

Figs. 1-3, Oedogonium multisporum var. unicellularis var. nov.: Fig. 1, part of the male fila-

ment with androsporangia ; Fig. 2, filament with unicellular nannandria on the oogonium; Fig. 3,

oogonia showing the superior pores; Fig. 4, Oe. irregulare var. tenuis var. nov.; Figs. 5-6, Oe.

irregulare var. condensatum (Hallas) Hirn. ; Figs. 7-8, Oe. rufescens f. minuta forma nova.

JouRN. BoMBAY NAT. Hist. Soc.

Fig. 9, Oedogonium tapeinosporum f. fowlingense Jao; Fig. 10, Oe. sphaerandrium Wittrock &

Lund.; Fig. 11, Oe. undulatum (Bréb) Br.

SOME NEW AND INTERESTING FORMS OF OEDOGONIUM _ 63

oospore depressed-globose, not filling the oogonium longitudinally,

spore wall smooth; basal cell hemispherical; terminal cell obtuse (text-

fig. 9).

Breadth veg. cells IS length 22.8-26.6 [ ;

», oogonia 18.2-19.0 p ; ‘ 22,801":

» OOspores TS.2alel ee e 13.3-15.2 uw.

Habitat: Free-floating, Fyzabad, July 1937.

8. Oedogonium sphaerandrium Witt. & Lund. Tiffany, Oedogoniaceae,

1930; p.112, t. 36, fig. 337.

Monoecious, oogonia 1-4, subpyriform to sub-depressed-globose,

operculate, division a little above median; oospore subdepressed or

depressed-globose, nearly filling the oogonium, spore wail smooth;

antheridium 1-6, scattered; vegetative cells capitate (text-fig. 10).

Breadth veg. cells Onan: length 22.8-38.0 pu ;

é. oogonia 17.1-22.8 pu ; a 19.0-22.8 pe ;

- oospores 1522-20590 ; ke 15.2-20.9 p ;

- antheridia 6.8 b- ; re 5.0-6.0 4...

Habitat: Free-floating, Fyzabad, June 1937.

9. Oedogonium undulatum (Bréb) Br. Tiffany, Oedogoniaceae, 1930,

| p. 118, t. 42, fig. 407.

Dioecious; vegetative cells undulate; nannandrous, nannandria on

suffultory cells; oogonia solitary, globose to pyriform, operculate,

division inferior; oospore globose, nearly filling the oogonium; oospore

wall smooth, terminal cell obtuse (text-fig. 11).

Breadth veg. cells 11.4-15.2 4; length 30.4-68.4 ju ;

» oogonia 41.8-45.6 1; i 41.8-57.0 jx ;

»» OOSpores 38.0-41.8 u ; m 38.0-41.8 pu ;

» nannandria 7.6 [t is 45.6-53.2 uw;

», Ssuffultory cells 19.0-22.8 u ; a 57.0 w.

This form has much smaller dimensions than the type.

Habitat: Free-floating along with Oe. sphaerandrium Witt. and

Lund. Fyzabad, June 1937.

10. Oedogonium crassiusculum Wittrock. Tiffany, Oedogoniaceae,

1930, p. 129, t. 49, fig. 474.

var. indica var. nov.

‘Dioecious, nannandrous, idiandrosporus; oogonium solitary,

globose or globose-ovoid, poriferous, pore superior; oospore globose to

globose-ovoid, nearly filling the oogonium; spore wall smooth and

thickened; androsporangia 1-5; nannandria unicellular on oogonium

(text-figs. 12-15).

64 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

Dioica, nannandra, idiandrospora; oogonium unicum, globosum vel

globoso-obovoideum; poro superiore; oospora eiusdem formee ac

oogonium, fere vel penitus implens oogonium; sporae parietes leves et

crassi; androsporangia 1-5; nannandria semel cellulata, oogonio

insidentia. | |

Breadth veg. cells (male) 22.8-26.6 yu; length 34.6-76.0 1;

m - (female) 26.6-28.5 bu ; Pe 83.6-95.0 w;

é, oogonia 33:2 2¢ <s 53.2-64.6 wu;

hs oospores 45.6-47.5 uw ; i 45.6-53.2 « ;

es androsporangia 22S S i 3.8-7.6 w.

This form differs from the type in the idiandrosporus nature and

unicellular nannandria. This form is readily distinguishable from var.

arechavaletae and var. idiandrcsporum by its unicellular nannandria

on oogonium alone.

Habitat: Free-floating, Fyzabad, July 1939.

Type: Randhawa collection No. 113, Indian Agricultural Re-

search Institute, New Delhi. 7

11. Oedogonium multisporum Wood. Tiffany, Oedogoniaceae, 1930,

p. 131, t. 46, fig. 482.

Dioecious, nannandrous; oogonium 1-3, subovoid or subglobose,

pore superior; oospore globose, spore wall smooth; dwarf male a little

curved or erect on oogonium (text-fig. 16). ,

Breadth veg. cells 11.4-15.2 u; length 11.4-38.0 1;

, oogonia 22.8-38.0 pu ; a 26.6-38.0 « ;

- oospores 22.6-36.0 u ; a 22.6-36.0 « ;

Is antheridia 7.6-9.5 bw; ‘ 3.8-7.6 w.

Habitat: Free-floating, Fyzabad, July 1939.

12. Oedogonium minus Wittrock. Tiffany, Oedogoniaceae, 1930, p. 103

t. 34, fig. 302. |

Monoecious; oogonium single, subglobose to pyriform-globose;

operculate, division median; oospore depressed globose not com-

pletely filling the oogonium, spore wall smooth; antheridia 1-6; cells

somewhat capitellate; wall of the oogonium and vegetative cells spirally

punctate (text-fig. 17).

Breadth veg. cells 7.6 w3 length 60.8-102.6 u ;

>» oogonia Bevan 3 Pe 34.24;

3 Oospores 28.590. - 24.7 «;

M antheridia D3] we a 3.8-5.7 pe.

Habitat: Free-floating, Fyzabad, July 1937.

Journ. BomBay Nat. Hist. Soc.

Figs. 12-15, Oedogonium crassiusculum var. indica var. nov. ; Fig. 12, showing the basal cell with

the haptera ; Fig. 13, apical cell ; Fig. 14, part of the male filament with androsporangia ; Fig. 15, part

of the female filament with unicellular nannandria; Fig. 16, Oe. multisporum Wood.; Fig. 17, Oe.

minus Wittr.; Fig. 18, Oe. curvum Pring.

SOME NEW AND INTERESTING FORMS OF OEDOGONIUM — 65

13. Oedogonium’ curvum Pringsheim. Tiffany, Oedogoniaceae, 1930,

p. od, t. 11; figs. 103, 104.

Monoecious; oogonium 1-4, poriferous, pore median, depressed-

globose; oospores filling or not filling the oogonium; spore wall

smooth; antheridia 1-4; filaments irregularly curved (text-fig. 18).

Breadth veg. cells 5: 1-1 ph length - 7.6-11.4 1;

» oogonia 22.8-26.6 / ; s 22.8-28.5 yw;

» antheridia Je =1.0) £5 33 3.8-5.7 w.

Habitat : Free-floating, Fyzabad, July 1938.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author records his sincere thanks to Dr. M. S. Randhawa

for his keen interest and for kindly placing his collections at his

disposal. He is also grateful to Dr. B. P. Pal for kindly providing

facilities. His thanks are also due to Rev. Fr. H. Santapau for

kindly providing the Latin diagnosis for the new forms described in

this paper. :

REFERENCES

Tiffany, L. H. (1930): The Oecedogo- Jao, C. C. (1937): New Oedogonia

niaceae, amonograph. Columbus, Ohio. collected in China. Sinensia8 : 299-313.

Notes on the Butterfly Genus Ypthima

re ?

SiR KEITH CANTLIE, C.I.E., I.C.S. (Retd.)

AND

Dr. T. NORMAN

(With a text figure)

The object of these notes is to amplify the treatment of the genus

by Talbot (1947) in the FAUNA OF BRITISH INDIA.

1. Talbot calls Y. watsoni Moore by the name of Y. pandocus

watsoni, but the clasp of pandocus of Malaya and neighbouring areas

is quite different from that of watsoni. ‘Talbot describes at page 323

what is really the clasp of watsoni, similar to that of newara, in error

for the clasp of pandocus. The foundation work on Ypthima genitalia

is the article by Elwes and Edwards (1893). They figure pandocus

correctly, but their figure of watsoni is actually that of the very

different clasp of the more recently determined species akbar Talbot.

Talbot points out their error on page 324. We give the correct figure

below from our own dissections. The name, therefore, should be

Y. watsoni Moore, a reversion to the old nomenclature.

2. A small series of what appears to be a variation of Y. watsoni

was taken by Norman near Sebong (Manipur) in April and May, and

in September. No other form of watsoni was found flying with them.

The clasp is similar to that of watsoni. On the upper and under

sides lof the fore wing the discal fascia makes a loop with the sub-

marginal fascia towards the dorsum. These loops are a feature of

watsoni. The under side, however, has the ground grey, without the

ochreous tinge seen in watsoni, and is densely covered with striae.

The subapical ocellus underhind is in all specimens about the same

size as that in space 3. Only in a very few specimens of watsoni is

the subapical ocellus so small. The dry season form of watsoni, with

dots for ocelli, has a peculiar mottled appearance unlike any other

species. All dry season forms of watsoni have been taken from

November till February save one in March. The wet season form

of watsoni has been taken throughout the period April to October,

so must have several broods. Until the form taken by Norman is

captured in the dry season there remains the possibility that it has

a dry season form similar to that of watsoni, and so be a mere

variation of watsoni. The name given meanwhile is Y. watsoni var.

NOTES ON THE BUTTERFLY GENUS YPTHIMA 67

howarthi, in acknowledgement of the great help always given us by

Mr. T. G. Howarth of the British Museum (Natural History).

Examples have been lodged in the British Museum (Natural History)

and further specimens have been set aside for the Zoological Survey

of India.

3. Y. akbar Talbot. Cantlie found four males and three females

from Shewymbin (Burma) among the part of Tytler’s collection still

lying in papers in the British Museum (Natural History). ‘These all

exhibit the previously unknown wet season form. Talbot’s distinc-

tion that the discal line and ring of the ocellus upperfore nearly touch,

whereas they are well separated in watsoni, is true on the average

for wet season forms, although in some specimens of watsoni the

discal line is quite as near the ocellus. The apical ocellus on the

fore wing of akbar is very large in the dry season forms, but in thesa

wet season ones it is not larger than that of watsoni. The discal line

underhind in the wet season form is not more conspicuous than in

watsoni, but is less angulated.

4. Y. nareda nareda Kollar and Y. nareda newara Moore is the

nomenclature in Evans’s IDENTIFICATION OF INDIAN BUTTERFLIES and

it has been retained by Talbot. ‘The clasp of nareda Kollar is figured

by Elwes and Edwards and agrees with our dissections. It is short

and stout, and the tip is shaped like a bird’s head with the beak

curved inwards towards the uncus. Talbot evidently describes it on

page 321. But the clasp of newara narrows from the broad base into

a slender rod which is longer than half the length of the whole. The

tip varies in sharpness of point in different individuals. It is similar

to that of watsoni: we give one figure below for both. It is not well

figured by Elwes and Edwards as the clasp evidently became twisted

on itself so that the tip curves the wrong way. In our opinion

there is good reason to revert to the older classification used by Elwes

and Edwards making these forms separate species, especially as they

are distinguishable by the shape of the submarginal dark band under-

fore. The nomenclature should, therefore, be Y. nareda Kollar and

Y. newara newara Moore.

5. Y. newara sarcaposa Fruhstorfer. Fruhstorfer (1908) wrote:

‘AS sarcaposa subsp. nov. the Burmese form is here separated, which

is smaller and beneath lighter grey than large series of Sikkim and

Assam examples. Ocelli with broader and lighter yellow bordering’.

He took it in Tenasserim and says it goes north to Yunnan. The

type in the British Museum has a white ground, especially on the

underhind. The only other sarcaposa to be seen in the British

Museum is a dry season form with dots for ocelli. No such insect

is found in Sikkim and Assam, where all specimens of Y. newara

68 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

have the ground colour below ochreous. Specimens from N. Burma

and Maymyo are similar to those from Sikkim and Assam. Their

size is variable: small specimens occur in Sikkim and Assam as well

O64 EEE

SUB UAG

1. watsoni and newara. 2. nareda. 3. burmana. 4. akbar. 5. fusca. 6. pan-

docus. 7. lisandra (avanta). 8. savara. 9. methora and atra. 10. dohertyi dohertyi,

d. persimilis, and sakra. 11. asterope. 12. lycus.

as larger ones, and the Burmese examples are not smaller than the

small Assam ones. Evans (1932), therefore, was in error when, after

saying that nareda newara occurs in Sikkim and Assam, he went on

to say that nareda sarcapcsa was similar to nareda newara but smaller

and occurred in Assam and to the Shan States. Talbot follows

Evans. Our opinion is that newara newara Moore occurs in Sikkim,

Assam, and Burma and newara sarcaposa Fruhstorfer occurs in south

Burma.

6. Y. fusca Elwes & Edwards. Elwes and Edwards dissected a

specimen from Margherita (Assam) and found a clasp with a longi

slender rod like thai of newara, but with an expanded tip. They

figured it as no. 41, saying that owing to the difference in the clasp

it might be a distinct species, in which case it would bear the name

of fusca, but that they did not feel justified in separating a single

specimen on an anatomical character alone. Norman has found this

‘to be the commonest form of the newara group in Sibsagar District

(Assam) although he has not taken it from the type locality

(Margherita), where mewara newara is the predominant. form. Nor

has he taken newara and fusca flying together, although it is probable

that they do so from the evidence of Elwes and Edwards’s type of the

latter. The expansion at the tip of the clasp is like a flat serrated

NOTES ON THE BUTTERFLY GENUS YPTHIMA 69

cock’s comb on the margin away from the uncus. It is visible when

the clasp is held at an angle. In the type and in all specimens

taken by Norman there is a whitish postmedian band underhind.

Occasional specimens of newara newara have traces of a whitish

area, but it is never so conspicuous as on fusca. The type specimen

of Elwes and Edwards is in the British Museum (Natural History).

Further specimens have been deposited there and others will be given

to the Zoological Survey of India. (This species is not mentioned by

Evans or Talbot.)

7. Y. savara Grose-Smith, methora Hewitson, dohertyi dohertyi

Moore, and dohertyi persimilis Elwes and Edwards. The clasps of

these are figured above. Our figures agree with those of Elwes and

Edwards. Methora has serrations at the sloping rounded shoulder

not shown in the figure. Elwes and Edwards figure only the clasp

of dohertyi dohertyi, saying that the clasps of persimilis and of sakra

are the same. The only material available to us for the clasp of

persimilis is the clasp affixed to the card on the type specimen of

persimilis as dissected by Elwes and Edwards, and their statement

that it is the same in shape as that of dohertyi dohertyi. In addition

to» these known forms Norman took four males near Kangpokpi

(Manipur, 4000 feet) in September, which we proceed to describe as

a new species.

Ypthima atra sp. nov.

Male. Antenna brown, narrowly ringed with white at joints, club

chestnut; head, thorax, and abdomen brown.

Upper side: Fore wing. Dark vandyke brown, without brand,

outer margins evenly darker; length from centre of thorax to apex of

wing 25 mm. A large bipupilled apical ocellus narrowly ringed with

yellow. Hind wing. Colour as fore wing, but with a faint marginal

yellow line which becomes clearer towards the tornus. Obscure

subequal ocelli in spaces 6 and 5; a slightly larger prominent ocellus

in space 3 contiguous to a still larger prominent ocellus in space 2;

a less prominent small ocellus in space 1 contiguous tornally to a

minute ocellus without /pupil. (This minute ocellus is present in

3 out of our 4 specimens.) The ocelli in spaces 1, 2, and 3 have

single pupils and are narrowly ringed with yellow. All ocelli on an

area lighter than the rest of the wing.

Under side: Fore wing. Ground colour grey with no trace of

ochreous; densely striated. Postdiscal and submarginal fasciae

approaching each other towards the dorsum, the postdiscal fascia

being confined to spaces 1b, 2, and base of 3. A very large bipupilled

70 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

‘subapical ocellus and a small ocellus with obsolescent pupil in space

2; both ocelli yellow-ringed.

Hind wing. Colour as fore wing. Prominent ocelli in 5 and 6

contiguous to each other, and prominent contiguous ocelli in 1, 2, and

3, all with yellow rings. ‘The tornal group have their pupils in line,

also the outer edges of their rings, so that the ocellus in 2, being the

largest, projects inwardly. The other four ocelli are subequal, that

in space 6 being slightly smaller than the rest. All ocelli single-

pupilled except for that in lc which is bipupilled, and may or may

not touch the one in space 2. |

Cilia: Brown. |

Genitalia: The clasp is similar to that of methora, as shown in

the accompanying illustration.

Specimens from the type series have been lodged in the British

Museum (Natural History) and further specimens have been set aside

for the Zoological Survey of India.

The description of the facies is applicable to the two type

specimens of persimilis except that the colour of atra is darker above

and the ground of the under side is grey. Atra would be a mere

variation of persimilis if the clasp had the right-angled shoulder of

dohertyi dohertyi and dokertyi persimilis, but to allow a constant

variation in the clasp to this extent and call it a variation of persimilis

would destroy the basis of classification by genitalia in this genus:

we have no evidence that such a degree of variation exists in other

species of the genus. We are well aware, however, that variation

does occur in the genitalia of butterflies of the same species and are

handicapped by not having a series of the very rare persimilis to

dissect. Methora can be excluded because in methora there is a

double ocellus (i.e. not a single bipupilled ocellus) in 1c underhind,

which is in echelon with but not contiguous to the ocelli in 2 and 3.

Also the subapical ocelli underhind are not contiguous to one another

in methora. Apart from the two type specimens there are only four

_persimilis in the British Museum. Two are of the wet season form

with large ocelli underhind, but one has the small ocelli of the dry

season such as are seen in the dry season form of methora; these

ocelli are at a distance from one another. The fourth has a very

small double ocellus in Ic as is seen in methora: it is to be hoped

that one day a dissection of this insect will show a clasp with a

sloping shoulder so that it can be adjudged methora. If not, the

main distinction between persimilis and methora would disappear and

much confusion would ensue.

In the series of dohertyi dohertyi (in the British Museum) all

ocelli underhind are large and contiguous with broad pale yellow

NOTES ON THE BUTTERFLY GENUS YPTHIMA a

rings, but some papered specimens from Burma now found in the

Tytler collection have small widely separated dry season form ocelli.

It is strange that this form should have been unknown before.

8. The clasp of Y. lycus is figured. This species has been found

by us only in Shillong. The striae below are so faint that a lens is

required to see them adequately. A figure of the clasp of Y. asterope

is also given since Elwes and Edwards’s figure is unsatisfactory.

The clasp twists over on itself, making a drawing difficult.

9. Y. cantliei Norman. This species was described from four

males (Norman, 1958). A female was taken in the type locality on

7-5-58 and a male and female in Sibsagar District on 27-4-58. One

each of the females will be given to the British Museum (Natural

History) and the Zoological Survey of India, but they are so worn

and tattered that we do not at present propose to describe one as

an allotype.

REFERENCES

Elwes, H. J., and Edwards, J. (1893): Macrolepidoptera of the world, 9 : 291.

A revision of the genus Ypthima. Trans. Norman, T. (1958): JBNHS, 55 (1):

Ent. Soc. Lond. 180, 181.

_ Evans, W. H. (1932): The Identifica- Talbot, G. (1947): The Fauna of

tion of Indian Butterflies, Bombay. British India, Butterflies, Vol. I,

Fruhstorfer, H. (1911): In Seitz’s London.

Zoogeographic Considerations on

the Indian Avifauna

S. DILLON RIPLEY

The following discussion will be found incorporated in the SYNOPSIS

OF THE BIRDS OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN, a volume which is now in press.

However, these zoogeographic comments are a small part of the main

text which includes a checklist, and so it appeared useful to print this

section separately for the interest of those more concerned with this

subject. In this discussion I have attempted to illustrate three points

derived from my work with Indian birds. These are:

(1) the bird fauna of India is overwhelmingly Oriental in character,

(2) the Palaearctic Region has been a minor influence in providing

resident species of birds of India, and

(3) the Ethiopian Region has played a much larger role in Indian

zoogeography than previous authors have given it credit for. India shares

16 per cent of its avifauna with various segments of the African con-

tinental area.

DISTRIBUTION OF BIRD SPECIES

The area delimited by the above volume, including Pakistan, India,

Nepal, SE. Tibet, Ceylon and neighbouring islands, includes some 1200

species. In all there appear to be 2047 forms including species and sub-

species, of which the occurrence or identification of 16 is questionable.

1738 of these forms are resident, and 309 migrant. The majority of

migrants are those in the traditional sense, birds which include this area

in their non-breeding range. In addition, there are occasional wanderers,

vagrants or rare strays which may have been recorded no more than

once, far out of their presumed normal migratory pattern. Further-

more there are the pelagic families such as the shearwaters or petrels,

species found only at sea, whose occurrence in the coastal waters of

these countries may be unusual or sporadic. Baker (1930, FAUNA 7: v)

recorded 2346 species and subspecies from the area covered by his

volumes, which, of course, included Burma, not dealt with here,

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE INDIAN AVIFAUNA 73

GENERA OF BIRDS IN THE INDIAN SUBREGION

For those interested in the statistics of taxonomic treatment of

birds, it is worthwhile to record that Baker in his last two volumes of

the FAUNA (1930, 7, 8) included the birds of the region treated by me

hereafter in 573 genera. In the volume to come the birds listed are

included in 402 genera, a reduction of thirty per cent, the direct result

of the mass of literature on classification and revisionary studies of the

twenty-eight years that have elapsed since the publication of these

earlier volumes.

ZOOGEOGRAPHIC CONSIDERATIONS

The species recorded from the Indian subregion belong to seventy-

seven families as listed by me (I include as subfamilies of the Musci-

capidae several families formerly listed separately by Baker). Of these,

seven families represent pelagic migrants or land migrants or vagrants,

leaving 68 families composing resident species. In a paper published in

March, 1953 (Considerations on the Origin of the Indian Avifauna,

Nat. Inst. of Sciences of India, Bull.7 : Symposium on Organic Evolu-

tion), I attempted to list these families in a series of categories to show

their relation to the various adjacent regions. In that paper, I was able

to show a strong Ethiopian connection with the Indian fauna, a find-

ing of considerable interest in view of the discussions of Meinertzhagen,

R. (1951, Ibis 93 : 443-59) and Moreau, R. E. (1952, Proc. Zool. Soc.

London 121 : 869-913) showing not only the connection between the

south Asian and African fauna, but also Moreau’s thesis that Africa itself

has been a centre of evolution. This is a point which has never been

adequately stressed in considering the origins of the fauna of the Indian

subregion.

Remarkable in all this has been the influence of the Palaearctic

fauna itself. In spite of the nearness of that region and its zone of over-

lap, relatively few Palaearctic species seem to have spread into the

Indian subregion proper. Few of these species have become resident

except in the northern fringing area between the Palaearctic and sub-

tropical and tropical subregions. Sdlim Ali (1949, Proc. Nat. Inst. Sci.

India 15: 379-86) lists only one Palaearctic avian species, Zoothera

dauma, which has developed resident subspecies in southern India and

- Ceylon. This history of the Pleistocene and Recent periods in low-

land and sub-montane India, the periods during which the main

speciation trends in the lower categories have become established in

birds, shows that the cycles of alternating warm and cold climates have

never been severe enough to eliminate the subtropical avifauna. The

available niches for the avifauna have always been open to incursions

from neighbouring tropical areas. ,

74 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATUKAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

In this connection, the special zoogeographic problems created by

the Himalayan chain deserve further interpretation. The Himalayas

are recent in a geological sense. It seems unlikely that avian endemics

confined to this montane barrier area can date farther back than

late Pliocene time, and may well be considerably later. The sugges-

tion has been made by Mani, M.S. (1956, Nature 177: 124) that the

insect fauna of the high-altitude Himalayas represents a geographical

relict fauna of the Pleistocene of Central Asia (relict in this sense

means a survivor that persists locally after the extinction of its near

relatives elsewhere). Mani remarks on the deep penetration of the

Himalayan chain by forms of the subtropics and tropics up to high

altitudes, to 11,000 feet in some cases, a phenomenon associated with

local microclimates, humidity, and the penetration to relatively high

altitudes of tropical evergreen forest types. This phenomenon appears

to apply equally to the avifauna.

INDIAN ENDEMIC SPECIES

A brief review of the endemic species of the Indian subregion might

be helpful here. (An endemic species is one which is confined only to_

the area in question, an exclusive or peculiar species.) By family, these

are as follows:

FAMILY SPECIES AFFINITY

Phalacrocoracidae : Phalacrocorax related to Palaearctic

Cormorants fuscicollis species

Ardeidae : Herons

T hreskiornithidae :

Ibises

Anatidae : Waterfowl

Accipitridae : Hawks

P hasianidae : Pheasants,

Partridges

*denotes endemic genus

Ardea imperialis

Pseudibis papillosa

* Rhodonessa

caryophyllacea

Butastur teesa

Francolinus pictus

+ pondicerianus

3 gularis

Coturnix coromandel-

ianus

related to Indochines

species

Indochinese

A relict species of the

Indo-Gangetic plain

and the peninsula,

perhaps Méediter-

ranean-Palaearctic in

affinity. A _ vestige

of an earlier Tertiary

fauna.

Palaearctic

Ethiopian

Palaearctic |

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE INDIAN AVIFAUNA TS

FAMILY

Otididae : Bustards

Charadriidae :

Plovers, Snipes

Glareolidae : Swallow-plovers,

Coursers

Columbidae : Pigeons

Psittacidae : Parrots

Cuculidae : Cuckoos

Strigidae : Owls

Podargidae :

Frogmouths

SPECIES

Perdicula asiatica

., argoondah

,. erythrorhyncha

; manipurensis

Arborophila mandellii

Galloperdix spadicea

5 lunulata

Ke bicalcarata

* Ophrysia superciliosa

Tragopan melanocephala

a satyra

Gallus sonneratii

», lafayettii

*Catreus wallichii

Pavo cristatus

Choriotis nigriceps

* Sypheotides indica

Vanellus malabaricus

Capella nemoricola

Cursorius coromandeli-

cus

Cursorius bitorquatus

Columba elphinstonii

», torringtonii

», palumboides

Macropygia rufipennis

Psittacula caniceps

oy cyanocephala

=A intermedia

* columboides

a calthorpae

Loriculus beryllinus

Cuculus varius

Rhopodytes viridirostris

*Taccocua leschenaultii

Phaenicophaeus

pyrrhocephalus

Centropus_ chlororhyn-

chus

Otus balli

Glaucidium radiatum

Ninox affinis

Athene blewitti

Strix ocellata

Batrachostomus moni-

liger

AFFINITY

Indochinese

Palaearctic relict

Indochinese

Palaearctic relict

Indochinese

Ethiopian

Palaearctic relict

Ethiopian

Indochinese

Indochinese or

Ethiopian ?

Indochinese

76 JOURNAL, BOMBAY

FAMILY

Apodidae : Swifts

Trogonidae : Trogons

Bucerotidae : Hornbills

Capitonidae : Barbets

Indicatoridae : Honeyguides

Picidae : Woodpeckers

Pittidae : Pittas

Alaudidae : Larks

Hirundinidae : Swallows

Dicruridae : Drongos

Sturnidae : Starlings

Corvidae : Crows, Jays, Pies

Campephagidae : Cuckoo-

shrikes

Irenidae : Ioras

Pycnonotidae : Bulbuls

NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

SPECIES

Chaetura sylvatica

Harpactes fasciatus

Tockus birostris

» griseus

Anthracoceros coronatus

Megalaima zeylanica

aa viridis

iy flavifrons

5 rubricapilla

Indicator xanthonotus

Dinopium benghalense

Dendrocopos himalay-

ensis

Dendrocopos auriceps

Chrysocolaptes festivus

Pitta brachyura

Mirafra erythroptera

Eremopterix grisea

Galerida deva

Galerida malabarica

Hirundo fluvicola

Dicrurus caerulescens

5, andamanensis

Saroglossa spiloptera

Sturnus erythropygius

5» senex

»» pagodarum

Acridotheres ginginianus

Gracula ptilogenys

Garrulus lanceolatus

Kitta ornata

Dendrocitta leucogaster

Ms bayleyi

Coracina melanoptera

Aegithina nigrolutea

Pycnonotus priocephalus

Pe xantholaemus

i penicillatus

“ luteolus

Hypsipetes nicobariensis

* 4g indices.

AFFINITY

Indochinese

Ethiopian

Indochinese

Ethiopian

Indochinese

Palaearctic relict

Indochinese

Ethiopian

Ethiopian ?

Ethiopian

Indochinese

Ethiopian

Indochinese .-

Indochinese

Palaearctic relict

Indochinese

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE INDIAN

FAMILY

Muscicapidae.

Timaliinae : Babblers

Muscicapinae : Flycatchers

Sylviinae : Warblers

SPECIES

Pellorneum palustre

», fuscocapillum

Spelaeornis caudatus

a badeigularis

“hese yi longicaudatus

* Sphenocichla humei

Stachyris pyrrhops

Bi oglei

* Dumetia hyperythra

* Rhopocichla atriceps

Chrysomma altirostre

Turdoides earlei

nA longirostris

Pp malcolmi

a subrufus

FI striatus

+ affinis

- nipalensis

Garrulax cinereifrons

np Striatus

Pr nuchalis

ie variegatum

i cachinnans

oe jerdoni

nO virgatus

a austeni

Actinodura egertoni

sie nipalensis

Heterophasia capistrata

Muscicapa ruficauda

higrorufa

a pallipes

ca poliogenys

sordida

Pa albicaudata

Rhipidura aureola

albogularis

Bradypterus palliseri

Prinia buchanani

,, cinereocapilla

», socialis

,. sylvatica

», burnesii

Schoenicola platyura

*Chaetornis striatus

Acrocephalus orinus

AVIFAUNA

AFFINITY

Indochinese

Palaearctic

Indochinese

Ethiopian

Indochinese

Ethiopian

A relict of uncertain

affinities, perhaps

Mediterranean-

Palaearctic.

Palaearctic

78 JOURNAL, BOMBAY

FAMILY

Turdinae : Thrushes

Paridae : Titmice

Sittidae : Nuthatches

Certhiidae : Treecreepers

Motacillidae : Pipits,

Wagtails

Dicaeidae : Flowerpeckers

Nectariniidae : Sunbirds

Zosteropidae : White-eyes

Ploceidae : Weaver Finches

Fringillidae : Finches

NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

SPECIES

Phylloscopus tytleri

fuligiventer

os subviridis

Seicercus xanthoschistos

Brachypteryx hyperythra

rs major

Erithacus hyperythrus

Cercomela fusca

Saxicola leucura

* Saxicoloides fulicata

Myiophoneus blighi

Zoothera wardi

Zoothera spiloptera

Turdus unicolor

,, albocinctus

Parus nuchalis

», | Mmelanolophus

Aegithalos leucogenys

so niveogularis

a iouschistos

Sitta formosa

Certhia nipalensis

Anthus nilghiriensis

Motacilla maderas-

patensis

Dicaeum vincens

», erythrorhynchos

Nectarinia zeylonica

= minima

¥ lotenia

Zosterops ceylonensis

Passer pyrrhonotus

Ploceus megarhynchus

= benghalensis

Estrilda formosa

Lonchura kelaarti

*Callacanthis burtoni

Carpodacus rhodochrous

Pyrrhula erythrocephala

56 aurantiaca

AFFINITY

Palaearctic

Indochinese

399

Ethiopian

Palaearctic

A relict species

Mediterranean-

Palaearctic affinity ?

Indochinese

Palaearctic

Indochinese

Palaearctic

Ethiopian

Palaearctic

Indochinese

Relict of Mediter-

ranean-Palaearctic

affinity

Ethiopian

Indochinese

Palaearctic

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE INDIAN AVIFAUNA 79

It is interesting to note that of the above listed 176 species endemic

to the Indian subregion or its immediate environs (one or two species

counted reach Afghanistan or Burma), the following affinities appear :

No. Ret cemt: of:

total

1. (a) Palaearctic 30 17

(b) questionable ? Vi 1

2. Indochinese 109 62

3. (a) Ethiopian 30 17

(b) questionable 1 1

4. Relict species of uncertain affinities,

perhaps a special Mediterranean-

Palaearctic type (includes 3 of

the 11 endemic Indian genera,

Rhodonessa, Chaetornis, Saxico-

loides). 4 1

There is thus no statistical difference between the number of

endemic species estimated to be derived from the Palaearctic and those

from the Ethiopian regions. From the above it appears that the state-

ments of Mani (tom. cit. supra), Voous (1947, Limosa 20: 19-21),

Wadia (1939, GEOLOGY OF INDIA, London), and Pax [1926, Acer L. (1),

Die Pflanzenareale, 1, Reihe 1, Karte 4, Jena] are valid that in spite of

the evidence of glaciation in the Himalayas during the Pleistocene, the

recent distribution of animals and broadleafed plants (e.g. Aesculus

indica) would indicate that climatically conditions were not too severe

during the glacial periods. Furthermore, the survival of trees in this

area would presuppose that the Himalayas could act as a Palaearctic

refugium, and that many of the animal species found there today do in

fact represent Palaearctic relicts, rather than end products of a con-

tinuous chain of related forms from geographically contiguous areas to

the north.

EVIDENCE FROM ENDEMIC GENERA

It is noteworthy in this regard that three of the endemic Indian

genera are Palaearctic in origin and are found in the Himalayas. These

ate Ophrysia, Catreus, and Callacanthis. In addition, some 14 of the

Palaearctic endemic species are confined to the Himalayas, without

adjacent relatives, and give every evidence of being relict forms.

Notable among these are Capella nemoricola, Dendrocopos himalayen-

sis, Garrulus lanceolatus, Phylloscopus fuligiventer, Zoothera wardi,

Parus melanolophus, Sitta formosa, and the two species of Pyrrhula,

namely erythrocephala and aurantiaca.

80 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

The remaining endemic genera in the Indian subregion consist of

one Ethiopian, the bustard Sypheotides, and 4 of Indochinese affinity.

CONCLUSIONS

The influence of the Indochinese elements in the Indian avifauna

is thus paramount. It is this fauna which has spread west along the

Himalayas, correlated in its spread rather characteristically with con-

ditions of suitable rainfall and forest types. It is this fauna which has

predominantly populated the peninsula and Ceylon, and in which the

route of the Satpura chain of hills has been so clearly followed during

damp or cold-wet phases of recent geological history, presumably

correlated with the pluvial stages of late Pleistocene times.

These hills, with their increased elevation and chances of holding

rainfall and encouraging the persistence of more moist tropical forest

types, have apparently served as stepping stones for faunistic incur-

sions of an Indochinese nature into the presently drier zone of southern

India, witness the zoogeographic papers of Salim Ali in the Journal

for 1934, as well as subsequent papers (1948, Gujarat Research Society,

Monogr. No. 2), Sunder Lal Hora (1938-1953, various papers), William

C. Dilger (1952, Evolution), and the author (1949, Evolution). This

phenomenon culminates in the high moist ranges of Kerala and —

adjacent Mysore and western. Madras with their wealth of Indochinese

and Palaearctic relict biota as well as tropical isolated forms. Ceylon

has, of course, a similar zonation due to climate, orographic features, and

the alternating drier-warmer, colder-more-moist, cycles presumably

associated with the climatological history of late Pleistocene and recent

Pluvial and inter-Pluvial times.

Finally, the Ethiopian influence is found in the open dry plains

areas, the western deserts, the dry parts of the Gangetic plain and

Deccan plateau, and the dry areas of the peninsula. This fauna is

primarily related to the Somali Arid District of Chapin’s zoogeographic

divisions of Africa (1932, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 65: 89-91).

However, certain species show a Malagasy or tropical African relation-

ship which is presumably much older, correlated with a moist, damp

late Tertiary stage. Characteristic of these forms are Centropus

toulou, Indicator xanthonotus, Saroglossa spiloptera, Hypsipetes mada-

gascariensis, and Schoenicola platyura. That the Ethiopian connec-

tion has existed more than once is attested by these old damp forest

forms, separated from the latest Somali Arid relatives by a third type,

indicative of a possible third connection, dry-deciduous or deciduous

Semi-moist stage species (Savannah species) such as Treron phoeni-

coptera (vide Husain, 1958, Ibis 100: 344-347), Galerida malabarica,

* CONSIDERATIONS ON THE INDIAN AVIFAUNA 81

Hirundo fluvicola, Turdoides subrufus and T. nipalensis, and Anthus

nilghiriensis.

The above evidence, not only the high percentage of forms with

Ethiopian affinity, 16%, but also the existence of forms related to more

than one type of Ethiopian biota, would seem to point clearly to Africa

asacentre of speciation and dispersal which has not heretofore been

recognized or appreciated. There is no doubt that the African continent

has provided an unexpectedly major source of the Indian fauna.

In addition, the relatively minor influence of the adjacent Palae-

arctic fauna should be stressed. The Indian subregion belongs con-

clusively to the Oriental tropical region. In spite of seasonal migrants,

the avifauna is and remains primarily pan-tropical.

The Biology of the Weevil

Alcidodes bubo (Fabricius)

(Coleoptera: Curculionidae)’

T. R. SUBRAMANIAN, M.Sc.

Agricultural College and Research Institute, Coimbatore

(With two _ plates)

INTRODUCTION

Alcidodes bubo (Fabricius), commonly known as agathi stem

weevil in south India, is a serious pest of ‘agathi’ (Sesbania grandi-

flora), a leguminous plant grown as a standard for the betel vine

(Piper betle), a money crop grown extensively in south India. This

species is preferred, as it possesses the quality of growing quick and

tall and providing upright supports as well as good shade for the

tender vines. Agathi is also used as fodder, green manure, and,

to a certain extent as a household vegetable. The weevils make

their appearance even at the very early stages of agathi crop in the

field causing the growth to be seriously retarded. The pest occurs

throughout the year in all betel growing areas and is a serious

menace to betel-vine growers. Though quite common in south

India, very little is known of its life-history, habits, etc. Detailed

studies on the biology of this weevil were made by the author and

the results are presented in this paper. ,

HISTORY AND SYSTEMATIC POSITION

This weevil belongs to the subfamily Alcidodinae of the family

Curculionidae.

It was originally described by Fabricius (1801) under the name

Rhynchaenus bobu. Olivier (1807) described it as Rhynchaenus

ferox. Later Boheman (1836) placed the species under the genus

Alcides* and described it as Alcides bubo. Masters’s (1887)

description also refers to it as Alcides bubo. In 1900 Blackburn

1 Part of thesis submitted for the M.Sc. degree of Madras University.

2 Now changed into Alcidodes.

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THE BIOLOGY OF THE WEEVIL ALCIDODES BUBO (FABRICIUS) 83

described specimens collected in Australia as Alcides terraereginae.

But Bovie (1908) in his catalogue of Alcidinae refers to the species

described by Olivier and Blackburn as synonyms of Alcides bubo.

Since then, as far as the author is aware, there is no reference to

this species in any other literature until 1909 when Lefroy gave a

short account of its life-history and habits. Later Fletcher (1914,

1919) and Ramakrishna Ayyar (1917, 1919, 1922, 1940) have

mentioned about the distribution, host plants, and nature of damage

done by this weevil, and control measures. Subramanian et al. (1953)

published short notes on the life-history and control measures to be

adopted.

DISTRIBUTION

Boheman (l.c.) in his description mentions the habitat as Bengal;

Blackburn (l.c.) gives it as Queensland (Australia), and Fletcher and

Ramakrishna Ayyar as Coimbatore, Bellary, Madras, South Arcot,

Tiruchirapally, Madura, and Tinnevelly districts. At present the weevil

is distributed wherever the betel vine is grown in south India.

Host PLANTS

Fletcher and Ramakrishna Ayyar (loc. cit.) record agathi (Sesbania

grandiflora), daincha (Sesbania aculeata), indigo (indigofera arrecta),

and cluster-beans (Cymopsis psoralioides) as hosts. During his

investigation the author noted this weevil breeding on the following

plants also, viz. Sesbania speciosa, Sesbania aegyptiaca, and Indigofera

tysmani.

NATURE AND SYMPTOMS OF DAMAGE

Both adults and grubs do damage to the crop, the grubs often

proving more destructive than the imago. The adults, besides biting

holes through the leaves, make numerous punctures on the stem

thereby weakening the plant considerably. The grubs bore into the

stem and make irregular galleries, eventually causing uneven growth

of the stem and swellings at the place of injury. The infested plants

present a sickly appearance with innumerable holes on the stem, and

are stunted in growth. A large number of adult weevils may be seen

clinging to the shoots of the plants. The damage is very severe when

the crop is young, sometimes even killing the plants. Repeated attacks

by the weevil seriously impede the quick growth of agathi, and

84 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1) »

consequently the crop fails to serve its purpose. In cluster-beans the

grubs bore the stem causing similar swellings and uneven growth,

and affecting the yield of fruits very considerably. Among the

various crops on which the species is recorded, agathi and cluster-beans

are the more seriously attacked.

LIFE-HISTORY

Little work has so far been done on the life-history of this species.

Lefroy (1909) gives a short summary of the life-history and habits

and records that the life cycle occupies about six weeks. Fletcher

(1914) gives the duration of egg and pupal stages alone as five and

seven days respectively. Ramakrishna Ayyar (1917) studied the

daily rate of oviposition at Coimbatore with reference to four pairs

of weevils. Gardner (1934) gives a brief description of the mature

grub. A more detailed study of the life-history of this weevil was

undertaken by the author at Coimbatore in the years 1951 and 1952.

Observations were made on the duration of various stages, instars of

grub, fecundity, seasonal activity of the pest, etc.

Copulation. The weevil is often seen in the field in the act

of copulation. During copulation the insects in most cases remain

stationary. The male clings to the female and grasps it very

firmly so that in many cases it is hard to separate them. The

duration of copulation varies from 25 to 35 minutes. Several males

have been noted to copulate with the same female during the course

of a day. Copulation takes place 2 to 4 days after emergence.

Pre-oviposition period, period of Ovipositi1on

and fecundity. The pre-oviposition period was found to vary

from 6 to 13 days with an average of 9.0 days for 25 females. This

period depends upon the time at which successful fertilisation is

effected. Ramakrishna Ayyar (1917) studied the egg-laying capacity

of four females and found that one laid 85 eggs in 42 days, another

47 eggs in 20 days, the third 6 eggs in 3 days, and the fourth one

26 eggs in 11 days. But he has not mentioned whether the study

was made on newly emerged beetles or those collected from the

‘fields. Observations on the egg-laying capacity of 25 individuals

were made. The total number of eggs laid varied from 18 to 166

with an average of 89.5, and the period of oviposition from 9 days

to 82 days with an average of 49.6 days. The daily rate of egg-

laying was not regular and varied from 1 to 6.

Place and method of oviposition. The mother

weevil moves up and down the tender stem and shoots for more

JOURN. BoMBAY NAT. Hist. Soc. PLATE II

Alcidodes bubo (Fabr.)

1. Adult; 2. Side view of head; 3. Antenna; 4. Front femurand tibia ; 5. Tarsus; 6. Maxilla

of adult; 7. Labium of adult; 8. Mandible of adult; 9. Grub; 10. Head capsule of grub ;

11. Maxilla and labium of grub; 12. Mandible of grub; 13. Labrum of grub; 14. Epipharynx of

grub; 15. Spiracle ; 16 & 17. Pupa.

—

THE BIOLOGY OF THE WEEVIL ALCIDODES BUBO (FABRICIUS) 85

than fifteen minutes and finally selects a suitable place for oviposi-

tion. After selecting the place, she gradually starts gnawing that

portion with her hard mandibles. She removes a smali quantity of

chewed material from the excavation now and then and the depth of

the excavation goes as far as the length of her rostrum. At the bottom

she makes a cavity of diameter slightly bigger than the size of the egg.

After finishing this work she slowly turns back and lays eggs. Two

to three excavations are made side by side, and eggs are laid in

them. As a rule only one egg is laid in each excavation. After

laying eggs the weevil packs the hole with the material that was

scooped out. The whole operation has been found to take sixteen

minutes in several cases. The weevil selects only the topmost tender

shoots for egg-laying and the thicker portion is avoided. In agathi,

eggs are laid in the stem portion only whereas in cluster-beans and

daincha egg-laying has been found on pods too. But in no case has

the weevil been noted to complete its life cycle in the pods in the

latter two instances.

DESCRIPTION OF STAGES

Kgg:

The egg is elongate, oval, broadly rounded at ends, and pale

yellow in colour. A freshly laid egg measures on an average 0.91

mm. in length and 0.57 mm. in width. No change in colour is

noted until hatching.

The incubation period with reference to 50 eggs varied from 6 to

7 days with an average of 6.4 days in the laboratory when the average

maximum and minimum temperatures and humidity were 86.8° F.,

79.0° F., and 79.8% respectively.

Larva:

The number of larval instars and the duration of each were

studied in detail. The grub passes through six instars in the labora-

tory. There is not much difference between the general characters

of the various instars. Hence the description of the first and the final

instars and only the measurements of body and head capsule of the

other instars are given. The duration of the instars was worked out

with reference to 25 individuals. es

First instar: Length of the body 1.1 mm.; width 0.5 mm. Length

of head 0.43 mm.; width 0.43 mm.

Colour pale white. Apodous. Body curved moderately and soft

with narrow posterior end. Head smooth, pale brown, shiny with a

dark streak on the posterior end of the frontal region. Mandibles

86 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

prominent and dark brown and bifid. The whole body is sparsely

beset with minute hairs. | |

The duration of the first instar varied from 4 to 6 days. with an

average of 5.2 days.

Second instar: Length of the body 1.5 mm. to 2.0 mm.; width

0.6 mm. Length of head 0.53 mm.; width 0.53 mm.

Colour pale yellow. Other characters similar to first instar.

The duration of the second instar varied from 5 to 7 days with

an average of 5.8 days. :

Third instar: Length of the body 2 to 3 mm.; width 0.8 mm.

Length of head 0.84 mm.; width 0.64 mm.

Colour appears to be dark owing to the body contents being

visible through the outer skin. Other characters similar to the pre-

vious instars.

The duration of the third instar varied from 5 to 7 days with an

average of 6.0 days.

Fourth instar: Length of the body 3.0 to 4.0 mm.; width 1.2 mm.

Length of head 1.06 mm.; width 0.78 mm. General characters similar

to third instar.

Fifth instar: Length of body 4.0 mm. to 5.3 mm.; width 1.5 mm.

Length of head 1.18 mm.; width 0.95 mm. |

Colour pale yellow. The body contents not visible through the

outer skin.

The duration of fourth and fifth instars varied from 5 to 7 days

‘with an average of 6.2 days for the fourth, and 6.4 days for the fifth

instars.

Sixth instar (Full-grown grub): Gardner (1934) has described the

mature larva of this species. .A more detailed description of the

same is given below. .

Length of body 6.5 mm. to 8.5 mm.; width 2.8 mm. Length of

head 1.5 mm.; width 1.17 mm.

Apodous. General colour pale yellow. Body stout, weakly

curved, subcylindrical, and wrinkled. Head capsule _ chitinised,

testaceous, smooth, subcircular; cheeks broadly rounded. Epicranial

suture not very conspicuous, slightly less than half the cranial length.

Frontal sutures not conspicuous; each arm slightly exceeding

epicranial suture in length; each side of epicranium with six setae.

frons subtriangular, wider than long, length slightly exceeding

epicranial suture; a dark streak on the posterior end prominent

extending to more than half the length of the frons; provided with

five pairs of setae. Ocellus present, one pair on each side, one

smaller and more posterior. Antenna with conical segment borne

on a basal cushion-like segment. Clypeus twice as broad as long

THE BIOLOGY OF THE WEEVIL ALCIDODES BUBO (FABRICIUS) 87

with two pairs of rather long setae on the posterior end. Labrum

one and a half times broader than long with posterior margin

extending into clypeal zone; upper surface carrying three pairs of

setae, the median pair longest. Epipharynx with a pair of slender

slightly converging rods which do not extend into clypeal zone, anterior

margin with four median short stout setae and three lateral short

stout elongate ovate, somewhat curved setae arranged obliquely on

each side; between the rods are two pairs of small setae; anterior

pair much stouter and more widely separated; in addition a pair of

tripartite pores are found between the rods. Mandibles strong, sub-

triangular with broad base and heavy condyle, acutely bidentate;

length equal to its greatest width. Maxilla elongate, with smooth

cardo; stipes longer than broad with a basal lateroventral seta and

two setae in the palpiferous regions; palpus two jointed, basal joint

wider than long with a small seta and a pair of sensory pores;

apical joint longer than broad and somewhat conical with small

sensory pegs at the tip and a small sensory pore near the base; mala

simple with 8 to 10 dagger-like setae. Labium longer than broad,

posteriorly limited by a Y-shaped chitinised band and with one pair

of setae on each labial stipe; palpus two-jointed, basal joint slightly

longer than broad; with one sensory pore in the middle; apical

joint as long as broad with one sensory pore in the middle and a

few sensory pegs at the tip; ligula with two pairs of tiny setae

anteriorly; subfascial region with two pairs of major and one pair

of minor setae.

Thorax: Thorax occupies about one-fourth of total length of

body. FProthorax one and one-eighth times longer than meso- and

meta-thorax and about one and one-fourth times wider than head.

Terga of prothorax simple with eight pairs of setae. Pronotum pale

testaceous. Meso- and meta-thorax divisible into two distinct areas

dorsally namely prescutum and scuto-scutellum; prescutum with one

pair of setae and scuto-scutellum with four setae in a straight line.

Pedal lobes distinct but not protuberant each with four small hairs.

Abdomen: ‘Ten segmented, segments 1 to 8 similar in shape and

size and divisible into prescutum, scutum, and scutellum; a weakly-

formed intersegmental fold is also visible. The prescutum is provided.

with two pairs of setae, scutum without setae, and scutellum with

three pairs of setae; alar area with two tiny setae. Each epipleural

lobe of abdomen with one seta and hypoleural lobe with two setae:

the last two segments simple with few setae. Spiracles small, all of

equal size, present one between pro- and meso-thorax and eight in the

first eight abdominal segments on each lateral side, each with a pair

88 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

of air tubes which are slightly longer than peritreme and each air

tube with five incomplete annuli.

The duration of the sixth instar varied from 6 to 7 days with

an average of 6.6 days.

The total larval period for the 25 individuals varied from 34 to

40 days with an average of 36.1 days.

Larval habits: The newly hatched grub starts feeding on the

tissue immediately around the hole in which egg is laid. Later it

bores downwards and makes irregular galleries inside the stem. In

agathi the larva does not bore the stem up and down to long distances

but produces a sort of big cavity inside by gnawing round the seat

of injury and pupates in it. Whereas in cluster-beans it bores and

travels from the top to the bottom of the stem portion inside. The

grubs do not make exit holes at the sides of the stem to throw the

frass as in the case of certain species of weevils belonging to this

genus. By nature the grub is very sluggish.

Prepupa:

This stage is characterised by larva becoming shorter in length

and the slight swelling in the thoracic region. The length at this

stage varies from 7.5 mm. to 7.8 mm. and the period lasts for about

24 to 36 hours.

Pupa:

Length of the body 7.8 mm.; width 2.2 mm.

General colour pale yellow but turns darker before transforma-

tion into adult. Body soft, beset with moderately long hairs which

are concolorous with the body. Head smooth, as wide as long and

provided with three pairs of setae originating from minute tubercles

as follows: one pair near the base, one pair immediately behind the

eyes, and the third pair between eyes. Rostrum about one-fourth

total length of pupa, four times as long as broad, placed close to the

sterna, and bears three pairs of setae on small tubercles; posterior pair

placed close to the eyes, middle pair between the position where the

scape is inserted, and the third pair at the anterior end. Amenniae

geniculate, segments not distinct.

Prothorax one and one-fourth times as wide as long, provided

with seven pairs of setae raised on tubercles consisting of two anterior

pairs, three median pairs, and two posterior pairs. Mesothorax a

little less than half the length of prothorax with two tiny pairs of

setae in the middle. Metathorax half as long as prothorax, width one

and half times its length, provided with three pairs of tiny setae.

Abdomen about five times as long as broad, nine-segmented;

segments 1 to 8 with two transverse rows of setae on prominent

THE BIOLOGY OF THE WEEVIL ALCIDODES BUBO (FABRICIUS) 89

tubercles dorsally, one situated at the anterior margin and the other

on the posterior margin; anterior row with one pair of median and

two pairs of lateral setae, and posterior one with two pairs of median,

four pairs of lateral, and one pair of pleural setae, the setae becoming

more prominent in the last four segments; segment 9 without any

curved process.

Pupation takes place inside the larval burrow. The duration of

the pupal stage was found to vary from 9 to 11 days with an average

of 10.1 days for 25 individuals.

The total life cycle from egg to adult was found to range from

49 to 57 days with an average of 52.8 days.

Adult:

Fabricius (1801) in his original description of the species describes

the weevil as follows:

‘Corpus praecedentibus magis cylindricum. Rostrum crassius-

culum, brunneum. Thorax cinereo-villosus, dorso fuscescente: linea

cinerea. Punctum fuscum praeterea ad latera. Elytra punctis lati-

oribus striata, brunnea, litura transuersa, villoso-cinerea. Corpus

cinereo-villosum. Pedes brunnei.’

Later Boheman (1836) described it as follows:

‘Oblongus, rufo-ferrugineus, rostro modice arcuato, thorace sub-

tiliter confertim granulato, lateribus albido-squamoso, elytris profunde

punctato—-striatis, punctis nonnullis sparsis in dorso et litura postica

niveo-squamosis, pedibus anticis modice elongatis.’

Patria Bengalia.’

The description given by the above two authors being too short

and inadequate the weevil is redescribed as follows from a number

of specimens.

Female: Form subcylindrical; integument piceous; the prothorax

having on either side creamy white scaling running from the apex

(on a level with upper margin of the eyes) to base opposite to

interval 7 of the elytra and containing two dark spots on either side and

with a narrow median stripe from the base to beyond the middle;

elytra with the following creamy white markings that are formed

of dense overlapping broad plumose scales: one small marking at

the base near scutellum in interval 2 of the length of about 0.25

mm., another of about 0.98 mm. long at the base at interval 3, tha

third at interval 7 in the middle of 1.25 mm. long, the fourth at

interval 3 near the apex of 0.58 mm. long and small three round

spots of dense pale scaling one in the middle at interval 9. another

at interval 9 near the apex, the third one at interval 3 in the declivity;

90 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

stria 1 with a row of pale dots at the declivity; the lower part

of the body more or less densely covered with plumose scales.

Head one and half times broader than long; closely punctate, the

forehead with a shallow median fovea. Rostrum shorter than front

femur, elongate, gently curved, longer and slender, feebly widening

at the insertion of antennae and again at the apex, closely punctate

throughout up to the insertion of antenna, the apical area shiny and

sparsely punctate. Mandibles prominent, dark brown and tridentate.

Maxillae freely exposed, elongate; palpi three segmented; segment 1

twice as broad as long, 2 and 3 slightly tilted, 2 half as long as and

three-fourths as wide as segment 1, 3 one and one-fourth times longer

than broad; palpifer stout, equal in length to all the three segments

of palpi put together, as long as its greatest width; stipes twice as

broad as long, length equal to segment 1 of palpus; cardo curved and

twice as long as stipes; lacinia with numerous long bristles, lacinial

teeth broad, stout and prominent. Mentum twice its greatest width,

Labial palpi three jointed, joint 1 and 2 as long as broad and similar

in shape and size, 3 longer than broad. Submentum with well

marked peduncle supporting the mentum. Antennae inserted beyond

the middle of rostrum with scape as long as funicle, which is seven-

jointed, joint 1 as long as 2 plus 3, 3 to 6 bead-like and transverse,

7 much shorter than club and as long as the two preceding joints;

club twice as long as broad and four-jointed.

Prothorax widest at the base, sub-conical about one and half

times as broad as long, sides gently rounded, parallel-sided till the

middle and roundly narrowed at apex; the subapical constriction

feeble, the anterior dorsal margin feebly rounded; the post-ocular

lobes distinct and heavily fringed, the dorsum closely set with

somewhat depressed granules each bearing a recumbent seta, but the

apical area closely and shallowly punctate. Scutellum not enclosed,

subcircular, bare, smooth with a more or less distinct median de-

pression. Elytra subcylindrical, not broader than the base of pro-

thorax, basal lobes not very strongly produced, obtusely rounded at

the apex; the striae with deep quadrate punctures becoming much

shallower at declivity, intervals narrower than striae, shiny; each

elytron more than three times as long as broad. Hindwings hyaline,

twice longer than broad. Legs moderately long, piceous, shallowly

punctate and rather thinly clothed with linear scales; hind legs short;

the front femora with a blunt tooth at the middle and two additional

small denticulations near by, the posterior ones having only one

tooth; tibia more shallowly punctate, the front pair with sharp

laminate tooth on inner edge about the middle and sharp tooth at

THE BIOLOGY OF THE WEEVIL ALCIDODES BUBO (FABRICIUS) 91

the apex; that of posterior pairs simple; tarsi four-jointed, joint 3

bilobed, 4 curved and ends in four small spines. Sternum with

front intercoxal space narrower than the median one.

Abdomen about one and half times as long as broad; pygidium

not exposed.

Measurements: Length of the body 8.5 mm., width 2.4 mm.

Length of head and rostrum 2.7 mm. Length of antennae 1.8 mm.

Length of prothorax 1.8 mm., width 2.4 mm. Length of elytron 5.0

mm., width 1.5 mm. Length of hindwings 7.2 mm., width 3.8 mm.

Length of abdomen 2.8 mm., width 1.8 mm. (average of 25 indivi-

duals).

Male: General characters similar to female’s, but smaller in size.

Difference is found in the rostrum which is short and stout, and

strongly and closely punctate throughout.

Measurements: Length of the body 8.0 mm., width 2.1 mm.

Length of head and rostrum 2.6 mm. Length of antennae 1.6 mm.

Length of prothorax 1.6 mm., width 2.1 mm. Length of elytron 4.8

mm., width 1.4 mm. Length of hindwings 6.7 mm., width 2.9 mm. —

Length of abdomen 2.5 mm., width 1.7 mm. (average of 25 specimens).

Habits. The adults are very active in the field during the early

hours of the morning. They are often seen in the act of copulation

and clinging to the tender stem and leaflets of the plants. When

_approached they suddenly drop to the ground and feign death. In

this posture the insect remains for a long time. They usually remain

at the top portions of the plants in the early hours, but as the day

advances they gradually move to the lower and shady portions. The

insect is capable of flying long distances and this enables it to spread

to other fields. They feed on tender leaves and stems. To a certain

extent the adults are attracted to light.

Longevity. Observations on the length of life of adults were

made on 50 individuals in each sex, 25 without food and 25 with

food. The duration varied from 37 to 98 days with an average of 62

days for males, and from 29 to 84 days with an average of 55.9

days for females with food. Without food it ranged from 4 to 10

days with an average of 6.4 days for males, and 5 to 12 days with an

average of 7.6 days for females.

Sex ratio. During the present investigation out of a total of

422 adults emerged in the laboratory rearings, 212 were males and

the balance females making a percentage of slightly exceeding 50 in

the case of males,

a2 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

Dissemination. The adults are capable of flying long

distances and this is the only method by which they get easily spread

from field to field.

Natural enemies

Ramakrishna Ayyar (1919, 1934) has recorded the following

Hymenopterous parasites on the grubs of the weevil:

1. Eurytoma pigra G. (Chalcidae).

2. Metasteanomyia julianani G. (Chalcidae).

3. Cambyloneurus ceylonicus Cam. (Braconidae).

During the course of this study the following new parasites were

obtained from the grubs of the weevil.

1. Pristomerus sp. (Ichneumonidae).

2. Ipobracon sp. (Braconidae).

3. Pseudocatolaccus sp. (Pteromalidae).

The parasitism was very low in these cases.

Hibernation

The weevil has not been noted to pass through a definite period of

hibernation at Coimbatore. As the betel vine crop is left in the

field for three or four years there is always continuous crop of

agathi and hence the weevil is able to breed throughout the year.

Even when there is no agathi crop there will be either cluster-beans or

daincha crop in the field on which the weevil breeds.

Seasonal history

Agathi is sown in the middle of July at Coimbatore in betel vine

gardens. The weevil appears in the field even from the first month

of the crop. Egg-laying commences from August and continues for

about as long as the crop is left in the field. The maximum egg-

laying is noted when the crop is 3 to 8 months old, ie. from the

months of September to January. As agathi is left in the field in

betel vine garden for about three or four years, there is continuous

breeding during the period. Al! stages of the weevil are found in

the field from the month of October onwards. There is much over-

lapping of rapidly succeeding broods. The weevils emerge through-

out the crop season without break. The pest is found throughout

the year in Coimbatore,

THE BIOLOGY OF THE WEEVIL ALCIDODES BUBO (FABRICIUS) 93

SUMMARY

Alcidodes bubo (Fabricius) is a serious pest of agathi (Sesbania

grandiflora) which is grown as a standard for betel vine in south

India. The grubs bore the stem and cause stunted growth of the

crop, thereby making the plants unfit for the purpose for which they

are grown. This weevil is found throughout south India wherever

betel is grown.

Its life-history and various aspects of its biology are studied in

detail. Eggs are laid on the tender shoots and stems in excavations

made by the adults. The female begins to lay eggs in 6 to 13 days

after emergence. . The total number of eggs laid by an individual

varies from 18 to 166 and the period of oviposition varies from 9 to

82 days. The period of different stages of the weevil are found to

be 6 to 7 days for egg, 34 to 40 days for larva, and 9 to 11 days for

pupa. The larva has six instars the duration of each varying from 4 to

7 days. The duration of adult life in captivity ranges from 29 to 84

days for females, and from 37 to 98 days for males.

Two new alternate host plants are recorded for this weevil and

three new Hymenopterous parasites are also recorded on its grubs in

addition to the parasites already known.

The pest occurs throughout the year at Coimbatore.

history is described.

Its seasonal

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author’s sincere thanks are due to Sri K. P. Ananthanarayanan,

M.A., retired Entomologist, Coimbatore, for his guidance and sugges-

tions in this study. He also wishes to express his grateful thanks

to Mr. Eric Gowing Scopes Kent for furnishing original description

of the species, to Mr. Van Emden, British Museum, London, for his

advice in studying the larval morphology, and to Mr. W. J. Hall,

of the same institution for kindly determining the hymenopterous

parasites.

REFERENCES

Fletcher, T. B. (1914): Some South

Indian Insects. P. 337. Suptd., Govt.

Press, Madras.

(1919): Annotated list of Indian

crop pests. Rep. Proc. 3rd ent. Meeting

Blackburn, T. (1900): Alcides terrae-

reginae. Trans. R. Soc. S. Austral, 24: 141.

Boheman (1836): Alcides bubo.

Genera et Species Curculionidum by

C.J.Schoenherr. 3: 612.

Bovie, A. (1908): Coleoptera. Fam.

Curculionidae. sub-Fam. Alcidinae.—

Genera Insect. Fasc. 71: 1

Fabricius, J. C. (1801) : Rhynchaenus

bubo Syst. Eleuth 2: 474.

Pisa > 045:

Gardner, J.C. M. (1934): Immature

stages of Indian Coleoptera Curculioni-

dae. Indian. For. Rec. (ent.ser.) 20 (2): 29.

94 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

Lefroy, M. (1909) : Indian Insect Life.

P. 388. Thacker Spink & Co., Calcutta.

Masters, (1887): Alcides bubo. Proc.

Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales 1 (2): No. 5341.

Olivier, A. G. (1807): RhAynchaenus

ferox, Ent. Hist. Natur. 5 (83): 189.

Ramakrishna Ayyar, T. V. (1917):

Note on the egg laying habits of Alcides

bubo—Madras. Dep. Yr. Book : 97.

—~— (1919): Some insects recently

noted as injurious in South India. Rep.

Proc. 3rd ent. Meeting, Pusa: 321.

(1919) : On the insect parasites

of some Indian crop pests. Proc. 3rd

ent. Meeting : 934.

Ramakrishna Ayyar (1922): The weevil

fauna of South India with special refer-

ence to species of economic importance.

Bull. Mad. Agric. Dep. 27: 14.

_——— (1934) : Hymenopterous para-

sites of economic importance in South

India. Madras Agric. J. 22: 441.

——— (1940): Hand book of

Economic Entomology for South India.

—Suptd., Govt. Press, Madras. P. 379.

Subramanian, T. R., Muthukrishnan,

T. S., & Nagaraja Rao, K. R. (1953):

Control of the weevil Alcidodes bubo F.

a pest of agathi crop in South India.

Madras Agric. J. 40 (12): 525.

Observations on the Flora

of Marunduvalmalai,

Kanyakumari (Cape Comorin)

C. A. LAWRENCE

Botany Department, Scott Christian College, Nagercoil, Madras State

(With a@ map)

SYNOPSIS

The present paper is a preliminary study on the ecology of the

plants in Marunduvalmalai, a group of hills forming the southern

terminus of the Western Ghats, very close to the land’s end of

India. The locality is associated with many legends. The rocks

are made up of quartzofelspathic granite gneiss which is highly

garnetiferous. Rainfall is meagre, and it is an arid zone. The

general character of the vegetation has been described. The uni-

formity of vegetation is due to the climatic and edaphic factors.

There is little chance fer migrations and invasions on the hill.

GENERAL

Marunduvalmalai (8° 9 N. Lat. 77° 33’ E. Long.) comprises a

group of hills and hillocks in Agasteeswaram taluk, Kanyakumari

district. There are two shrines located at different heights on one

hill. The one at the top is dedicated to Paramarthalingaswamiji; the

other which is a little below is dedicated to the Lord Ganesh. In the

immediate vicinity of the first temple there is a perennial spring,

Indrasunai. The hill is approached from the Cape Road by a short

lane of about two furlongs. Pilgrims from far and near going to

Cape Comorin alight at Pothayadi, a small village near the hill, and

from there proceed to the shrines on Marunduvalmalai. The hill is

also a place of picnic, and from this hill one gets a panoramic view of

the land’s end of the Indian peninsula. According to legend

Marunduvalmalai is considered to be a broken piece of Oshadhi

Parvatha, which Hanuman is said to have carried from the Himalayas

to Lanka to help Rama. The wall paintings in the Suchindrum

temple which is just one mile away also give religious importance to

the hill, by depicting it as the place where Lord Indra is said to

96 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

have done penance for purification from a curse imposed by Ahalya.

In Tamil language, the word Marunduvalmalai means ‘the hill where

medicinal herbs live’.

‘.

SCALE 1¢m= 12672 metres

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A INDIAN OCEAN

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SMEHILLS

XM TANK

Map showing Marunduvalmalai and its neighbourhood.

PHYSICAL. FEATURES

Marunduvalmalai stretches in a south-east, north-west direction,

surrounded on all sides by fertile paddy fields traversed by the

irrigation canals of Nanjinad. These hills represent the southern

termination of the Western Ghats. Beyond this, on the south, the

land is a plain peninsula projecting into the sea at Kanyakumari.

The hills form a narrow ridge, about three miles long and irregular

in shape, jutting in the form of promontories in several places. To-

wards the north-east; there is a group of hills forming a ridge running

THE FLORA OF MARUNDUVALMALAI 97

north-east and then north, in which is the Yadamally Pass leading

to Tirunelveli. But on the west Marunduvalmalai ends abruptly and

the greatest continuous rise occurs.

GEOLOGY

The biggest rocks on the hills are made up of pyroxene quartzite

which resists denudation. But at lower levels the rocks are of

garnetiferous gneiss, charged with titaniferous iron in minute grains.

The garnets are embedded in the rock and it is impossible to break

them from living rock. The rocks also contain black mica. Lime-

stone occurs in several places. “The predominant character of the

gneiss rocks in this quarter is that of well-bedded massive

quartzofelspathic granite gneiss with very variable quantity of red or

pinkish garnets. This is the characteristic rock at Kanyakumari and

very generally throughout south Travancore and Tinnevelly District

as well’ (Bruce Foote, 1906).

CLIMATE

The annual rainfall (93 cm.) is low when compared with that of

other stations along the west coast. The rain-bearing monsoon winds

cannot give maximum rainfall, because of the low height of the

Western Ghats at this point. The south-west Monsoon is com-

paratively weak. But it extends over a longer period. Summer

storms occur in April and May, accompanied by sudden rain.

A high temperature is recorded throughout the year. But proxi-

mity to sea renders the atmosphere humid. In summer, the day is

extremely hot. Temperature gradually falls from April onwards.

The lowest temperature is recorded in October when rainfall is

maximum.

The wind has an average velocity of about 15 miles an hour, except

during gusts and squalls and during the monsoon. Minimum velocity

is recorded in October during the reversal of the wind system. In

January it is almost perfect calm. Marunduvalmalai is, as the crow

flies, less than five miles from the sea. Hence the air motion on the

hill consists of an alternating movement between land breeze and

sea breeze.

VEGETATION

The vegetation represents a typical scrub jungle. The constituents

are ground herbs, shrubs, and tree-like shrubs. The few trees dotted

here and there include Borassus flabellifer Linn., Ficus bengalensis L.,

58 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

Eugenia jambolana Lam., and Tamarindus indica Linn. Bulbous and,

rhizomatous herbs are rare. Dwarf shrubs, creepers, and climbers are

abundant. Due to excessive grazing many parts seem to be com-

pletely denuded and barren. In addition erosion has played havoc

by producing rills and deep gullies. The general character of the

vegetation is lithophilous even though xerophilous vegetation also

occurs very prominently at lower levels. |

Almost all plants in Marunduvalmalai remain in a state of desicca-

tion until the arrival of the monsoon. Then immediately the entire

hill becomes covered with vegetation. Since the substratum has been

physically dry all annuals put forth their heads only at this time.

Many plants exhibit adaptations which enable them to persist

in this habitat. Hydrochasy is exhibited by Selaginella rupestris

which occurs at higher levels. Felted and fiattened roots are

developed by Cymbopogon flexuous (Nees) Wats. and Sanseviera

zeylanica Willd. Cyperus rotundus Linn. shows root contractility. .

Rigid leaves and coating of hair are notable adaptations of Stylosan-

thes mucronata Willd., Leucas biflora R. Br., and Cocculus hirsutus

Diels. Prickles and thorns in Argemone mexicana Linn., Opuntia

dillenii (Ker-Grawl) Haw., and Euphorbia antiquorum Linn. are

characteristic of xerophilous habitat; Euphorbia antiquorum Linn.

and Cymbopogon flexuousus (Nees) Wats. occur as co-dominants in the

montane region and Selaginella rupestris is the dominant constituent

towards the top. . |

CONCLUSION

The vegetation is more or less uniform since there is little chance

for migrations and invasions on this hill. The climatic and edaphic’

factors also support a uniform vegetation. The constituents are well

adapted for drought resistance. The majority of plants on Marundu-

valmalai come under the category of Chasmophytes. They are rooted.

in clefts in rock that are filled with debris. They should be re-

garded as a unique formation since they have a locality of their

own. ? 3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author is grateful to Dr. T. C. N. Singh, D.Sc., F.B.S., Pro-

fessor and Head of the Department of Botany, Annamalai University,

for his valuable suggestions. Thanks are due to Sri T. R.

Narayanan, B.Sc. (Ag.), M.A. (Cantab.), Systematic Botanist and Pro-

fessor of Botany, Agricultural College and Research Institute,

Coimbatore, for identification of many of the specimens. The author

also wishes to express his gratitude to the Principal, Scott Christian

THE FLORA OF MARUNDUVALMALAI

College, Nagercoil, for facilities and encouragement. - -

APPENDIX

A complete list of plants collected by the author from Marunduvalmalai is given

below. It is arranged in alphabetical order for convenience. An asterisk indicates

that it is an annual springing up suddenly after the south-west Monsoon.

* * *

* +*

Chasmophytes

Abrus fruticulosus Wall.

Acacia arabica Lamk.

Acacia planifrons W. & A.

Actiniopteris dichotoma Forsk.

Adiantum caudatum Linn.

Aerva lanata Juss.

Aerva tomentosa Forsk.

Ageratum conyzoides Linn.

Alangium salvifolium Wang.

Andropogon aciculosus Retz.

Anisomeles malabarica R. Br.

Argemone mexicana Linn.

Barleria noctiflora Linn.

Blumea wightiana DC.

Boerhavia diffusa Linn.

Borassus flabellifer L.

Bulbostylis barbata Kunth.

Caraluma umbellata Haw.

Cassytha filiformis Linn.

Cheilanthes mysorensis

Chrysopogon montanus Trin.

Cissus quadrangularis Linn.

Cocculus hirsutus Diels

Coleus malabaricus Benth.

Commelina benghalensis Linn.

Crotalaria albida Heyne

Cynodon dactylon Linn.

Cyclea burmanii Miers

Cymbopogon flexuosus (Nees) Wats.

Cyperus rotundus Linn.

Desmodium trifolium DC.

Desmodium pulchellum Benth.

Digera alternifolia Aschers.

Eclipta alba Hassk.

* Emilia sonchifolia DC.

Eugenia jambolaua Lam.

Euphorbia hirta Linn.

* Euphorbia microphylla Heyne

Euphorbia antiquorum Linn.

* Evyolvulus alsinoides Linn.

e+ ££ &* £ K

Ficus benghalensis L.

Flacourtia sepiaria Roxb.

Hemidesmus indicus R. Br.

Indigofera enneaphylla Linn.

Indigofera asphalathoides Vahl.

Tonidium suffruticosum Ging.

Jatropha gossypifolia Linn.

Leucas biflora R. Br.

Mollugo pentaphy lla Linn.

Notonia grandiflora DC.

Ocimum basilicum L.

Ocimum sanctum L.

Oldenlandia umbellata Linn.

Opuntia dillenii Haw.

Phoenix humilis Royle

Polycarpea corymbosa Lam.

Polygala chinensis Linn.

Portulaca wightiana Wall.

Pseudarthria viscida W. & A.

Pteris quadriaurita Retz.

Ruellia prostrata Poir.

Sanseviera zeylanica Willd.

Selaginella rupestris (L.) Spreng.

Spermacoce hispida Linn.

Stylosanthes mucronata Willd.

Stapelia spp.

Tamarindus indica Linn.

Tephrosia purpurea Pers.

Tribulus terrestris Linn.

Tridax procumbens Linn.

Tylophora asthmatica W. & A.

Vernonia cinerea Less.

Vicoa auriculata DC.

Zizyphus oenoplia Mill.

Zornia diphylla Pers.

Lithophytes

Parmelia spp.

Ramatina capitata (Ark.) Nyl.

Riccia spp.

Usnea barbata Web.

100

JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (i)

REFERENCES

Bruce Foote (1883): Records of the

Geological Survey of India 16: 20-35.

Gamble, J.S. & Fischer, C.E.C.

(1918-35): Flora of the Presidency of

Madras. London.

Hooker, J. D. (1872-97): Flora of

British India. London.

Nagam Aiya, V. (1906): Travancore

State Manual. Government Press,

Trivandrum.

haa K. K. (1953): Sucindram Tem-

ple.

Rama Rao, M. (1914): Flowering

plants of Travancore. Trivandrum.

Srivastava, J. G. (1955): Botanical

tour to Parasnath hill, Bihar. J. Indian

bot. Soc. 34: 196-206.

Tansley, A. G. (1946) : Plant Ecology.

London.

Wadia, D. N. (1948): Geology of

India. London.

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The Biology of Sclerogibba

longiceps Richards and Sclerogibba

embudarum (Kieff.) (Sclerogibbidae:

Hymenoptera) parasitic on Embioptera.

K. S ANANTHASUBRAMANIAN

AND

T. N. ANANTHAKRISHNAN

Department of Zoology, Loyola College, Madras

(With one plate)

INTRODUCTION

Our knowledge of the hymenopterous parasites of Embioptera is

restricted to the works of Richards (1939), Dodd (1939), and Callan

(1939, 1952) who have recorded Scelionids and Sclerogibbids para-

sitizing the eggs and larvae respectively of some Embioptera. The

discovery of Sclerogibba embiidarum parasitic on the larvae of

Oligotoma minuscula Enderlein, Sclerogibba longiceps Richards on

Parembia sp., and an unknown species of Sclerogibba on Pseudembia

flava Ross has enhanced considerably the importance of this group.

Table I lists the total number of hymenopterous parasites of Embiop-

tera so far known. .

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Both the normal and parasitized hosts commonly occur on the

bark of Acacia arabica, Enterolobium saman, and Peltophorum sp.,

and quite a number of them were also found inside the hollow dry

twigs of Thevetia neriifolia. It is of interest, however, that those found,

in the crevices of the steam of Borassus flabellifer in the same locality

were unparasitized. ‘The insects were removed from their webs into glass

tubes of 4” x1” capacity open at both ends and plugged with cotton.

A number of parasitized host larvae of Oligotoma minuscula and

Parembia sp. were kept in separate tubes with bits of bark. Present

observations show that only a small percentage of the hosts were

102 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

TABLE I

a LRT ER a I I sO TOT

Hy Pare . | Distribution | Embiopteran host ~ Authority

Family : Sclero-

gibbidae ;

1. Probethylus callani Trinidad Pararhagadochir _tri- | Richards (1939) ;

Richards - ~ (W. Indies) nitalis _trinitalis be “Ss eae

(Saussure) Callan (1952)

2. Sclerogibba embit- India, i. Oligotoma greeniana | Richards (1939)

darum (Kieff.) | Ceylon. Enderlein

ii. O. minuscula End. | Richards (1958)

3. Probethylus (= Queensland “Olizotoma gurneyi Dodd (1939)

Sclerogibba) embiopterae| (Australia) gurneyi Frogg

(Dodd) ; . 3 Callan (1952)

4. Seite: ieee Madras Parembia sp. Richards (1958)

ceps Richards (S. India)

5. Sclerogibba sp. Madras _—‘| Pseudembia flava Ross | Richards (1958)

(S. India)

Family : Scelionidae

6. Embidobia austra-|N.S.Wales | i. Metoligotoma ingens | Dodd (1939)

lica Dodd (Australia) | _ _ Davis

uae en il. M. illawarae illawa-

, rae Davis

’ 7, E. metoligotomae | Australia i. M. ingens Davis — | Dodd (1939) .

Dodd ii. M. intermedia Davis iy < eel

ili. M. extoris Davis

iv. M. pentanesiana

| Davis

| ¥. M. tasmanica Davis

8. E. urichi Ashmead | Trinidad Pararhagadochir trini- | Ashmead (1895).

(W. Indies) talis _ trinitalis is

_ (Saussure)

9. E. longipennis Tasmania | i. Oligotoma_gurneyi | Dodd (1939)

Dodd gurneyi Frogg

, i. Notoligotoma nitens

Davis

10. E. orientalis Dodd | Ceylon Oligotoma greeniana Dodd (1939)

Enderlein

normally parasitized in nature. Unparasitized host larvae were also

reared in large test tubes for.purposes of parasitization in captivity.

On emergence, the adult: males and females of Sclerogibba longiceps

and S. embiidarum were paired in labelled test tubes to study .their

reproductive habits. After: copulation;, each fertilized. female was

introduced into atest tube containing the host larvae, in order to

observe the mode of attack on the host, the ovipositing habits, and

THE BIOLOGY OF SCLEROGIBBA LONGICEPS RICHARDS, ETC. 103

the reproductive capacity of the parasites. The parasitized larvae

were then separated and kept individually to study the duration of

the immature stages of the parasites.

IMMATURE STAGES

Ecc: The eggs of S. longiceps as well as those of S. embiidarum

are typically hymenopteriform; the chorion. is quite smooth and

coloured dull-white; a considerable portion of the egg is embedded

into the intersegmental membrane of the host and hence scarcely

visible soon’ after it is laid. However, after three or four days, the

eggs are quite clearly visible to the naked eye. The eggs of S.

longiceps measure, on an average, 0.448 mm. long and 0.242 mm.

wide, while those of S. embiidarum are slightly longer (0.500 mm. long

and 0.254 mm. broad). The incubation period lasts from four to

eight days in S. Jongiceps and from six to ten days in S. embiidarum.

A remarkable uniformity seems to exist among the species, like

most Bethylids to which they are closely related, regarding the

position and number of eggs laid on their respective hosts. Thus,

S. longiceps lays the eggs always in the intersegmental regions of

the abdomen towards the left or right side, slightly dorsal and

longitudinal in position as in Parasierola gallicola (Bethylidae)-

(Silvestri, 19235) with the posterior end directed caudad. A maxi--

mum of five and a minimum of two- and, in the majority of instances,

three eggs are deposited on a single host. S. embiidarum, on the

other hand, lays a single egg whose position is invariably restricted

to the cervical and the thoracic regions. The egg occupies the

intersegmental groove between the neck and the protergum or between

the successive segments of the thorax. A similar instance is pointed

out by Dodd (1939) in Oligotoma gurneyi gurneyi Frogg., forming

the host of Probethylus (=Sclerogibba) embiopterae, wherein the

single egg’ of the parasite is attached between the prothorax and

mesothorax dorsally of the Embiid larva. Similarly, Callan (1939)

notes that the egg of the hymenopteran parasite Probethylus callani

Richards ‘invariably occupied a transverse position on the dorsal

surface of the thorax of the host, being attached usually between the

head and prothorax or between the pro- and meso-thoracic segments’.

FIRST STAGE OF LARVA: -The newly hatched larva can-

not be easily distinguished from the egg since there is no marked.

change in colour or shape and also due to the fact that it never changes

its position for feeding on the host but uses the oviposition puncture

itself for the sucking of host fluids (Plate, fig. c). However, a closer

observation reveals slow movements of the body at the hind end

104 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1).

which indicate the presence of the larva. The segmentation of the

body is not well marked. The body is coloured pale white and

there is a pair of distinct mandibles. After twelve hours a moult

takes place and the colour changes into light yellow. The duration

of the first instar is quite short in both the species of Sclerogibbids.

SECOND STAGE OF LARVA: The body grows in size and

becomes distinctly curved; colour turns to light yellow. The body

reveals thirteen segments besides the head which has strong mandibles.

The larva is provided with three long bristles on the dorsal side of

each segment and two or one per segment ventrally. Body measures

0.742 mm. and 2.00 mm. in length in S. longiceps (Plate, fig. d) and

S. embiidarum respectively. The larvae retain the moulted skin or

exuviae in the same manner as described by Hyslop (1916) for

Pristocera armifera (Bethylidae), but with this difference that the

exuviae stick on to the anterior dorsal region of the body.

MATURE LARVA: The larva grows remarkably in size by

eating the host body voraciously. The colour becomes brown or

dirty-black. The larva often stands erect with the caudal end turned.

upwards in S. longiceps while in S. embiidarum it retains its hori-

zontal position on the host. The mature larva is arched in the

middle so as to be spindle-shaped. The head bears a few bristles

and each thoracic segment has a long bristle dorsally. The abdo-

minal bristles are short or absent. The length of the mature larva

fargely depends on the amount of food it has derived from the host.

In S. longiceps (Plate, fig. e) where the number of larvae feeding

on one host varies from two to five, there exists remarkable varia-

tions regarding the size, varying from 1.00 mm. to 1.80 mm. in

length. The mature larva of S. embiidarum grows normally to a

length of 2.7 mm. to 3.0 mm.

The entire host is consumed leaving no remnants whatsoever, and

the duration of the feeding phase is remarkably short varying from

24 to 48 hours in S. longiceps and 24 to 72 hours in S. embiidarum.

After consuming the host, the larvae move apart from each other

before passing into the pupal stage. Locomotion is very slow and

the distance traversed never exceeds a few centimetres.

PUPAL STAGE: After about an hour of rest, the larva spins

a cocoon which is cylindrical and oblong, measuring 1.80 mm. to 2.0

mm. in S. longiceps, 2.3 mm. in Sclerogibba sp. (bred on Pseudembia

flava), and 3.20 mm. to 4.0 mm. in S. embiidarum, in length. In S.

longiceps (Plate, fig. f), when the parasites exceed the number two

per host, there occurs gradation in the size of the cocoons. In one

105

THE BIOLOGY OF SCLEROGIBBA LONGICEPS RICHARDS, ETC.

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106 . JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1) ~~

instance, it was observed that out of the five larvae bred on a third

instar larva of Parembia sp., two constructed cocoons of average size,

two others smaller cocoons and the remaining one a very flimsy

one. One end of the cocoon bears a black spot and it is by cutting

through this end that the adult parasite emerges. The cocoons

of the Sclerogibbids are never matted together but are always solitary.

Often, they become inconspicuous when the faecal matter of the

parasite adheres on the surface. |

Soon after its formation the pupa is coloured white, but as

development proceeds the colour turns first to light brown and

eventually differentiation of the adult coloration takes place. The

general shape of the pupa is similar to that of the bethylids, the only

difference being in the size. The pupa of S. longiceps measures

1.90 mm. and that of S. embiidarum 3.40 mm. -in length. The

duration of the pupal period is rather prolonged and varies from

14 to 18 days and on an average 16 days in S. longiceps, and from

12 to 16 days in S. embiidarum. The parasite remains inside the

cocoon for 1 to 3 days even after attaining maturity, probably wait-

ing for the exoskeleton to become well hardened. All the eggs

deposited on a host develop into adults at about the same time, the

difference, noted in a few instances, never exceeding 12 hours.

TABLE III

showing the duration of immature stages of :

1. S. longiceps Richards

Date of Egg | Larval Pupal | Date of Total

No. | parasitiza- | stagein | stagein stage in adult number of

tion r- days ~ | hours days “emergence days

| ;

I 22 by 4 24 | 2 ae 25-2257 23

2 2-237 4 24 | OR | | os mae 23

3 4-2-"57 aig 24 16 - 26-2-°57 22

4 5-257 8 36 16 2-3257 254

5 5-257 8. bl ued = 46 2-357 25

6 12-2-'57 5 24 - 4 4-3~°57 20

7 20-2-’57 7 48 16 17-3-’57 25

8 28-2-°57 6 36 15 20-3757 223

9: a5 30-3257 7 48 14 22-457 23

10 11-4-’57 8 48 16 7-5-’57 26

(ES EET

THE BIOLOGY OF SCLEROGIBBA LONGICEPS RICHARDS, ETC. 107

2. S. embiidarum (Kieff.)

Pat -.Date of Egg Larval |. Pupal Date of _ Total

No. parasitiza- stage in stage in | stage in adult number of

ee. ton days hours days emergence days

Bay, 263-°57 7 60 16 ieee sy eos)

2 | 25-557 6 48 13 15-4257 by

og 25-3-’57 6 48 bel 15-4-57 | 21

a 21-357 aes BS oe oye - 18-4-°57 | 99°

Sle 28-3957, | 9 abe a ba egy eg

gh -28-3257 9 48 pe beret Aree fe = a5)

7: 2-457 |: 10 72 13 28-4-"57 | 26

eh 3-4-'57 10 48 1S 30-4257 27

Borg 34'57..| . 10 4B. 25 16 1-557, 28

10 3-4-57 9 24 5 puss > os

From Table III it is clear that the duration of the life-cycle is

quite short, ranging from 20 to 26 days in S$. longiceps and 21 to 28 days

in S. embiidarum. It is also evident that the period devoted to

actual feeding is quite short while the pupal stage is a prolonged

one.

ADULT PARASITE

+ The females of both S. longiceps and S. embiidarum are apterous

while the males are fully winged and are good fliers. The parasites

are antilike and very active, moving about with extreme briskness.

The males are slightly longer in both species. The males are

uniformly black in S. embiidarum while the females are bicolorous,

with the thorax brown and the abdomen black.

FEEDING HABITS

_, It is most common among Bethylids to derive their food from

their respective hosts either by merely sucking the body juices leaving

the hosts alive or by killing them. The Sclerogibbids, though closely

related to the Bethylids, are of interest since they were not at all

observed to attack the host larvae for feeding purposes. However,

the parasites can be fed and kept alive under captivity with a weak

solution of sugar, | | se rea

108 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

Host PREFERENCE AND MODE OF ATTACK ON THE HOST

The larvae parasitized by S. longiceps all belong to the subgenus

Parembia Davis of an undetermined species which is of very common

occurrence in Madras. Among the larvae, the third and fourth

instars were the victims of parasitization while the other stages of

larvae were not attacked. Similarly, all the specimens of §.

embiidarum were bred on the fifth instar larvae of Oligotoma

minuscula, which is also found in large numbers in Madras during

almost all seasons of the year. However, it is of special interest to

observe that the host preference of S. embiidarum is not very

specific, for Richards (1939) has recorded this parasite from Ceylon,

Madras and Mangalore, parasitizing Oligotoma greeniana Enderlein.

This lack of host specificity seems to be quite common among the

Scelionidae attacking the eggs of Embioptera, and Dodd (1939)

records as many as five species of hosts for Embidobia metoligotomae

Dodd from Australia. It is also noteworthy that one and the sama

species of Embioptera may be parasitized for the purpose of oviposi-

tion by two different species of parasites—one attacking the eggs

while the other attacks the larvae. For instance, the larvae of

Oligotoma greeniana, as has been pointed out, are parasitized by

Sclerogibba embiidarum while the eggs of this Oligotomid are

attacked by the Scelionid parasite Embidobia orientalis.

In the experiments conducted in the course of the present study,

females of Sclerogibba longiceps were offered, besides Parembia sp.,

larvae of other embiids such as Pseudembia flava, O. falcis, O.

saundersii, O. humbertiana, and O. minuscula, all of which are found

in plenty in the same locality in Madras. It was observed that the

parasite did not attack any host other than Parembia sp., thus

showing remarkable host specificity. S. embiidarum, on the contrary,

was noticed to lay eggs on the larvae of Oligotoma falcis and

Parembia sp., when not provided with its natural host, namely

O. minuscula; but, the position of the eggs was on the abdominal

segments though the number of eggs per host was only one.

However, the preference for O. minuscula is evident from the fact

that in the field no larvae other than those of O. minuscula were,

observed to be parasitized by S. embiidarum. The significance of

selecting O. minuscula by S. embiidarum may be that the host

completes its life-cycle within the comparatively short time of 24 te

3 months while the other species of Oligotomids require 4 or 3

months and Parembia sp. 7 or 8 months. Since the life-span of the

parasite ranges from 30 to 40 days only, it would naturally be more

difficult for the parasite to have access to the proper host larva if

THE BIOLOGY OF SCLEROGIBBA LONGICEPS RICHARDS, ETC. 109

the duration of life-cycle of the latter is a prolonged one and

consequently only one or two generations per year. O. minuscula

appears to have enough number of generations every year and there

is no scarcity of the host at the specific larval stage during all

seasons; all these factors account for the host preference of S.

embiidarum for O. minuscula. In the case of S. longiceps, correlated

with the prolonged life-cycle of the host, the parasites are not

frequently met with during the major part of the year.

The mode of attack on the host by Sclerogibbids is distinctive,

The host is usually confined inside its web and attacks on exposed

hosts seldom occur. As described by Clausen (1940) this also appears

to be the case in most Bethylids. Male parasites have not been

observed to attack the host while the females do so only for oviposi-

tion. The parasite crawls over the webs and, on scenting the presence

of the proper host, cuts the webs with its powerful mandibles, enters

it, and attacks the host from behind by biting at various regions, an

act which apparently makes the host stop its movements the antennae

alone vibrating slowly. It is of interest to mention that the

mode of attack on the host by Laelius anthrenivorus trani

(Bethylidae) described by Howard (1901) is essentially the same as

the one noted in the present study. The host remains partially

paralysed for a short time extending from 30 minutes to an hour

during which time the parasite inserts her ovipositor through the

intersegmental membrane of the host and lays her eggs, anchoring

them deeply with one-third of the egg embedded inside the host body.

The host invariably regains consciousness and assumes its normal

activities; however, the parasitized larvae become more and more

sluggish as the parasite eggs hatch into larvae. The parasitized

larvae of Parembia sp. become pale yellow in colour and locomotion

is rendered extremely difficult due to the weight exerted by the growing

parasites numbering from two to five, and due to the loss of body

fluids sucked continuously by them. The parasitized larva of O.

minuscula, on the other hand, is quite as active as any other un-

parasitized ones until the parasitic larva completes the second instar

stage, because the number of parasites per host is only one and

its position is on the thorax. But, ultimately, with further feeding

and development of the parasite, the host loses its power of

locomotion.

LONGEVITY AND FECUNDITY

The males of both the species of Sclerogibbids studied live fot

2 to 4 days only during which time copulation takes place. The

females, on the contrary, thrive for a comparatively longer time.

110 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1) -

In captivity and with food supply, females of S§. longiceps were

Observed to live for about 15 days, and without food they lived

only for 2 to 5 days. Females of S. embiidarum could be kept alive

for 10 to 21 days with food supplies. Copulation took place only

once soon after the parasites emerged from the cocoons and the

preoviposition period ranged from 2 to 4 days. The maximum total

number of eggs laid by a single female of S. longiceps in captivity

was only 18 deposited on 6 host larvae, while the minimum was 7

distributed on 2 larvae. The reproductive capacity of S. embiidarum

was found to be still lower, the maximum and the minimum being 9

and 5 respectively. Thus the reproductive capacity of these parasites

is exceptionally low unlike most Bethylids.

SEX-RATIO AND PARTHENOGENESIS

All the eggs deposited on a host develop into the same sex,

either male or female. In studying the sex-ratio, the larvae parasitized

by individual females were isolated and the total number of males

and females developing from them were taken into account. As in

most parasitic Hymenoptera, the females always preponderate in both

the species of Sclerogibbids studied, giving a sex-ratio of 2:5 in

S. longiceps and 2:3 in S. embiidarum.

TABLE IV

Showing the sex-ratio of S. longiceps and S. embiidarum

S. longiceps ~ S. embiidarum

a Im WW. | tat, aie

| | |

Total number of ing ida

emerged 18 9 10 il 9 5 8 5

Number of males Joode Ses, 3 2 fe: on 5 3 Zz

Ninmbel of'teiastes: “Pag! g Sega 5 | a E so

Sex-ratio of male : female. - . 235 ee 2:3

Parthenogenesis has been observed in Stepan embitdarum, oe

the resulting progeny being females.

THE BIOLOGY OF SCLEROGIBBA LONGICEPS RICHARDS, ETC. 1ii

EXTENT OF EFFICIENCY IN BIOLOGICAL CONTROL

Among many other factors, the efficiency of biological control

depends largely on the opportunities of gaining access to the proper

host to ensure the production of enough number of offspring and

their further multiplication. Both the species of Sclerogibba dealt

with here, no doubt, have short life-cycles, and consequently a faster

reproductive rate. But, the contro! of the host can be achieved only

if the host is attacked at a specific larval stage. This condition,

however, is not possible in S. longiceps since its hosts, Parembia

sp.. aS already stated, have a long larval duration and but a

single generation per year. It is due to this reason that S. longiceps

is not of frequent occurrence during the major part of the year.

They are to be found in Madras only from the months of January to

April during which period the host is in its third or fourth larval

stages and most susceptible. Attempts to collect them during the

months May to December met with failure. Regarding S.

- embiidarum, its host O. minuscula is found in Madras practically

throughout the year in the larval as well as in adult stages and this

accounts for the availability of the parasite at any time, though

during some months of the year their occurrence is maximum as

is revealed from a study of the population count of this species in

Madras in an area of approximately 5000 sq. yards with thickly

crowded trees. The population count was taken for a period of

12 months—February 1957 to January 1958. Parasitized larvae of

O. minuscula were collected regularly once each week during all

months and the parasites were reared to maturity. It was found that

there was a regular increase in the number of the parasites from

January to April attended by a regular rise in the temperature,

culminating in May when the temperature was 30.80°C. A _ sub-

sequent decrease took place from June onwards till October, and

in the month of November not a single parasitized specimen was

noticeable. It, therefore, appears that the absence of rainfall and

a fairly high temperature are conditions most favourable for the rapid

multiplication of the parasites while heavy showers are inimical to

them (Table V). Thus, the occurrence of the parasites throughout

the year is a factor favourable in the control of the host. However,

the habit of the parasite to lay only a single egg per host is no doubt

a handicap. a

The other factors which limit the efficiency of both the species

of Sclerogibba under consideration are the low reproductive capacity,

the very short life-span of the adults, and their susceptibility to

extremes of climatic conditions.

i112 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Voi. 56 (1)

TABLE V

showing the seasonal variation in the availability of

S. embiidarum

Month oe - a8 5 iomperatur soe ace ar sg

er te eh in > CG; in ° C, inches

February 1957 .. 21 Z9.5 20.6 25.0 0.20

March be 26 30.5 225." 26.5 nil

April oa 30 32.4 25.1 28.8 nil

May 2 34 34.1 27.4 30.8 0.40

June i. 14 86.1.4 aT 31.6 1.39

July 3H 14 | 34.4 25.8 30.1 5.59:

August ats 8 329 25.1 29.0 3.56

September a 4 339 25.3 29.6 3.59

October ate 4 31.4 24.3 29.9 8.59

November ..| ___ nil 98.9 | 933 26.1 16.63

December ../ 14 | 28.5 22.0 25.3 0.11

January 1958 .. 18 29.0 20.5 24.8 0.39

SUMMARY

The host relations of the Sclerogibbids, as far as is known from

five species, reveal that they are restricted to Embioptera. While

the Sclerogibbids parasitize the larvae of Embioptera, the Scelionids

attack the eggs of the Embiids. The life-history and habits of two

species of Sclerogibbids, namely Sclerogibba longiceps and S.

embiidarum are described. The larval features in both the species

are similar, while important differences could be noticed regarding

the number of eggs laid on their respective hosts, their position on

the host body, and the time taken in consuming the entire host.

Both the species have short life-span and the feeding phase is re-

markably short. The parasites exhibit host specificity to a consider-

able degree. The host is paralysed only temporarily for oviposition,

and attack on the host for feeding purposes is not met with. The

reproductive capacity of the parasites seems to be lew which circum-

scribes to a large extent their efficiency in the control of the host. In

sex-ratio, the females preponderate. Correlated with the long life-

cycle of its host, S, longiceps is not found for the major part of the

THE BIOLOGY OF SCLEROGIBBA LONGICEPS RICHARDS, ETC.

113

year, while S. embiidarum is of common occurrence during almost all

months.

Field population studies of S. embiidarum reveal that they

increase in number with the rise of temperature and in the absence

of rainfall.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors express their grateful thanks to Prof. O. W. Richards

of the Imperial College, London, for his kindness in determining the

parasites.

REFERENCES

Callan, E. McC. (1939) : A note on the

breeding of Probethylus callani Richards

(Hymenoptera), an Embiopteran parasite.

Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond., B (8) : 223-224.

— — (1952): Embioptera of Trinidad

with notes on their parasites. Jnternatl.

Conger. Ent., [XthTrans. 1: 483-489.

Clausen, C. P. (1940) : Entomophagous

Insects. New York & London.

Dodd, A. P. (1939): Hymenopteran

parasites of Embioptera. Proc. Linn, Soc.

N, S. W. 64 (3/4) : 338-344.

Howard, L. O. (1901) : The Insect Book.

New York.

Hyslop, J. A. (1916) : Pristocera armifera

(Say) parasitic on Limonius agonus Say.

Wash. Ent. Soc. Proc. 18: 169-170.

Richards, O. W. (1939) : The Bethylidae

subfamily Sclerogibbinae (Hymenoptera).

Proc. R. Ent. Soc. Lond. B (8): 211-223.

* Silvestri, F. (1923b) : Contribuzioni all

conoscenza dei tortricidi delle querce. Por-

tici R. Scuola Super. di Agr. Lab. Zool.

Gen. e. Agr. Bol. 17: 41-107.

* Not seen in original.

Reviews

1. ANIMALS IN INDIA. By Yila. Pp. 132 (28.8x22.6 cm.).

24 pages of colour gravure and 68 pages of monochrome gravure

photographs. New York, 1958. Harper and Brothers. Price $10.

Also, London, 1958. Hamish Hamilton. Price 42s.

This is the latest and fourteenth book by Ylla (Miss Camilla

Koffler) who died as the result of an accident in India in March 1955.

After becoming one of the world’s greatest animal photographers

through her earlier books of (domestic) dogs, cats, and zoo animals,

she tried her hand at wild life photography on a camera safari in

Africa in 1952, the result of which was her very successful ANIMALS

IN AFRICA. The logical sequence to this was a similar book on

animals in India, and she was in contact with me and others over

this project during 1953-54. I was one of a number of persons who

advised her of the difficulties of doing wild life photography in India

as compared with Africa where it is so much easier.

With characteristic determination Ylla came to India in August

1954, and soon wrote to me from Mysore that she was finding out the

truth of our advice and that she would not be able to make a full

book on the wild life of India but would have to include ceremonial

elephants, temple monkeys, cows in the streets, and so on. Thus it

is that, unlike the book on Africa, very many of the animals depicted

in. this book of India are captive or domestic ones.

The text in this book is from the diary she kept during her

seven months’ tour in India. With the keen observation and sensitivity

of a new-comer to this country, her first-impression descriptions of

places and people are of great interest. At a tiger shoot in Mysore

she writes: “The dead tiger is very beautiful; poor beautiful thing,

with glassy eyes, and soft paws’. At Periyar she refers to the dead

trees of the lake as ‘looking like tortured ghosts imploring heaven to

free them’. At Kaziranga she observes: “The early morning drives are

very lovely. We are usually out in time to see the sun rise, a huge

red ball that dispels the mist, low over the plains. . . There are

many birds—mostly of the stork and crane family—looking fragile

and mysterious in the morning mist.’

Purely from the wild life photographer’s point of view there is

something lacking in the book. Unlike some of her other books in

which she gave full photographic data and details of her methods,

there is neither of these in this book—for obvious reasons. As an art

publication, on the other hand, it would be hard to find a book

which surpasses this one. Printed in Switzerland, the colour and

REVIEWS 115

monochrome gravure photographs and the general layout are a sheer

delight to behold.

From the naturalist’s point of view the book disappoints with its

many mistakes. Whereas ANIMALS IN AFRICA contained a text

written by an authority on the animals of that continent, apparently

no effort has-been made by the publishers to obtain technical advice

from a zoologist or naturalist of India prior to the publication of

ANIMALS IN INDIA. For instance, when on page 19 Yila ‘saw a

few buffalo’, one misses the necessary publisher’s footnote to explain

that that there are no buffalo in this part of India and that Ylla must

have meant ‘bison’ or gaur. Similarly, when the Gir Forest is des-

cribed as ‘one of the few lion reserves left in India’, a footnote couid

have pointed out that the Gir is the one and only lion reserve in the

country.

In the captions to the pictures are more serious errors. For

example, the horns of the Indian rhino (page 73) are not ‘24-inch’—

the all-time record is 244”, while the longest ever seen in recent years

in Kaziranga is 184”, and the average horn seen today in this sanctuary

is about 8”. Again, the tick bird (page 74) is not an oxpecker but

the jungle myna. Demoiselle cranes and sarus cranes are not

common in Assam, but very rare. The animal (pages 122 and 123)

described as ‘the wild gaur of India’ is in fact a buffalo.

After an elephant shoot in Mysore Ylla wrote in her diary: ‘I do

not understand that need in man to affirm himself heroically by killing.

It seems to me that only a creative effort can give one a true sense

of fulfilment. Photography fills me with a satisfaction no dead animal

could possibly give’. In spite of the few defects listed above (which

could in any case be remedied in a subsequent edition), this superb

book with its very high standard of production is a fine memorial to

a warm-hearted and gallant woman who by her artistic perception and.

photographic technique achieved that ‘irue sense of fulfilment’ and

will always be remembered as one of the greatest animal photographers

of all time.

E.P.G.

2. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE ARABIAN PENINSULA. By

Eric Macro. Pp. xiv+80 (28 X21.5 cm.). Florida, 1958. University of

Miami Press. Price?

Arabia, the land of the origin of Islam, the land made known to

many by the exploits of. Lawrence of Arabia has been virtually a

terra incognita to the outside world until very recent times. The

116 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

vast desert and arid tracts of the Arabian Peninsula combined with

religious and political barriers have for centuries stood against the

intrusion of foreign influence. All the same it is a mild surprise to

find that only 2380 books and articles have been published in the

various European languages about this ‘desert land’ which has now

come into world focus on account of its rich and -unlimited oil

resources. Happenings in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Quatar Peninsula,

Trucial Oman Coast, Oman, the Aden Protectorates, and Yemen make

headline news, and an easily available bibliography of the art, culture,

and science of these countries will be of much more than merely

topical interest.

A list of abbreviations of about 500 publications consuited precedes

the main bibliography which runs into 68 pages; 2380 titles are given,

all arranged alphabetically authorwise. For easy reference a .12-page

author index is given at the end. It is gratifying to find many

references to articles which have appeared in the Journal of the

Bombay Natural History Society.

As the author himself admits there are many omissions. A glaring

case in point, we find, is the recently published book BIRDS OF

ARABIA by Col. R. Meinertzhagen, and another Dr. S. Dillon Ripley’s

paper ‘Comments on the Biogeography of Arabia with particular

reference to Birds’ [JBNHS 52 (2 and 3): 241]. In places the biblio-

graphy is not comprehensive enough since certain papers are not

mentioned separately, e.g. Scott, H., and Britton, E. B. (1941), List

and Brief Description of collecting stations in Exped. SW. Arabia,

1937-38 London (Trustees, British Museum): No. 1 pp. i-xiv, map;

and Trewavas, E. (1941), No. 3. Freshwater Fishes, ibid. pp. 7-15,

pls. 1, 2, text figure 1 are not indicated separately, but the results of

the expedition mentioned in one place as: ‘Scott, Hugh—The British

Museum Natural History Expedition to south-west Arabia 1937-38.

London, 1941’.

This is the first serious attempt to compile a bibliography of the

Arabian Peninsula. Its minor shortcomings are understandable since

the author, Squadron-Leader Eric Macro, was greatly handicapped

due to constant service transfers. However, it should provide an

opportunity to people familiar with literature on the Arabian Peninsula

to draw the author’s attention to the omissions which could eventualiy

be published as an addendum.

The present bibliography forms a setae addition to the already

published five parts of Dr. Henry Field’s bibliographies of SW. Asia.

The stress in the latter is more on art, culture, and anthropology, and

they should be specially handy to all interested in those subjects.

E.G.S.

REVIEWS 117

3. THE YOUNG NATURALIST’S YEAR. By Fred _ J.

Speakman. Pp. 176 (19X13 cm.). With 8 plates and many line

drawings. London, 1958. G. Bell and Sons Ltd. Price 12s. 6d. net.

The British naturalist awakes in the early hours on a January

morning to find the first snow falling from a grey sky, crystal upon

crystal, on to the English city and woods. A fallow deer lifts her

head, listens to the hissing snow, then sleeps again in the shelter of

dead bracken fronds. A sow badger trudges back to her dark dry

tunnel. A weakened hare scuttles; a hungry crow swoops; the snow

slowly fills a rut recently made by an otter.

With this invocation, gentle as the snow he describes, Fred

Speakman begins his personalized account of each month of the year.

The author is a teacher and lecturer who feels the breathless en-

chantment and yet cruel realisms of nature. He expresses these

sentiments in the silvered tones of a poet—to such an extent that

phrases and even pages read like free verse: ‘Leave the bright

morning, and come again in the dusk when in the warm air the

scent of silver birches lingers sweet.’ The invitation is difficult to

resist.

The reader is invited to come watch the unfolding, blossoming,

and dying of wild things during the year. Reading the book is like

listening to a gentle conversation of this man whose profound empathy

into nature shows in every line he writes. He gives each month its

own particular hymn of praise and love: crisp February, when the

grip of winter is weakened, and chaffinches scatter the thin snow on

dead leaves to find sleeping insects. Bright April, when pools fill

with frog-spawn. June woods, bursting with noise and colour. Then

the grunting of badgers as they gather October bracken for their

bedding.

Nature-lore descriptions are subtly mingled with a dreaming

philosopher’s wisdom that springs from the author’s quiet thoughts

and judgement. Speakman also voices his outrage against the

thoughtless people’s despoiling the woodlands, and their determination

to exterminate the grey squirrel and the rabbit. His rebellion is

inserted not loudly, not strongly, but just persistently enough to

awaken in a young mind a consciousness of the injustice. Brief but

interesting notes at the end of each month-chapter suggest to young

naturalists what they might observe and do during each month.

Speakman is particularly appealing to both young and old young-

in-heart readers in his descriptions of baby animals. There is a

wonderfully humorous description of a badger cub on his first sliding

venture from his burrow. And a page of breathless activity describes

118 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

a mother squirrel teaching her young to leap through trees: “Mother

is in front, right out in the leafy sprays where one second’s pause

will be too long. She leaps. The bunch of sprays she held is still

upswinging when she lands feet away on the end sprays of a horn-

beam. They sway beneath her frantically, but still she dare not pause.

more than just long enough to release the bunch of leaves she has

seized in forefeet. Away she goes, and two brown streaks follow, and

one darker. Where she springs, they spring; where she leaps and

glides with tail and legs outspread, they leap. There is no staying

to pluck up courage; they follow. Up they go still higher, then down

—and there is mother at the foot of the tree waiting to kiss noses.

Off once more, leap-frogging over one another, cross-vaulting from

side to side, till the eye can scarcely follow. This is the training that

will help them a hundred times over in later life, when they must

take a risk or die; when the power to do what seems impossible

means the power to live.’

It was with a sigh of reluctance that this reader finished the book

and left the enchanted world which Fred Speakman had brought for

a few hours with his delightful commentaries.

BARBARA J. TUFTY

4. THE LOVE-LIFE OF ANIMALS. By Wolfgang von

Buddenbrock. Translated from the German by J. M. Chaplin. Pp.

227 (21.6X 14 cm.). London, 1956, Frederick Muller Ltd. Price 25s.

The author deals with sex in all its aspects throughout the animal

world. After a review of the manifestation of sex in protozoa, he

expounds the various features of the sex relationship among the

metazoa, beginning with sexual dimorphism and working his way

through mutual attraction of the sexes, sex recognition, courtship,

sexual fights, the sexual union, marital co-habitation, breeding in

hermaphrodites, egg-laying, brood parasitism, provision for the

protection of eggs, and nest-building among vertebrates and inverte-

brates to the care, feeding, and training of the young. It is not

possible by a list of general headings to give a complete account of

the topics dealt with. The book is profusely illustrated with clear

line drawings and good photographs. The author has kept steadily

before him his main object of making available to the lay public

an account of sex life in the animal world and, in spite of his occasional

use of technical terms most of which he has carefully explained,

has succeeded in presenting the general reader with a fascinating and

readable book.

REVIEWS 119

The subject is a vast one and opportunities for observation are

largely a matter of chance. Hence specialists will welcome the co-

operation of those who are prepared to take trouble, to observe closely,

and to record their observations while their remembrance of them

is fresh. For this purpose this book will furnish useful guidance as

to where to look, what to look for, and points of importance. But

the observer must remember that Nature has adopted an immense

variety of ways to attain the same ends, even in closely related

species. ‘Therefore, while taking the book as a guide, the lay observer

should not expect his observations to tally exactly with those related

in the book—the important thing is that he should be certain about

the facts seen by him and that he should record them clearly.

D. E.R.

S. / (HE LIVING FOREST. By H. L. Edlin. Pp. 310 @1.5%x

14 cm.). London, 1958, Thames and Hudson. 25s. net.

In this fascinating book the author talks about the common trees

of the British countryside, among other things telling us of their

history and their application to the use of man, and relating some of

the tree-lore that has gathered round them.

The first half of the book deals with the ‘natives’, the Silver Birches, .

the Scots Pine, the Oak, the Ash, the Willows, and other trees, trees

that crossed over to the British Isles after the Ice Age while the land

bridge still existed between them and the continent of Europe. The

later pages tell of trees brought to Britain in historical times, the sweet

chestnut, the walnut, and the sycamore, gifts of the Roman conquerors,

and the Spruce, the Silver Firs, the Cedars, the Larches, the Poplars,

and the rest. Although there is not a single illustration and he is

talking of trees with which we are not familiar in this country, he

succeeds in holding the reader’s attention and makes him long for

something similar about the trees growing round him in India. The

whole is written with a light, humorous touch that enlivens what in

_less skilful hands would be merely a dull list. Thus: “The fine whip-

like twigs of birch are tough and strong, and serve for varied tradi-

tional purposes. The witches of legend flew through the air on

broomsticks ending in a flourish of birch twigs, and handy yard

brooms are still made by binding a bundle of such twigs, gathered

in autumn and carefully seasoned, into a tight mass with a bond of

green willow, and then thrusting a birch pole into the centre to form

a handle. Similar bundles are used in tin-plate works to brush the

scale or iron oxide off sheets of hot metal; they are gradually burned

120 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

away, but prove cheap and effective. Smaller bundles of birch were

long employed in schools to promote learning by the chastisement

of backward scholars, an old custom regarded by the modern schoolboy

as particularly barbaric. Large tufts of birch brushwood are used

on racecourses to form steeplechase jumps. The purplish-brown twigs

bear an aromatic waxy bloom in spring, and this was once used by

Highland maidens as a fragrant hair rinse. The enumeration con-

tinues for some more pages for the wood and bark are of great value

for many purposes. And again: ‘Often a great oak was used to

mark the boundary of a parish or even a shire; there is a County Oak

and a Boundary Oak where Surrey meets Sussex, and a Border Oak

where Shropshire marches with Wales. Gospel Oaks were used by

wandering preachers, and Dool Oaks by royal hangmen! Bulls

sheltered in hollow Bull Oaks, facing outwards with menacing horns.

Edward I held a parliament below the Parliament Oak in Sherwood

Forest, and William Wallace is said to have hidden with no less

than 300 followers within the Wallace Oak at Elderslie in Renfrew-

shire, when pursued by Edward’s forces. From the Rufus Oak in

the New Forest, there glanced the arrow that laid King William I

low in the year A.D. 1100.’

Besides entertainment, there is much useful information to be

gleaned, e.g. the agency of trees in preventing erosion of river banks,

the necessity of quarantine when introducing foreign trees, the employ-

ment of trees in reclaiming sandy areas, and so on.

D.E.R.

6. PRACTICAL ANIMAL BIOLOGY FOR THE TROPICS.

By R. D. Purchon. Pp. xii+148 (18X12.5cm.). With 25 text figures.

London, 1957. University Tutorial Press Ltd. Price ?

Practical work goes hand in hand with theoretical studies in biology

as well as in other sciences. For students taking up biology for a

university degree or for any specific profession such as medicine, it is_

imperative that they train their hands for clean and neat dissection,

and develop a knack for accurate observation. In preparing this guide

to aid students of Intermediate classes of the University of Malaya

the author has had these objectives in view.

The author’s concluding remark in the Preface that ‘the student

should be required to read the Introduction and re-read it at a later

date’ is pertinent as it will impress on him the major objectives of

the course. Many useful and important hints regarding illustrating

REVIEWS 121

the dissections are given, with a reminder that the mind should con-

tinually be occupied with thoughts about the component of the object

being drawn, and understanding its functional relationship with the

whole. ‘Practical work is largely wasted if it is only an unthinking

mechanical exercise’.

Although instructions for various stages of the dissection of animals

are given, it is clear that they are intended to be used in conjunction

with a suitable text book. The 25 text figures which illustrate the

booklet are diagrammatic drawings of some of the systems of the animals

dealt with, and are casily understandable by any student of biology.

A chapter (pp. 29-43) is devoted to histology and cytology which

do not come strictly within the scope of the booklet.

Since the book is intended primarily for use in the first year course

in zoology by medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy students of the

University of Malaya it deals mainly with the animal types prescribed

by that University. But all the major phyla are represented, and as

such the booklet has a wider scope as a useful guide to students

undergoing similar courses in other universities as well.

M.R.R.

7. THE WORLD OF BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS. By

Alexander B. Klots. Pp. 207 (28.522 cm.). London, 1958. George

G. Hatrap &.Co. Lid.: Price 63s. net.

I have enjoyed studying the superb photographs, in colour and

in monochrome, which illustrate this book and reading the text which

they accompany. In language that any layman can understand and

yet without any writing down to his audience, Mr. Klots tells in brief

all about the lepidoptera, their ancestry and relationships, their general

structure, their growth from egg to adult, their food habits, their

relations with their food plants and with other animals on which they

prey or which are their predators or parasites, their various devices

for escaping the many dangers that surround them at every moment

of their lives, their sensory powers, their general behaviour including

courtship and mating, their migrations and distribution, and their rela-

tionship with man.

Mr. Klots explains much that we have often observed but have

not understood—to mention a few items: the drop of what looks like

blood which we find when a larva turns into a pupa, the way in

which the larva at the time of pupating steps out of its skin, the

122 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

explanation of the Mexican jumping bean, the nature and mechanism

of the brilliant colours which adorn these tiny creatures. He also

tells us much that we did not know and many things the possibility

of which we would not even have guessed, for instance: the elaborate

way in which the Yucca Moth fertilises the flower and makes pro-

vision for its progeny, the flower that opens only to the particular

moth which is privileged to fertilise it, the curious instinct of the

larva which matures in a nest of tree-ants and departs just before

pupating as if it knows that if it stays on the ants will kill and eat

it, the successful exploitation of an insectivorous plant by the Ceylonese

noctuid Nepenthophilus tigrinus, the existence in the feet of organs of

taste which are 2400 times more sensitive to sugar than is the human

tongue.

This is a book that | recommend as something which will repay

perusal and which you will go back to again and again as a book of

reference —this is addressed to the layman, but I have no doubt that

even the specialist will find much in the book to interest him.

D.ELR.

8. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES DARWIN, 1809-

1882. Edited with Appendix and Notes by his grand-daughter Nora

Barlow. Pp. 253 (2113 cm.). London, 1958. Collins. Price 16s.

net.

The autobiography was written by Charles Darwin for his children

and grand-children, and one approaches it with the feeling of being

an intruder. Misgivings as to the propriety of peeping into family

secrets soon vanish, however, for Darwin was one of those good and

simple souls who have nothing to hide.

Although his father enjoyed considerable success as a medical

practitioner, the profession did not appeal to young Charles. He

turned next to the Church but, in spite of ‘a bump of reverence

developed enough for ten priests’, again found himself unsuited. He

tells us that his five years at the Edinburgh and Cambridge Uni-

versities were completely wasted so far as academical studies went.

Nevertheless, he showed enough promise in Natural Science for J. S.

Henslow, Professor of Botany at Cambridge, to recommend him for

appointment as Naturalist on H.M.S. Beagle—the post was to carry

no monetary remuneration. Darwin’s father was opposed to his going.

Thanks to the intervention of Charles’s uncle Josiah Wedgewood, son

REVIEWS 123

of Josiah Wedgewood the Potter, the objection was withdrawn and,

in spite of a nose the shape of which did not appear promising to the

Captain of H.M.S. Beagle, Darwin was signed on for the voyage. In

due course the Beagle sailed and in the next five years Darwin recorded

notes of observations which kept him occupied for several years to

come and filled many bulky volumes. Already, while he was still

on the Beagle, he was becoming known. Letters which he had

written to Professor Henslow had been read before the Philosophical

Society of Cambridge and Adam Sedgwick, Professor of Geology at

Cambridge, prophesied that he would take a leading place among

scientific men.

The autobiography first came before the public as part of LIFE AND

LETTERS OF CHARLES DARWIN edited by his son Francis Darwin. This

was in 1887 five years after Charles’s death, and many omissions

were necessary to spare the feelings of persons still living. In 1929

the text as published by Francis Darwin was issued as a separate

volume in The Thinkers Library series. It was repeated in 1950 in

a volume published by G. G. Simpson and entitled CHARLES DARWIN’S

AUTOBIOGRAPHY. This is the first time that the complete text has

been published.

The story, told in simple straightforward language without

embellishment of any sort, is fascinating and holds the reader’s

attention from the first page to the last. The most striking fact

appearing from these pages is the humility of this great man about

his own capacity and achievements, his ready acknowledgement of

the merits of other scientists, and the complete absence of the very

slightest sign of jealousy. In a totally dispassionate fashion he analyses

his own ability and comes to his final summing up: “Therefore, my

success, aS a man of science, whatever this may have amounted to,

has been determined, as far as I can judge, by complex and diversified

mental qualities and conditions. Of these the most important have

been—the love of science—unbounded patience in long reflecting over

any subject—industry in observing and collecting facts--and a fair

share of invention as well as of commonsense. With such moderate

abilities as I possess, it is truly surprising that thus I should have

influenced to a considerable extent the beliefs of scientific men on

some important points.’ It is interesting to compare this with his

generous appraisal of T. H. Huxley: ‘His mind is as quick as a

flash of lightning and as sharp as a razor. He is the best talker

whom I have known. He never writes and never says anything flat.

He has been the mainstay in England of the principle of the

gradual evolution of organic beings. Much splendid work as he has

124. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

done in Zoology, he would have done far more, if his time had not

been so largely consumed by official and literary work, and by his

efforts to improve the education of the country.’

There is much more that I would like to quote, but I feel that

this is a book that my readers must read for themselves. Uncles and

aunts will find it an answer to the problem that presents itself annually

when birthdays come round.

D.E.R.

Miscellaneous Notes

1. URINE OF BATS AS A MEANS OF OFFENCE

Leptospirosis is an infection transmitted from animal to animal

and from animal to man by the urine of the infected animal, so any

observations on habits of urination are likely to be of value in the

study of the disease. Surveys of mammals have shown that infection

with leptospires is widespread, particularly among ground dwelling

mammals, but have shown its occurrence also in such unexpected

animals as bats.‘ The following observation is therefore of interest.

On entering a limestone cave in Malaya which was inhabited

by horseshoe bats, I found at one point, where my body blocked

the entrance to part of the cave, that the disturbed bats would fly up

and flutter in front of me, a foot or so away, as if using their sound-

ranging mechanism to seek a way past. Repeatedly, however, I saw

the bat hovering in front of me give out a squirt of urine before

retiring to the back of the cave. These squirts were well directed,

and I received many on my face, hands, and the front of my shirt.

Evidently the bats were using their urime as a means of offence.

I should be most interested to know of any other observations

on the urination of bats, particularly any indication of their using

urine on other animals, and particularly on other bats.

INSTITUTE FOR MEDiCAL RESEARCH, MALAYA,

(Now of QUEENSLAND INSTITUTE OF J. L. HARRISON, p.sc.

MEDICAL RESEARCH, BRISBANE),

November 5, 1958.

REFERENCE

Alston, J. M. & Broom, J. C. (1958): Animal Leptospirosis in Malaya. (1)

Leptospirosis in man andanimals,E.& Methods, Zoogeographical background

S. Livingstone Ltd., Edinburgh & London. and broad analysis of results.

Smith, C. E. G., Turner, L. H., Harrri- Emanuel, M.L. (Inmanuscript): Animal

son, J. L., & Broom, J. C. (in press): leptospirosis in North Queensland.

2. THE FLYING FOX OF ADDU ATOLL, MALDIVE

ISLANDS—A CORRECTION

Owing to a series of unfortunate circumstances, the fruit-bats

of Addu Atoll were incorrectly identified by me on my first arrival

in Gan. My note on pages 334 to 337 of Volume 55 (No. 2), published.

in August 1958, was written under a regrettable misapprehension.

1 Genera in which clear evidence of leptospirosis has been obtained are

Cynopterus in Indonesia, Eonscteris and Myotis in Malaya, Pteropus in Queensland

(Alston and Broom, Smith et al., Emanuel)

i126 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (i)

Subsequent collecting has shown that all the common fruit-bats,

previously believed to be Pteropus hypomelanus maris, were in fact

a race of Pteropus giganteus, having unusual and peculiar habits and

generally living solitary lives amongst the breadfruit trees and coconut

palms of the villages.

Now that more careful observation and collecting has been

possible and all the larger islands im the Atoll have been visited, the

very unexpected fact has emerged that Pteropus hypomelanus maris

appears to have ceased to exist in Addu Atoll and to have been

replaced by the larger Pt. giganteus. The smaller species Pt. hypo-

melanus is not only unknown to the local Maldivians but a careful

search has failed to reveal a single specimen. There is, however,

the remote possibility that a colony still exists on one of the uninhabit-

ed islets, and that the Maldivians quite understandably confuse the

smaller species with the juvenile individuals of Pt. giganteus which

are frequently to be seen flying around, feeding on fruits, or resting

in the heads of palm trees quite on their own.

It is curious that the habits of the common Pt. giganteus, as

resident in Addu Atoll, should differ so greatly from the normal

habits of Pt. giganteus ariel, as resident in North Malé Atoll. The

description of the habits, as given under the name Pt. hypomelanus

maris in my note, now under correction, should of course be read

as applying to the resident Pr. giganteus of Addu Atoll. It is also

curious that the profile of the Addu Atoll bats should appear to be

so different from that of typical giganteus. Yet an examination of

the skull shows that actually there are no essential differences between

them.

- It is very much regretted that my note should have been published

before the identity of the species was confirmed by more adequate

collecting and the critical examination and measurement of speci-

mens in the hand.

Apologies are now tendered for any confusion that the premature

publication of my first note may have caused.

C.R.O. BUNGALOW,

c/o R.A.F. GAN, :

B.F. P.O. 180, W. W. A. PHILLIPS

vIA G.P.O. COLOMBO,

CEYLON,

December 26, 1958.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 127

3. ‘WILD’ CATTLE IN NORTHERN INDIA

The occurrence of a herd of domestic cattle gone ‘wild’ at Bharat-

pur, referred to by Mr. E. P. Gee in these pages, is a fairly widespread

phenomenon in the ‘khadars’ and wild scrub areas of the northern

rivers in the Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. I have seen herds of these

cattle personally in Gurgaon, Bulandshahr, Mathura, Karnal, Hissar,

and Meerut districts, and have been told by reliable ‘shikaris’ that

they are also found in the districts which surround the ones I have

seen. It appears that their occurrence is connected with, in fact due

to, the habit of leaving weak plough-bullocks and off-milk cows in

these scrub areas with just a few boys to look after vast numbers

of them. The result is the straying and ultimate abandonment of a

few each time, leading to their going ‘wild’.

I have had some interesting experiences with them; there are a

few big herds in the Jumna ‘khadar’ in Gurgaon-Bulandshahr

districts which stick to a chosen bit of high ground, in sparse tamarisk

scrub with patches of stunted Dhak around it. There are no so-

litary bulls among them or in that area, and the membership of the

herd keeps shifting steadily; each year a few village cattle stray into

the herd and the villagers, after some encouragement and advice from

me, now manage to recover a few each year. This is done by

stalking them early in the morning when they are not very wary;

after cutting off their natural lines of retreat by placing a horse and.

rider equipped with a lasso-rope, others drive them towards these

village ‘cowboys’ who try their best to ‘rope’ them, frequently with

success. The ‘catch’ is then broken-in by being hobbled and starved

till it becomes tractable, and then gradually allowed to roam with

other tame cattle; they show a tendency to return to the ‘wild’ herd

if confronted with them, but otherwise they interbreed with tame

cattle and produce offspring successfully. My notes on this subject

of progeny are restricted to hearsay evidence, though from depend-

able sources. The village shikari, to whom I first suggested this

idea of catching them by using horses to run them down after

separating one or two from the herd, has made a small fortune by

taming and selling them to the villagers. Another herd, nearer to

Gurgaon and in completely dry, cultivated land, stays below the

Aravallis just beyond Sohna on the Delhi-Gurgaon-Alwar road, and

poses a problem to the distracted villagers. Not only does it annually

seduce numbers of domestic cattle, but it also causes much damage

to the crops, being scared out of one field only to enter the next.

I discovered this herd only last year while out exploring a new jheel

for duck, but since there were no horses in the nearby villages I

could not emulate the ‘khadar’ experiment here. The villagers are

i128 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

not nearly so enterprising this side, but may take to the idea if help

is given them.

Another curious fact about them is that they often run with herds

of Blue Bull, and it becomes quite a problem stalking the Blues due

to the added vigilants. The ‘wild’ cows are pugnacious especially

when with young, and will rear back and stand their ground against

intruders, snorting and scuffing like any ferocious bull in a village.

The plentiful cover near which they generally stay indicates the

possibility that cows may be going into hiding for the duration of

calving, but I have once come across a cow with a calf at heel who

was just about able to stand; she was ferocious and wouldn’t tolerate

a close approach, making short charges and feints to frighten me. I

am sorry I didn’t have a camera that time!

As for protection, until we can say with certainty that they

inbreed and, given the opportunity, would develop special traits and

characteristics, it seems somewhat unfair on the poor villager to allow

them to persist and cause an annual loss of what to him is a fortune.

But they certainly do add a picturesque and enthralling sight to our

‘khadars’, and can give good sport to a photographer by their constant

and acute vigilance. Their resemblance to our Gaur is, to my

knowledge, non-existent, at least in so far as appearance and habits are

concerned. I wonder if some of the north-country members could

give me any news about the presence of these cattle in their areas.

3, Factory ROAD,

NEw DE Lui 3, | H. K. DANG

November 24, 1958.

4. NOTES ON A TAME TAKIN

(With a plate)

Mr. Richard D. Estes who, with Mr. Oliver M. B. Milton, is

at present engaged in making a wildlife survey of Burma has sent

us the cutting of an account he recently published in The Nation of

Rangoon (25 January 1959) of a visit to Sankawng village in the Fort

-Hertz-Putao area of the Hkamti region to inspect a young female

Takin destined for the Bronx Zoo, New York.

The article contains some interesting information which is here

excerpted with the author’s permission. Both the photos, one by

himself the other by his colleague, have been received through the

courtesy of U Tun Yin.

The animal was captured in July, when about 2 months old, nine

days’ foot journey to the north, and was carried thence on the hunts-

JouRN. BomBAy NAT. HIST. Soc.

alin

Nine-month old tame female Takin

Photos kh. DD, Estes

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 129

men’s shoulders over mountainous country. It began grazing at this

tender age and had grown into a healthy specimen when seen.

During the interval (5-6 months) it had become quite tame, grazing

with domestic cattle in the vicinity of the village, sparring playfully

with calves much bigger than itself, and permitting itself to be

stroked by humans.

‘With its head held characteristically low, humped shoulders,

sharply tapering hindquarters, and thick legs it looked as much like

a mountain goat as anything else, a resernblance that was heightened

by the way it moved, and by the stubs, as yet no more than one

and a half inches long, of its just emerging horns. However, the

fully developed horns are not at all goatlike, but approximate those

of the wildebeeste or ‘gnu’ of East Africa, and those of the musk-ox.

The latter, in fact, seems to be the Takin’s closest relation . .. but

to both Milton and mvself the ‘Roman nose’, thick face, and prominent

ears of this little Takin (calf or kid?) definitely suggested a young

moose. In short, a Takin Jooks like almost anything but a cow.

‘The general colour of this specimen was chocolate brown shading

almost into black on the face, chin, and legs, with a broad saddle of

buff spread across the back, and a dark dorsal stripe running from

shoulders to the short untidy tail. The hair was thick, soft, and

quite long. The shiny black hooves, bearing pronounced dew-claws

part way up the ankle, were large and strongly curved with a wide gap

between, obviously well-adapted to rocky mountainsides. The hooves

lend credibility to stories of legendary prowess in leaping and

climbing the steepest slopes.’

The Takin’s height was twenty-seven inches at the shoulder, length

forty-eight inches; weight estimated at ninety to a hundred pounds.

‘Already nine months old, it had a lot of growing to do before it

would reach the 600-700 Ib. weight of a mature animal (according

to Peacock). |

“Watching it nibble grass from a few feet away, I was able to

see that it had well-developed teeth in its lower jaw, none in the

upper, but it resisted attempts to open its mouth for a closer

examination.

*, . . I noted the powerful development even at this age of the

neck, shoulders, and legs. I-noted also a definite but not unpleasant

odour of musk, another point in common with the musk-ox that I

had not previously known.’

BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY,

91, WALKESHWAR ROAD, EDITORS.

BoMBAY 6,

February 2, 1959.

i30 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

5. DOES THE TAKIN PRODUCE TWIN CALVES?

Very little is accurately known about the breeding habits of most

of our wild animals; thus the following extracts from letters received

from U Tun Yin of Rangoon (Burma) concerning the Takin, Budorcas

taxicolor (Hodgson) are of interest. Prater in THE BOOK OF INDIAN

ANIMALS: 227 (Ist ed.) remarks that the Takin usually drops one

calf at the end of March or in early April.

U Tun Yin writes: ‘The Assistant Resident, Lawkhaung (Gum

Jala) informed me in July 1958 that the villagers shot a female

Takin with poisoned arrows and captured two calves in March.

According to the hill tribes the Takins have two calves at a time

mostly. The Takins visit the salt springs when there is absolutely

no moon, and in the first week of the new moon, and during open

season especially from February to April. Takins live on leaves,

roots, and, as they say, even on poisonous leaves and roots.’

Further enquiries initiated in response to our request for con-

firmation of the number of calves produced at a birth elicited the

following from U Tun Yin’s correspondent.

‘... I understand from my Maru interpreter that no other Takins

were caught, except two calves caught by Hkawng Hawng of

Lakdang Ritjawng Kung, Saw Law Taungok’s charge. Of the two,

one was stabbed to death on the spot as the mother was then

trying to charge him before its death. The mother was shot by

poison arrow and the calves were caught simultaneously and in doing

so he was nearly dragged over the cliff. The remaining calf was

brought to Chipwi where it was fed on boiled rice only, as at the

Start of its care. It died after a month and was thereafter brought

to Laukhaung, where it was showed to Assistant Resident if he would

accept it for sending to the Zoo (? Museum).

‘From villagers I notice (? understand) that Takins are habitually

(? in habits) similar to goats or wild goats, but full-grown males are

ferocious and usually charge any one. They have two calves at a

time mostly.’

Mr. Saw Cushing Po, Assistant Resident, Putao, informed U Tun

Yin that two Takin calves captured in Putao Sub-division were from

different mothers. They were brought up on condensed milk, but

did not survive long. He has never heard of a Takin having more

than one calf at a time.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 131

The Society would welcome more information about the habits

of this interesting and little known animal. Reliable first hand notes

on its ecology and habits are badly needed.

~BomBay NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY,

91, WALKESHWAR ROAD, :

BOMBAY 6, EDITORS

January 29, 1959.

6. AN ALBINO BARKING DEER

(With a photo)

Raja Chandra Chur Prasad Singh of Udaipur (Madhya Pradesh)

sends us the accompanying photograph of an albino Barking Deer

(Muntiacus muntjak) which he shot in February. He asks whether

‘a similar trophy has been obtained by any sportsman’. In _pre-

vious volumes of the Journal we find two records of albino muntijac,

both from Nepal. With one of these a good photograph of the

captured animal is reproduced (16: 742).

Other mammals in which either complete or partial albinism has

been recorded in back numbers of the Journal are: Hog Deer (24:

588), Cheetal (35: 888), Sambar (40: 322), Blackbuck (16: 742),

Gaur (36:492, 985, 986; 37: 483), Goral (32: 373), and Tiger (24:

819; 32: .584).

i132 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (i)

Recorded in Vol. 16: 361, with photograph, is the much rarer

case of a melanistic blackbuck from Bhopal, dark-coloured all over

without the usual white belly and legs.

BoMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY,

91, WALKESHWAR ROAD, EDITORS

BOMBAY 6,

February 3, 1959.

7. COMMUNAL NEST-FEEDING IN BABBLERS

I have often noted more than two Jungle Babblers showing

interest in building a single nest. As regards the situation when there

are eggs in the nest, again I have many notes of about half a dozen,

or even more, babblers protesting loudly close round me when I

looked into a nest to view its contents. The clearest evidence that

I have, however, of the communal interest of more than one pair of

babblers in the same nest are two notes about the feeding of young

birds in the nest. On May 24th last year (1957) I noted three

different adult birds carrying food to the chicks in one nest; and on

August 19th last year I noted four different adult birds taking food

to the youngsters in another nest. In the latter case the four adults

were all queued up—as I described in my talk to the Kashmir Nature

Study Society—like a line of waiters bringing dishes to a group of

diners.

In addition to the above, I have many notes of groups of four

or six babblers staying close to fledglings after they have left their

nest, bringing them food and generally looking after them. Some-

times only four adults seemed to be involved, but at other times

at least five or six were concerned. I think it is probably always

an even number, because the group is composed of pairs. I have

even seen this company of adults attending a young Pied-crested

Cuckoo and its young babbler foster-brother or sister—though the

cuckoo had thrown all except the one other egg out of the nest!

I have no doubt that all this indicates that more than one pair

of Jungle Babblers share the same nest; and I presume this means

that the females of the pairs lay all their eggs in it.

With regard to Large Grey Babblers, four of them joined in

building a nest in my garden last month. I am fairly certain from

my observations that the two females both laid eggs in the nest,

for I think they took it in turns to sit there. Unfortunately crows

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 133

stole the eggs very soon after they were laid, and the nest was

deserted; so I could not watch the behaviour of the parents: through-

out incubation and the feeding of the youngsters.

2, KING GEORGE AVENUE,

New DELHI, MALCOLM MACDONALD

October 9, 1958.

[It is a serious blot on Indian bird students that so little is

precisely known about the breeding biology of this very common

and familiar bird, popularly known as ‘sat bhai’ in Hindi and ‘Seven

Sisters’ in English. In NIDIFICATION OF BIRDS OF THE INDIAN EMPIRE

(1: 153—1932) -Stuart Baker remarks ‘*. . . I can find nothing on

record about the construction of the nest and which sex is res-

ponsible for the work, nor does it seem even to be known whether

both sexes do or do not incubate the eggs’.

Thus Mr. Macdonald’s note is not only of great interest but a

distinct contribution to our knowledge. The Indian babblers of the

Turdoides and Argya groups (now lumped together under the former

genus) are well known for their community life, keeping in amicable

flocks and sisterhoods even when, some of the members may be

actually nesting—a time when most sociable species break up into

aggressively territorial pairs.

One of the functions of gregariousness in birds during the breeding

cycle is believed to be that the behaviour of a member, physiologically

more advanced than the rest, serves as a stimulus to the backward

ones, to hasten and synchronise breeding activities among the

flock. Synchronized nesting is of survival value, particularly in the

arctic and temperate regions where the breeding season is short and

sharply delimited by climatic conditions. The visual stimulus of a

bird feeding its young may similarly act as a releaser for the relevant

dormant impulse in other individuals who may themselves as yet

be unready for this activity. Thus the participation by more than

one pair in the building of a nest, or in the feeding of nestlings in it,

is understandable.

In A COMPANY OF BIRDS (p. 102) Loke Wan Tho records three

or four adult New Guinea Wood Swallows (Artamus maximus)

feeding a brood in the same nest. A. W. P. Robertson (BIRDS WILD

AND FREE, p. 30) gives a fascinating account and photograph of a

pair of Longtailed Tits (4 githalos longicaudatus) which had_ their

own nestlings to feed, but which in addition alternately fed unfledged

hedge-sparrows in a neighbouring nest,

134 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

While it is well known that in many species, several females

do in fact lay eggs in one and the same nest, we have no definite

evidence so far of this sort of pooling in the case of Jungle

or Large Grey Babblers, although it may sometimes well be the case.

No abnormally large clutches of eggs have been noted in their nests

such as could be ascribed to more than one female.—-Eps.]

8. A COMPOSITE SWIFT-SWALLOW NEST

(With a photo)

The enclosed photograph taken by Mr. K. M. Vaid of the Forest

Research Institute shows the nest of a Wiretailed Swallow in what

appears to be a remarkable situation. The Swallows fastened this nest

to the nest of a House Swift, which was itself built up from a section

of a nest of the Redrumped Swallow. Both swifts and swallows

were in simultaneous occupation of their respective nests.

NEW ForEST,

DEHRA Dun, JOSEPH GEORGE

October 25, 1958.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 135

9. ARTIFICIAL NESTS FOR SWALLOWS AND SWIFTS

(With 1 plate and | text-figure)

A method of making artificial nests for the House Martin is

described by Cohen and Campbell in Nestboxes (British Trust, for

Ornithology, Field Guide No. 3, 1957). According to this method,

clay replicas of a natural nest are made and cemented to sites

already favoured by Martins. It is pointed out that if the artificial

nests are fixed to a board fitted with trap doors, inspection of the

nests becomes possible.

When the question of making artificial nests for the Redrumped

Swallow (Hirundo daurica) and the Wiretailed Swallow (Hirundo

smithii) was considered, it was found that there was appreciable

variation of shape and size from nest to nest of these two species. This

seemed to suggest that in making artificial nests for these two species

of swallows, exact duplication of natural nests was unnecessary.

Artificial nests were therefore made by shaping clay by hand to more

or less the same shape and size as natural nests. This was a much

simpler operation than that described by Cohen and Campbell. In

addition to these clay nests, 3 artificial nests for the Redrumped

Swallow were carved from solid wood. Trouble from the House

Sparrow was anticipated, but the entrance tube to the artificial nests

for the Redrumped Swallow was not made narrower at any point

than 3.2 cm. which was the measurement for the narrowest point

in the entrance tunnel of natural nests examined in New Forest,

Dehra Dun. Trouble was also expected from House Swifts (Micropus

affinis), which breed in much larger numbers than the Redrumped

Swallow in New Forest, but it was hoped to reduce the chances of

their interference by installing the artificial nests at locations which

they do not ordinarily visit. Though the artificial nests were very

much stronger than natural nests, most of them were baked in a

potters’ oven. The baked nests and the wooden nests were painted

with fresh clay.

Artificial nests for the Redrumped Swallow were fixed on boards

and the boards were fastened to ceilings and to sunshades over doors

at places known to be frequented by the birds (text-fig.). Nests for

the Wiretailed Swallow were also fixed to short lengths of board and

the boards were fastened to walls of verandahs close to the ceiling

(plate). All the artificial nests were installed in February-March,

1958,

136 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

A pair of Redrumped Swallows occupied an artificial nest in

February and fixed a few pellets of mud at the entrance. This nest

Artificial nest for the Redrumped Swallow fixed under a sunshade.

was in the garage of a bungalow situated in a well-wooded garden.

One evening early in March a pair of House Swifts were seen going

in and out of the garage. The swifts appeared regularly every

evening thereafter and roosted in the nest. There can be little

doubt that during their movements above the trees in the garden

the swifts had observed the swallows going in and out of the garage

and had come down among the trees with the intention of ousting

the swallows from their nest. The swallows disappeared. But the

temporary occupation of the nest by the swallows shows that arti-

ficial nests approximately similar to natural nests will probably be

acceptable to the Redrumped Swallow.

Another nest intended for the Redrumped Swallow was also

occupied by the Swift early in March. Three nests were occupied

by the House Sparrow and one remained wnoccupied. One of the

nests taken by the sparrow was cleaned out later in the season. It

was then taken up by the House Swift.

The method suggested for fixing trap doors for inspecting Martins’

nests should be applicable to Redrumped Swallows’ nests also.

Artificial nests of the Redrumped Swallow with arrangements for

inspection can be used for studying the nesting habits of both the

Swallow and the House Swift. In the present experiment, the

artificial nests were fixed to permanent structures where trap doors

could not be provided. The nests were, therefore, mounted on the

boards in an easily detachable manner. This was accomplished by

holding the nests in position by a strip of thin flexible metal hinged

BOMBAY NAT. Hist. Soc.

White GE

House Swift incubating in artificial nest from which Swallows were

ejected

Photos: K, MM. Vaid

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 137

to the mounting board at one end and fastened by a bolt and fly-nut

at the other end.

Two of the nests occupied by the House Swift were inspected on

a few occasions in July-August by removing the nests from the

mounting board. ‘The first time one nest was opened, a bird was

sitting on two eggs. It stayed on the eggs till the nest was placed

back in position. The bird then came out of the nest and flew off.

On another occasion the sitting bird flew off the open nest. The plate

shows one of the birds sitting on its eggs in the nest. Both the

parent swifts roosted in the nest at night. Occasionally when the

garage door was closed in the evenings, the birds would circle over

the garage till the door was opened. The second nest contained 3

eggs. On a later inspection it contained two nestlings. Both the

nests had feathers plastered here and there inside. The joint between

the nest and the board on which it was mounted was glued all round

by the birds.

Wiretailed: Swallows inspected all 4 nests put up for them and

finally occupied two. The birds added some mud to the edge of the

nests they occupied, as seen in the photograph.

Thanks are due to the officers of the Forest Research Institute,

Dehra Dun, who very kindly gave permission to install the artificial

nests in the verandahs of their bungalows and at other locations.

Thanks are also due to Shri K. M. Vaid of the Forest Research

Institute for the two photographs.

NEw FOREST,

DEHRA Dun, U.P. JOSEPH GEORGE

November 8, 1958.

10. A LEATHERY TURTLE DERMOCHELYS CORIACEA

(LINNAEUS) COMING ASHORE FOR LAYING

EGGS DURING THE DAY

Sometime ago an interesting instance of the leathery turtle coming

ashore for laying eggs during the day came to my notice and _ this

is recorded here, since from the available literature it is seen that

turtles in general come ashore for this purpose only during night

time. |

While at Calicut, Kerala, I received information at about 5 p.m.

on 2nd July 1956 that a large turtle had come ashore at West Hill

and had deposited eggs. I reached the place in a few minutes’

time and found a giant specimen of the leathery turtle Dermochelys

138 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

coriacea (Linnaeus) hardly 50 metres from the sea surrounded by

a large crowd of people. On enquiry it was learnt that the turtle

first came ashore at about 3.00 p.m. nearly a quarter of a mile to

the south and evidently disturbed by the presence of people

returned to the sea and came up to the present spot which was

comparatively a more quiet place. After scooping out sand with

its flippers it had laid between ninety and hundred eggs which were

immediately removed by the local people who had assembled there.

As characteristic of turtles at egg-laying time it was reported to have

been very little disturbed by the presence of people around or by

the noise and commotion that prevailed there. The egg-laying was

over by the time I reached the place and the turtle was by then

making efforts to cover up the nest quite oblivious to the fact that

all the eggs were already removed. [It was a sunny day but the

sand was moist on account of the rain during previous days. After

turning over a good deal of sand with its flippers it proceeded towards

the sea. On coming to the shore line which had an abrupt drop

due to the wave action it slid down sideways and then steadied itself

and entered the water. The first wave it confronted dragged it for

some distance towards the shore but soon it appeared to recover

from the initial inertia, and proceeded with ease in a north-westerly

direction and gradually disappeared from sight.

The total length of the turtle from snout to tail taken in a straight

line was 6 ft. 3 in. The width of the carapace along the curvature

was 3 ft. 10 in. and in a straight line 2 ft. 10 in. The body was

slate coloured with white spots and a mottled white patch was present

on the head. Some eggs were purchased from the people who had

collected them and were’ examined. They were white in colour, and

spherical with a leathery shell, and had an average diameter of

52.5 mm. A few of the eggs were kept buried in the sand but these

failed to hatch out. Those opened at periodic intervals did not show

any developing embryos.

The fishing canoes belonging to the Central Marine Fisheries

Research Station at Calicut are kept near the place where the turtle

had laid the eggs and the fieldmen in charge of them informed me

subsequently that they had seen on a few occasions in previous years

young turtles proceeding to the sea from this area, pursued and

harassed by crows. No one has actually seen any turtle coming

ashore near this spot formerly and in the absence of specimens of

young turtles it is not possible to say anything as to their identity.

Deraniyagala in TETRAPOD REPTILES OF CEYLON Vol I, 1939 has given

detailed notes on the egg-laying habits of the various turtles in Indo-

Ceylon waters. According to him the leathery turtle comes ashore

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 139

only during night time, generally between 9 pm. and 11 pm. It

probably lays eggs three or four times a year but the breeding season

in Ceylon reaches its peak during May and June. The incubation

period is about 70 days.

CENTRAL MARINE FISHERIES RESEARCH STATION,

MANDAPAM CAMP, S. JONES

November 15, 1958.

[M. W. F. Tweedie (Proc. Zool. Soc. London 123: 273-74—

1953/54) gives a graphic illustrated account of the nesting and egg-

laying habits of this turtle observed at night—EDs.]

ll. THE GOURAMY OSPHRONEMUS GOURAMI IN CEYLON

With the present accent on the increasing of fish production from

inland waters, the history of the introduction of the Gouramy

(Osphroremus gourami Lacep.) into Ceylon waters may be of some

interest to Fishery Administrators in the tropics. The gouramy is

widely grown in Indonesia and to some extent in Malaya, in both of

which countries it is highly esteemed as a food fish. The first supplies

of this fish were brought into Ceylon from Java (as the country was

then known) by the late Mr. G. M. Fowler in 1900, but none of

this stock survived. In 1909 a further supply was brought from

Java to Colombo by the late Mr. Kelway Bamber, and these were

distributed among the reservoirs at Mahavilla Estate in Ulapane, at

an elevation of about 2000 ft., at Drayton Estate in Kotagala, at an

elevation of 4100 ft., and at Hiyare near Galle, which is almost at

sea-level. Some specimens were kept under observation in an out-

door cement-rendered tank in the Colombo Museum premises, where

the heat of the sun in the shallow confines of the tank appeared to

be having an adverse effect on the fish; these fish were therefore

transferred to an ornamental pond lying below the Thwaites

Memorial building in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Peradeniya, at

an elevation of about 1500 ft.

This pond lies beside the Mahaweli river, and in subsequent years

there were a number of occasions on which the river rose at flood

time to such an extent that this pond at Peradeniya was submerged.

It is also noteworthy that the reservoirs at Ulapane and Kotagala

lie on tributaries of this same river. In 1935, it was reported that a

hitherto unfamiliar fish was being taken in increasing quantities by

fishermen in the flood lakes or villus around Mannampitiya, about

100 miles down the Mahaweli river from Peradeniya. Specimens

140 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

which were obtained for identification revealed that this new fish was

none other than the gouramy. If, as was believed, these fish were

the progeny of those which had escaped from the stocks introduced

into Peradeniya, they had survived passage through numerous rapids

and over the 50 foot drop of the Victoria Falls on their way to the

lowland area where they were being captured by the fishermen.

To the present day, the gouramy has featured prominently in the

catches of fishermen in the lower reaches of the Mahaweli river. A

fisherman at Allai, a village situated on one of the three main

branches by which this river flows into the sea, told the writer in

1952 that, though the gouramy did not make up more than five per

cent of the catches in that area until about 1940, it had. gradually

increased in abundance and was contributing about ninety per cent

of the catch. The rest of the catch is composed largely of the

murral or snake-head (Ophiocephalus striatus Bloch), which shows

that, in spite of its predatory habit, the murral has not been able to

check the increase in numbers of the gouramy.

The secret behind the rapid establishment of the gouramy in

Ceylon waters may lie in the fact that the principal food of this

fish consists of vegetable matter, which is available in abundant

quantity in inland waters at all times of the year. There is very

little significant competition from other local species of fish for this

type of food, and there has been a preponderance of predatory types

of fish in the inland waters of Ceylon. The gouramy held virtually

undisputed sway over the enormous quantities of aquatic plant life

until the introduction of Tilapia mossambica Peters into Ceylon by

the writer in 1951. Notwithstanding the introduction of this other

species of vegetation feeder, the gouramy has continued to provide

a significant proportion of the fish harvested from the inland waters

of the Mahaweli system in particular. The distribution of the

gouramy has been promoted actively by the Department of Fisheries

during the past 15 years. All the major perennial ‘tanks’ (or

reservoirs) have been stocked, and supplies have also been itroduced

by private agency into ponds, plantation dams, and streams, in many

of which the gouramy is now breeding freely in association with

Tilapia and other fishes.

The gouramy is a nest builder. The eggs are deposited in a nest

which is constructed of strips of vegetable matter torn from aquatic or

water-side plants, fibres, etc., woven inlo an ovoid mass about a foot in

diameter, and anchored to vegetation growing by the side of the water.

The eggs are released into the water below the nest and, being

lighter than water, they float up imto the nest and become lodged in

and protected by the tangle of vegetation which comprises the nest,

~ MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 141

Recent experiments have shown that nest-making can be encouraged

by provision in ponds of suitable material such as coco-nut leaves

and fibre, and by fixing short lengths of bamboo in the sides of the

pond just below water level, with the exposed end split and the strands

of bamboo forced apart by wedging a stone into the hollow of the

bamboo. This funnel-shaped holdfast is readily adopted by breeding

gouramy which make their nests out of the material which is deposited

by the farmer in this frame.

The introduction of the gouramy into Ceylon and its establish-

ment in our waters have given convincing evidence of the advantages

that are to be derived by distributing vegetation-feeding fish in inland

waters which are naturally well provided with aquatic plant life.

The fact that the gouramy has survived and bred in environments

from sea-level up to 4000 ft., where water temperatures may drop

to below 60° F., demonstrates the adaptability of this fish to life in

higher elevation waters in the tropics, and suggests a means of

extending fish culture operations with a species that requires little or

no attention, in a region which in Ceyion has hitherto been charac-

terized by the poverty of its food-fish stocks.

DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF FISHERIES, CEYLON,

P.O. Box 531, E. R. A. DE ZYLVA

COLOMBO,

November 7, 1958.

12. A PRELIMINARY NOTE ON THE FOOD AND FEEDING

HABITS OF PSEUDORHOMBUS ELEVATUS OGILBY

Flatfishes are considered as prime food fishes and form an im-

portant demersal fishery in temperate waters. In tropical waters this

fishery is of much less magnitude.

In Bombay flatfishes have not been regarded as of any commercial

importance, for their use as a good table fish is not yet in vogue.

However, with the steady increase in the catches of flatfishes taken

largely by trawlers in recent years, and with the change in the tendency

to regard them as good food fishes, their economic importance

is increasing. Very little is known about the biology of Indian

flatfishes. Among the few publications mention must be made of

Jones and Menon (1951), and Seshappa and Bhimachar (1954, 1955)

The present note records preliminary observations conducted on the

food and feeding habits of Pseudorhombus elevatus Ogilby, one of

the common flatfishes along the Bombay coast.

142 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (i)

Material for the investigation was collected at random from the

wall-nets locally known as wana, fixed not far from the lowest tidal

mark on different shorestrips of Bombay.

The specimens collected were divided into four size-groups, each

with a range of 5 cm., the first group commencing from 6 cm. as

specimens below this could not be obtained. All the four size-groups

were represented in the samples with varying percentages during the

period of investigation. A qualitative and quantitative analysis of

115 females, 59 males, and 7 undeterminates was carried out during

the period.December 1956 to March 1957. Volumetric measure-

ments of the stomach contents were made by means of the water

displacement method.

The volumetric percentages of constituent food items in different

size-groups are shown in Table below, which shows that in the case of

groups I and Ll, crabs constitute a major item of food, and prawns)

and fishes together a minor item. Other types of food such as

Gammarus, Mysis, polychaetes, which form an additional item of

food in groups I and II, gradually disappear from the gut contents

of the succeeding groups. In group III the percentage of crabs

decreases and percentages of prawns and fishes rise considerably,

thereby being transitional between groups II and IV. In the latter

fishes appear to be the main food item.

The result of the study thus shows that the food of Pseudorhombus

elevatus consists of four main types: Gammarus, prawns (Asettus

indicus), crabs (Neptunus sp., Matuta lunaris, Macrophthalmus sp.,

Grapsus strigosus), and fishes (Therapon jarbua, Boleophthalmus sp.),

and four subsidiary types: Mysis, hermit crabs (Diogenes avaris),

magalopae of crabs, and polychaetes (Diopatra neapolitana). ‘The

changes in food preferences may be on account of the fact that the

juveniles of P. elevatus (groups I & JI) are very active, more free

swimming, and show considerable preference for the young of the

crabs of Neptunus, Matuta, Macrophthalmus, and Grapsus. With

growth (groups III & IV) the fish takes to a demersal habit and

appears to feed more exclusively on young fish (Therapon jarbua and

Boleophthalmus sp.). This change of preference in the food is note-

worthy.

I had the opportunity of making firsthand observations on the

method of feeding of the adults at the Taraporevala Aquarium.

When the food is introduced in the tank, the fish rises and darts

forward at an angle and snaps at the morsel, and then settles at the

bottom and gulps it. Whether this habit is repeated in its natural

surroundings is not known, but the type of the food would suggest

this to be so.

143

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

uid

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| Il

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| |

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AQUISO SnIvAaja snquoysopnasg JO SANOIS-9ZIS JUSIOYIP UI SUID} POOJ JUSIOYIP Jo sosejuaoied STIWOUINTOA

A TaVL

144

JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (i)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author is thankful to Dr. H. G. Kewalramani for his helpful

suggestions, and to Dr. C. Y. Kulkarni for affording necessary facilities

at the Taraporevala Marine Biological Station.

TTARAPOREVALA AQUARIUM,

BOMBAY,

April 15, 1958.

M. J. PRADHAN

REFERENCES

Jones, S. and Menon, P.M.G. (1951) :

Notes on the bionomics and some

development stages of some Indian

flat fishes. J. Zool. Soc. India 3 (1): 71-83.

Norman, J. R. (1927): The flat fishes

(Heterostomata) of India, with a list of

specimens in the Indian Museum. Part

Rec. Ind. Mus. 30 I): 173-215.

Seshappa, G. and Bhimachar, B. S.

———— (1954): Studies on the age

and growth of the Malabar Sole, C.

semifasciatus Day. Ind. J. Fisheries

1 (1): 145-62.

———\—(1954) : Studies on the fishery

and biology of the Malabar Sole, Cyno-

reference to the Malabar Sole. Curr. Sci.

20: 260-62.

glossus TH Day. Ind. J. Fisher-

(1951): Age determination studies in ies 2: 180-2

fishes by means of scales with special

13. OBSERVATIONS ON THE BREEDING OF INDIAN

CARPS IN THE GARUDA NALA (BHOPAL)

(With a map)

The major Indian carps, Catla, Rohu, and Mrigal, grow rapidly

im ponds and tanks and attain sexual maturity also but they do not

ordinarily breed in such confined waters. During the monsoon

months these fishes breed in riverine habitats. Location and exploita-

tion of such natural breeding grounds have been one of the important

sources of fish-seed for cultivation in ponds. One such natural

breeding ground in the Garua Nala, connected to the Betwa river

system in Bhopal (M.P.), was located in 1950 and has been exploited

every year since. The factors believed responsible for inducing

the spawning of carps in the bundh type of tanks were discussed

at length during the symposium held on the subject in 1945 (1) and

in subsequent papers. However, very little is even now known ot

the actual factors inducing spawning in natural environments. The

general field observations on the pattern of carps spawning in the

Garua Nala made during the last 7 years are detailed here in the

hope that these might be of some help at least in focussing attention

on a set of environmental factors just preceding spawning in the

particular type of habitat, and in locating similar breeding grounds

and estimating the approximate time when spawning could be ex-

pected there.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 145

The Garua Nala is a small stream which joins the Goder Nadi

and through it the river Betwa (see sketch map). It is an entirely

seasonal stream, originating in the Vindhya Hills and running for

about 8 miles before joining the Goder Nadi. The width of the

stream from bank to bank varies in places from 8 ft. to 30 ft. Ex-

tensive fertile wheat fields are located on either side of the nala.

During the major part of the year, the entire nala remains completely

dry. With the early showers in June water accumulates in isolated

deep pools. Every year the nala gets flooded at least three times.

Ordinarily the first flood of the season comes by about the first

week of July, caused by rains in the catchment areas in the Vindhya

Hills. The water rushing down the hill through the nala is highly turbid.

It does not usually overflow the banks during the first flood. The

second flood, normally during the 3rd week of July, is heavier and

the nala overflows its banks, flooding the adjacent wheat fields, drains,

and shallows. The third flood occurs usually about two or three days

after the second flood. Every year, when the turbid flood water

from the Garua Nala rushes down and flows into the Goder Nadi,

fish ascend rapidly in large numbers for breeding. During the first

flood, when the water does not flood the adjacent pools, fields, and

shallow areas, Catla and Rohu generally do not breed though they

have been observed to ascend the nala during the first flood.

Mrigal, Gonius, Wallago, and certain smaller species, however, breed

even in the limited waters of the first flood. Heavy breeding of

Catla, Rohu, and Mrigal takes place during the second and third

floods. Breeding males and females caught from the nala or adjacent

yaundated pools at this time have been found oozing milt or ova as

the case may be.

The banks of the nala in most places are sloping, and the rising|

flood water easily spreads and inundates the numerous adjoining

pools and shallows. Such inundated areas are generally covered with

a uniform growth of a species of grass locally called khus khus

(Vetiveria indica). Fishes have been repeatedly observed to select

such areas for breeding. Local fishermen believe that the fishes rub

their body on the grass before spawning. The temperature of the

water at the time of spawning has been found to range between 76° F.

to 98° F. in different years.

Ordinarily the females first enter the spawning grounds, immedia-

tely followed by the males. The water in the spawning ground is:

very shallow and often the dorsal fin and portion of the back of

the fishes are exposed. Spawning takes place during day-time as

well as at night. Generally Catla and Rohu spawn at night. The

fishes es a lot of noise splashing about in the spawning ground,

146 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

In the excitement of spawning many lose a number of scales and

also sustain other minor injuries.

With the rising or falling flood-water fertilised developing eggs

are washed down the nala and millions of them could be easily

collected in nets fixed against the current. Collecting these eggs and

hatching them in ponds, hapas, or tubs is a routine operation at the

Pidrie Centre on the Garua Nala.

25 Brey ‘i ‘ <

® PIDRIE SPAWN i eae, uf, soe

COLLECTION CEAYO gui’ \ 7 yee

Nong = safe

¢ GA i

! b

¥ 4 ‘

A \ P| q ]

one ch® ®

< 5 g ?

Oo si 6

»? ta a

A remarkable feature of the spawning of carps in the Garua Nala

is that while spawning every year is certain, and heavy along the

major part of its course, there is hardly any spawning taking place

in most of the numerous other nalas connected with the same river

system. A critical study of the topographical conditions of the

various nalas shows the following special features in the Garua Nala,

which probably induce the fish to spawn:

(1) The banks of the nala are not straight and steep but are, in

most places, sloping and easily connected to shallow marginal areas

and inundated pools covered with bushes and grass.

(2) The marginal areas of the nala are not stony or sandy. ~

(3) Several smaller channels connect the nala with adjacent fields

and pools and these probably serve as natural passages for the fish

to reach the spawning grounds.

It may be mentioned that in the Garua Nala itself, in areas where

the above facilities are not available, the fishes are not observed to

breed. A near-by stream, the Basania river, resembles the Garuai

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 147

Nala to some extent, and limited spawning of carps takes place in

that stream.

I am deeply grateful to Shri Narayan Prasad, Assistant Fisheries

Development Officer, Bhopal, for all the facilities and encouragement

that made it possible for me to make the above observations

repeatedly.

ASST. FISHERIES INSPECTOR,

GOHARGANJ, MOHAMMAD SAGIRULLAH KHAN

BHOPAL,

November 4, 1958.

14. TWO NEW FISH RECORDS FROM ASSAM

This report is based on a small collection of fish from the Khasi

and Jaintia Hills made by Dr. H. S. Rao during the latter part of

1930, which had remained unidentified in the Zoological Survey

of India, Calcutta. The country traversed by Dr. Rao was hilly

interspersed with valleys and most of the specimens in the collection

appear to have been taken from the slow-flowing streams in the

valleys. With the exception of Garra naganensis Hora, the collection

lacks in typical. species found in torrential streams. Some of the

specimens were collected from rice-fields and water-channels leading

to the fields. Most of the species are well-known and call for no

special comment except Brachydanio nigrofasciatus (Day) and

Lepidocephalus berdmorei (Blyth), which are new distributional records

for this part of Assam.

Brachydanio nigrofasciatus (Day)

Danio nigrofasciatus Day, Fish. India :; 597 (1878).

Danio (Brachydanio) nigrofasciatus Weber & de Beaufort, Fish. Indo-Austral.

Archipel. 3: 85 (1916).

m2) 6-7, P. 14; V. 7; A. 2/10-11; C. 16-17; -L.1, 30-33.

Head bluntly pointed, 2.8 to 3.1 in standard length; height at

occiput 1.3, and width 1.8 to 2.1 in head length; diameter of eye 1.8

to 2.0 in length of head; snout about equal to diameter of eye; so

also inter-orbital distance; mouth superior and slightly directed up-

wards; a pair of maxillary barbels present reaching up to middle of

orbit; depth of body 3.4 in standard length; least height of caudal

peduncle 1.8 in its length; dorsal fin origin over anterior half of

148

Species

Barbus (Lissocheilus) hexa-

gonolepis McClelland

Puntius ticto Hamilton

Danio (Danio)

(Hamilton)

dangila

Brachydanio rerio (Hamil-

ton)

Brachydanio nigrofasciatus

(Day)

Garra naganensis Hora

Nemachilus — manipurensis

Chaudhuri

Lepidocephalus _berdmorei

(Blyth)

Channa gachua (Hamilton)

Channa stewartii (Playfair)

No. of

Speci-

mens

291

LIST OF SPECIES

Locality

Myntdu River

Jowai, Jaintia-

pur, and Sil-

long

bi)

Jowai, Myntang

valley, and

Nertiang

Myntdu Rivér

Shillong

Jowai, Jaintia-

pur, Myntang

Valley

Jowai

JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

General Distribution

Eastern Himalayas, Nepal,

and Burma

and

Throughout India

Burma

Bengal, Bihar, Himalayas

at Darjeeling and Assam.

Also the hills above

Akyab

Throughout India and

Burma

| Pegu and Maulmein, Burma

Kairong, Naga Hills

Manipur

Widely distributed in Bur-

mese waters

India, Burma, Ceylon, and

Andamans

Cachar, Assam, and north

Bengal

anal and nearer to base of caudal fin than to tip of snout; lateral line

absent; 74 scales between base of dorsal and the anal fins; in alcohol

body shows a dark broad band passing along lateral side, and a

second thin line below it; dorsal with three to four black bands;

anal with two to three similar bands.

Previously known from Pegu and Maulmein, Burma (Day, 1878)

now the distribution of this species is extended to Myntdu River,

Jaintia Hills, Assam.

Lepidecephalus berdmorei (Blyth)

Lepidocephalichthys berdmorei Hora, Rec. Ind. Mus. 22 : 196 (1921)

D2) 6; PLO Wav. a CO. allot

Head 4.8 in standard length; height at occiput 1.2 in its length;

eyes small, situated almost in middle of head; diameter 2.2 in length

-MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 149

of snout; sub-orbital spine bifid, extending below anterior half of

orbit; two pairs of rostral and one pair of maxillary barbels, extend-

ing below posterior border of orbit; mandibular flap thickened,

pliated anteriorly, and posteriorly produced into three short barbel-

like processes; depth of body 5.0 and length of caudal peduncle

5.2 in the standard length; least height of caudal peduncle

nearly equals its length; dorsal fin origin almost midway between

tip of snout and base of caudal; pectoral reaches anterior half of

pelvic fins; scales minute, 38 between anal and dorsal fias; in alcohol,

a rich yellowish brown with a dark line on side of body composed of

dark. spots; upper part of body covered with fine markings; a conspi-

cuous black spot at base of caudal fin; some markings also found on

pectoral, pelvic, and anal fins.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

My sincere thanks are due to the late Dr. S. L. Hora, Director,

Zoological Survey of India, for suggesting the problem, providing all

the laboratory and library facilities, and confirming my identifica-

tions of the species.

CENTRAL INLAND FISHERIES RESEARCH SUB-STATION,

ALLAHABAD (U.P.),

August 6, 1958.

K, L, SEHGAL

REFERENCES

and Pegu Yomas, Burma. Rec. Ind, Mus.

Day, F. (1878): Fishes of India. Lon-

don

Hamilton, F. (1824) : Fishes of Ganges

and its tributaries. Edinburgh. ;

Hora, S. L. (1921): Fish and fisheries

36 : 123-128.

——-—— (1935) : Fish of the Naga

Hills, Assam. Rec. Ind. Mus. 37 :381-404.

Menon, A. G. K. (1954) : Further

observations on the fish fauna of Manipur

of Manipur with some observations of

those of the Naga Hills. Rec. Ind. Mus.

21 : 165-214.

———— & Mukerji, D. D. (1934) : On

a collection of fish from S. Shan States

State. Rec. Ind. Mus. 52 : 21-26.

Sehgal, K. L. (1956) : On a collection

of fish from Assam. JBNHS 53: 717-723.

15. A QUICK AND EASY METHOD OF MOUNTING

FISH SPECIMENS

(With a text-figure)

It is common experience that ordinary preservation of fish speci-

mens either in alcohol or in formalin invariably distorts such external

characters as are essential for their correct identification. The fins

and the fin rays are the first to be affected, then come the lateral

line and the colour of the body. In most laboratories and museums,

whenever the need of a revised classification arises, it becomes

150 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

extremely difficult to trace all the diagnostic characters, particularly

in specimens which have long been badly preserved, and as a result

some rare and precious specimens are rendered totally unfit for

critical examination. The common techniques of mounting the fish

are either too rough or too elaborate—the later involving lengthy

processes of fixing, stretching, drying and so on, which generally

become impracticable when large numbers have to be dealt with at

a time. It is, therefore, hoped that the following account will be

of general interest, and that when practised regularly the method will

improve the scientific value of specimens considerably.

During the study of the anatomy and bionomics of Ophiocephalus

sp., the need of properly mounted specimens led to the adoption of

the present technique. It was also tried on many other species with

increasing success.

Fishes were killed in chloroform and then fixed by keeping them

for a few minutes im desired strengths of formalin solution, whose

concentration varied from 5% to 40%, depending upon the size of

the fish. For fixing large specimens it was considered necessary

either to inject a 40% formalin solution at several places in their

bodies, or by applying the usual method of making a small slit in

the abdomen and allowing them to stand in a 40% formalin solution

for a short time. Each fixed specimen was then placed laterally

on a sheet of cardboard and its body profile roughly traced,

leaving out the regions of the caudal fin and the extreme tip of the

snout. The area on the cardboard thus demarcated was cut out by

means of a sharp knife, and the fish inserted in the gap. This’

method allows the bulge of the body to go through the replicate gap

and bring the dorsal, ventral, and caudal fins directly in contact with

the cardboard for the further manipulations required for their

stretching. To keep the cardboard in .vertical position strips of

adhesive celluloid tape ard fixed at several places, loosely passing

along the body of the fish. “In large specimens an additional support

to the cardboard can be given, if necessary, by placing pieces of

wood or bricks underneath to form a rough pedestal.

Stretching of the fins is done first by smearing them over with

a thin film of gum or any commercial glue, and then pinning them

on the cardboard all along their length. The use of glue has been

found extremely helpful in keeping the fins in position and rendering

them stiff even after the specimens have been finally transferred in

preservatives. The stretching of the pectoral and the pelvic fins

requires additional small cardboard pieces. These, therefore, receive

the treatment noted above generally before the fish is placed within

the cardboard gap.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 151

Fishes thus mounted on the cardboard are kept for a few minutes,

preferably ia the sun, until the fins have dried. They are then taken

off and stored in separate jars containing either 70% alcohol or

AIMS

formalin solution of suitable strength, which has previously been

neutralised with borax. The entire process at first takes 15 to 25

minutes with each fish, but with a little practice it can be reduced

to about 10 minutes.

I am greatly indebted to Dr. S. Z. Qasim for kindly reading

through the manuscript of this article.

ICHTHYOLOGY AND FISHERIES SECTION,

DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY, A. H. MUSAVI

ALIGARH UNIVERSITY,

ALIGARH, U.P.,

January 9, 1958.

16. SOME LEAF-MINERS OF AGRICULTURAL IMPORTANCE

IN NIZAMABAD DISTRICT OF ANDHRA PRADESH

Leaf-mining insects form an interesting group for study. The insect

leaf-miners are all larvae belonging to one of the following orders,

namely Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Diptera, and Hymenoptera. Gener-

ally speaking, the majority of the leaf-miners are not of economic

Importance. According to Needham ef al. (1928), in the United

States of America the apple has at least ten different insect species

that mine its leaves. Only two or three of them are of some import-

ance, occasionally and in neglected orchards. Some of the leaf-miners

152 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

on agricultural crops are, however, sufficiently important to warrant

control measures. Mention may be made of Promecotheca reichei

Baly, the Coconut Leaf-miner, which is the: most important pest of

coconut in the Fiji Islands. In the following paper notes are given

of some of the leaf-miners which are important as well as potentially

important in Nizamabad district of Andhra Pradesh.

Nizamabad district which was formerly a part of Hyderabad State

has a rich agricultural potential. Its importance has increased after

the advent of the Nizamsagar Reservoir in the year 1950 by which

three out of its five taluks have been able to get supplies of perennial

irrigation water. The rainfall of the district averages 40 inches

received mostly in the South-west Monsoon months of June, July,

August, and September. The average maximum temperature varies

from 75° F. to 106° F. and the average minimum from 50° F. to

89.9° F. The important crops grown are rice (Oryza sativa), jowar

(Andropogon sorghum), and sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum).

Hispa armigera O]. Rice Hispa. (Hispinae, Chrysomelidae; Coleoptera.)

The grubs of this beetle mine the leaves of rice crop grown in

both the seasons, viz. Abi and Tabi. While adult beetles scrape the

epidermal layers of the leaf, the grubs mine into the leaves. Both

the larval and pupal stages are passed in the leaf-mine itself. The

reduction in yield ranges from 39-659 on normal average yields

varying between 1200-2400 Ib. per acre. In Nizamabad district the

insect passes through six generations in a year on both the crops.

The eggs are laid in the leaf-tip of rice crop and normally hatch

in about a week’s time. The grub stage lasts 15-20 days, the grub

feeding throughout in the same leaf mine. When two or more grubs

attack the same leaf the different mines coalesce into one. The

pupal period ranges from 6-10 days. The adult beetles live in con-

finement for a week to ten days. The complete life cycle occupies

30-35 days and does not vary much from year to year.

The natural enemies of Rice Hispa recorded in Nizamabad district

are:

(i) Bracon sp. (Braconidae; Hymenoptera), which is a larval

parasite on hispa grubs. The incidence of parasitism in nature

ranges from 15-82%. A brief account of this parasite has been

already given (Khan and Murthy, 1956).

(ii) Eupteromalus sp. near nidulans Forst. This is mostly a

secondary parasite on Bracon sp. noted above and occasionally has

also been observed as a primary larval parasite on hispa grubs. The

incidence of parasitism (as a primary larval parasite) ranges from

2-5 %.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES ‘OL | Be

(iii) An unidentified Cecidomyiid larval parasite. The incidence

is negligible.

Pseudonapomyza atra Meigen (?). (Phytomyzinae, Agromyzidae;

Diptera.)

This insect has come into prominence since 1952, when it appeared

in appreciable numbers on the rice crop in the entire Nizamabad

district. Formerly it had been observed mostly on grasses, the chief

of which are Cynodon dactylon, Eragrostis pilosa, and Setaria inter-

media. It has a widespread distribution having been recorded from

Europe, Africa, North America, India, Malaya, and the Pacific Islands

on a variety of graminaceous host plants.

The damage done to the paddy crop by P. atra consists of light-

yellow apodous maggots mining the leaves and feeding on the

mesophyll. The epidermal layers are not touched. The mines are

linear but may turn into a blotch when more than one mine appear

on the same leaf and spread over. In case of severe infestation, the

leaves wither and fall off and the tillering is affected adversely.

August and September are the months of maximal activity of the

insect. Routine sampling indicated the percentage of attack as

varying from 15-50% on broadcast sown crop. Generally, not more

than one maggot is observed in each leaf-mine. The pupation takes

place inside the leaf-mine only. The entire life cycle of the insect

is completed in 12-15 days. The flies are short-lived.

The natural enemies recorded on P. atra (Bap Reddy, 1956) are:

(1) Derostenus sp.

(2) Achrysocharis sp. (Euliphidae).

(3) Eucoilidea sp. (Eucoilinae).

_ Apart from rice, P. atra is also recorded on maize (Zea mays) as

well as ragi (Elusine coracana Gaert.) which is grown to a small extent

in Kamareddi and Yellareddi taluks of the district.

Rhadinosa lebongensis Mlk. (Hispidae; Coleoptera).

This is a very minor insect pest of rice in the district. The adult

beetle to the untrained eye resembles Rice Hispa (H. armigera) though

the adults are smaller in size than the Rice Hispa. Body black, elytra

shiny bluish black and bey glabrous; form narrow and _ parallel-

sided.

The life-history of R. lebongensis is similar to that of Hispa

armigera. The adults scrape the epidermal layer of rice leaves while

the grubs mine into the leaves. The duration of each stage noted

104A

154. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

in the laboratory at a temperature averaging 84.5° F. (maximum)

and 71.9° F. (minimum) is as follows :—

Grub stage—14 days (average)

Pupal stage—6 days (average)

The longevity of adults is 4-6 days. ‘The entire life-cycle is roughly

completed in 30-35 days.

Rhadinosa lebongensis has also been noted on Echinocloa colonum

Link and Panicum spp. No larval parasites are noticed but the

pupae are heavily parasitised by a chalcid (under indentification), the

incidence of parasitization ranging from 20-70%.

Adult beetles of Rhadinosa lebongensis have been observed to

scrape the leaves of sugarcane but no leaf-mining by the maggots has

been observed.

Other minor leaf miners which have been observed in Nizamabad

district but on which studies have not been conducted are the citrus

leaf-miner Phyllocristis citrella S., found on young plants of Nimbu

and Mosambi (Citrus aurantifolia, C. limetioides) and the leaf-mining

weevil on Mango (Rhynchoerus mangiferae M.).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author is grateful to Dr. M. Q. Khan, Entomologist to the

former Government of Hyderabad, for help and guidance. Thanks

are due to the authorities of the British Museum (Natural History),

London, for indentification of the insects. |

GLOSSARY

Abi: Monsoon crop, sown in June-July and harvested in

November-December. |

Tabi: Second season crop, sown in January-February and harvest-

ed in April-May.

618, SkrpP’S COMPOUND,

MALLESWARAM, D. V. MURTHY

BANGALORE 3,

September 26, 1957.

REFERENCES

1. Bap Reddy, D. (1956): Pseudonapo- parasite on the rice hispa. Ind. J. Ent. 16.

myza atra on Maize leaves. Curr. Sci. 25 3. Needham, J. G., Frost, S. W., and

(5) : 160. Tothill, B. H. (1928): Leaf-mining

2. Khan, M. Q. and Murthy, D. V. Insects. Bailliere, Tindall & Cox, London,

(1954): A preliminary note onalarval 351 pp,

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 155

17. NOTES ON THE NYMPHAL INSTARS OF

LACCOTREPHES GRISEUS (GUER.)

(NEPIDAE; HETEROPTERA) FROM INDIA

(With six text-figures)

INTRODUCTION

Very little is known about the different nymphal instars of

Laccotrephes except for casual references to Nepa_ cinerea

(Hamilton, 1931) and Laccotrephes tristis (Hale, 1924). Hafiz

(1938) and Hafiz and Pradhan (1947), while recording adults of

Laccoirephes species from Bihar and Patna, provide no information

on the nymphs. An attempt is made here to study the different

nymphal instars of JL. griseus and the external changes during

metamorphosis, which involves (1) increase in body size, (2) develop-

ment of wings, (3) development of anal siphon, (4) structural change

in forelegs, especially the femoral groove, and (5) development of

the toilet organ.

MATERIAL

Collections were made with the aid of hand-nets in the rainy

months of October and November from Tambarm (S. India), during

which time nymphs are available in large numbers. They were kept

alive in aquaria in pond water with sufficient vegetation, while in

chlorinated tap water they did not survive for long. Preservation of

the different instars was in 4% formaline. For a study of the ratio

of the labial segments in the different instars, the heads were treated

with a weak solution of KoH, washed in water, dehydrated, cleared

in clove oil, and mounted in xylol-canada Balsam.

NYMPHAL INSTARS

Fe Insta rn ymph: Body length excluding anal siphon 6 mm;

head brown, 1.36 mm. wide and 1.2 mm. long; rostrum short, labium

three-jointed; pronotum dark in middle region, pale brown at sides;

mesonotum and metanotum light brown with a pair of dark patches

on either side of mid-dorsal line; abdomen short, light brown with

dark shade at centre and pale towards sides; posterior segments with

156 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

distinct dark patches in mid-dorsal region; paraterga curving round

and overhanging the sterna so as to form longitudinal grooves in

which spiracles are lodged; anal siphon short, almost same length

of abdomen: a faint line seen throughout length of tube in middle,

clearly indicating its double nature; length of anal siphon 3 mm.

Il. Instar nymph: Body length 6.5-7.5 mm.; head reddish

brown with a pair of prominent dark eyes at sides; rostrum light

brown, 0.72 mm. long; thorax paler at sides, with dark brown patches

at centre throughout; wing-pads short projections from sides of meso-

and meta-nota, extending as far as lateral edge of first abdominal

y- to's)

Instars of Laccotrephes griseus (Guer.)

Figs. 1—5. Nymphs (1,4, &5, x 3; 2&3, x 2°'5); Fig. 6. Adult (x 2°5).

segment; abdomen with dark brown patch at middle; length of anal

siphon 3.75 mm.

Ill. Instar nymph: Body length 8.0-9.5 mm.; pale brown

with a dark shade at middle; head brown, wider than long; pronotum

deeply sinuate to receive head; thoracic segments with dark patches

in mid-dorsal region and pale towards lateral margins; metanotum

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES ieyy/

with two black spots; wing-pads distinct and prominent, extending

up to lateral margin of second abdominal segment; siphon much longer,

measuring about 5 mm.

IV. Instar nymph: Body length 10-11 mm.; black patches

in many places; rostrum ! mm. long; abdomen and siphon showing

corresponding increase in length. Forelegs up to the end of instar

IV are more or less distinctly mottled and irregularly barred with

light colour; forefemora stout, long, with a prominent groove on its

upper margin; length of anal siphon 5.5-6.0 mm.

V. Instar nymph: Body length 12.5 mm.; head with

prominent eyes; thorax and wing-pads darker; wing-pads increase in

size, extending up to third abdominal segment; siphon still maintain-

ing its undivided condition, subsequent ecdysis revealing its double

nature; anal siphon 6.3 mm.

ADULT

Body length 14-16 mm.; abdomen fuscous brown; wings vitreous;

anal siphon shorter than the body; hemelytra slightly ampliated dark

brown; hind wings membranous; siphon 12 mm

TABLE SHOWING MEASUREMENTS OF DIFFERENT INSTARS,

~S Ratio of

Te a a :

bo pS: = 8 s oy Sp Ratio of lengths

Instar 2 ¢ 2 5 = 2 E > 5 siphon length/ of labial

3 ae = fee = 3 bo = abdomen length | Segments

ess yee y~efoe Ist : 2nd: 3rd

I 6.00 0.90 0.58 1.00 Gi 19

II leas 0.91 0.60 0.82 Av: 9°:"'6

III 8.60 0.91 0.66 0.86 > Ons 7

IV 10.75 0.97 0.62 0.92 4.286

Vv 12.10 0.84 0.59 0.87 Seon. 6

Adult. 14.50 0.85 0.65 1.30 1053.20": 13

158 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

DISCUSSION

From the foregoing account it is clear that the anal siphon, which

is paired in the adult, appears as a single tube throughout the nymphal |

stages, but all along its double nature is indicated by a faint line in

the middle. The siphon assumes its paired nature only after the last

ecdysis. The wing-pads make their appearances in the second instar.

They gradually increase in size, extending as far as the third abdo-

minal segment in the IV and V instars, while initially they extend

up to the first abdominal segment. The toilet organ, represented by

a group of slender radiating spines at the distal angles of the

metatibia, is present both in the nymphs and the adult.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author expresses his grateful thanks to Professor T. N.

Ananthakrishnan for the valuable help received during the present

study.

LOYOLA COLLEGE,

MADRAS,

November 24, 1958.

T. K. RAGHUNATHA RAO, .a.

REFERENCES

Distant, W.S. (1906): Fauna of British

India (Vol. 3. Rhynchota).

— — — (1910): Fauna of British

India (Vol. 5. Rhynchota.)

Hafiz, H. A. (1938) : Ona collection of

aquatic Rhynchota from Raj Mahal Hills

Rec. Ind. Mus. 40: 207-210.

chota from Patna state with descriptions

of two new species. Rec. Ind. Mus. 45:

347-376.

Hamilton, M. A. (1931): Morphology

of the water scorpion Nepa cinera Linn.

Proc. Zool. Soc. London: 1067-1136.

Hale, M. (1924) : Studies on Australian

— — — and Pradhan, K. S. (1947):

Notes on a collection of aquatic Rhyn-

aquatic Hemiptera. Rec. South Austr.

Mus. Adelaide 2: pp. 503-520.

18. INDIVIDUAL HOST DISCRIMINATION BY BLOOD

SUCKING INSECTS

Adverting to Mr. Oscar M. Root’s narrative on the above subject

and the editorial note thereunder in Journal for August 1958 (55:

376) it appears certain that, though reaction to insect-bites may vary

in individuals, the difference in incidence has much to do with host

discrimination of the insects. While in the Chanda district, where

ticks are a menace in certain forests, I have on many occasions

envied a guest forester going round with me and concluding the

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 159

excursion without a single tick on his body, while I invariably

‘collected’ at least two or three in spite of the amount of physical

exposure being the same! Local Marias in that tract are known to

be completely immune to ticks. Similarly, in the semi-evergreen

forests of the Western Ghats, the local inhabitants are reported to be

immune to leeches. How far it is correct to attribute this, as is

commonly believed in both cases, to their habit of chewing tobacco

in quantities and consequent concentration of nicotine in their systems

is not known.

BOMBAY FOREST SERVICE,

16, BoMBAY ROAD, G. B. DASHPUTRE

Poona 3, |

November 5, 1958.

19. IDENTIFICATION OF CERTAIN CRUSTACEANS

COLLECTED FROM RAINWATER POOLS NEAR

PILANI, RAJASTHAN

Further to my note published in the Journal [Vol. 54 (4): 961-2]

1 have been able to have the crustacean material collected from rain-

water pools identified as under:

1. Triops cancriformis (Bosc) (Notostraca).

2. Streptocephalus dichotomus (Baird) (Ostracoda).

3. Candonocypris bicornis var. laevis Gauthier (Ostracoda).

4. Caenestheriella annandalei Daday (Concostraca).

My thanks are due to Dr. J. P. Harding, British Museum (Natural

History), London, for having the material identified for me.

DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY,

J.V. COLLEGE, N. S$. SIDHU

BARAUT (MEERUT),

September 27, 1958.

160 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

20. THE LEAVES OF ALSEODAPHNE SEMECARPIFOLIA -

NEES

Recently the Maharaja of Bansda sent to the Society some

leaves for identification. They have been identified as belonging to

Alseodaphne semecarpifolia Nees, of the family Lauraceae. The tree

is widely found in Bombay State, but is more abundant towards. th

south of the same. |

Together with the leaves our correspondent sent us this note: ‘If

about 20 leaves are eaten, one can do without food for 2 or 3 days.

Is it possible to use these leaves to lessen appetite in cases where

dieting is necessitated for reduction of weight? The tubers of this

plant are supposed to be efficacious in treating eczema cases: to be

rubbed into a paste with very little water and applied locally.’

We find no references in the literature on the subject; this is why

this note is being published to ask our readers if they have any

information.

We do find in the literature references to another plant, which has

remarkable properties in the sense asked by our correspondent; it

is Ilex paraguensis St. Hil., the so-called Mate or Paraguay Tea; the

dry leaves are used for the preparation of an infusion known as

Paraguay Tea; the fresh or dry leaves are chewed much as betel

leaves are in India, and are reported to have very striking properties,

so that a person can go for several days without eating provided the

person chews an occasional leaf of the plant. This tree has been

seen under cultivation in some gardens in India.

ST. XAVIER’S COLLEGE,

Bomsay 1, | H. SANTAPAU, s.J.

January 12, 1959.

21. THE ‘RED TRIANGLE’ BOUGAINVILLEA

A seedling Bougainvillea was raised in the National Botanic

Gardens, Lucknow, the seed parent selfed being. Lord Willingdon,

a deep terracotta red, introduced by Delhi.

The seedling was grown in a ten-inch pot till the wet weather set

in, when it was planted in the pot on an island in the Water Garden,

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 161

Two strong shoots developed but the Bougainvillea also carries some

twiggy growth. The plant has been named Red Triangle because,

when fully developed, the bracts viewed full face definitely form a

triangle.

Bike (°

yj ©

Normally flower spikes appear on the upper portions of the shoots,

the peduncles taking the place of the thorns. On the strong shoots

of Red Triangle, however, about five feet from the base, thorns

commence to show a ragged tip, then produce two hair-like append-

ages and subsequent thorns develop coloured bracts, some merely a

sixteenth of an inch in length, till finally the three bracts carrying

flowers surmount the thorn. By this time the thorn has elongated

from one inch to two and a half inches and resembles a peduncle with

a thickened base. Thorns further up the shoot will be fouwad with

the small appendages. |

162 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (1)

In the attached sketch No. 1 represents the normal thorns on a

shoot of Red Triangle, Nos. 2 to 6 subsequent development of the

bracts, No. 7 shows the thorn elongated into a peduncle, carrying

a normal group of bracts and flowers, and No. 8 is a full face view

of the bracts carrying unopened flower buds.

NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDENS, K. N. KAUL, F.L.s.

LUCKNOW, Director.

November 27, 1958.

Notes and News

The Government of India is compiling a National Register of all

qualified scientific and technical personnel of the country for the

assessment and proper utilization of existing talent and for future

planning. The following categories of personnel are being enrolled:

(1) Holders of at least a post-graduate degree in a science

subject; (2) holders of at least a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture,

Veterinary Science, and other specialized fields; (3) holders of a degree

or diploma in engineering and technology; and (4) medical specialists

(including post-graduates and those with research qualifications).

Registration is done through Card ‘G’ only, which is available

with: (a) the Union Public Service Commission and all State Public

Service Commissions; (b) all Employment Exchange Offices (employed

persons may also obtain cards from the Exchanges); (c) all National

Laboratories of the C.S.I.R.; and (d) National Register Unit, C.S.LR.,

Old Mill Road, New Delhi.

* * * 8

At the XI Conference of the International Committee for Bird

Preservation held at Helsinki, Finland, in June 1958 an innovation of

some significance was made. It was decided to include individual

‘Contributing Members’ in the Committee, whereas heretofore only

official National Sections enjoyed that privilege.

Persons interested in bird protection and conservation in any part

of the world can now become Contributing Members in their individual

capacity by paying a fee of £5 per annum. In return such members

will receive the I.C.B.P. Bulletin (No. VII now in press) and will be

invited to all international conferences held in whatever part of the

world. They will have all the rights and privileges of representatives

of National Sections with the exception of individual voting.

The President of the International Committee (henceforth to be

known as Council) for Bird Preservation will welcome persons anxious

to help in the promotion of bird preservation throughout the world

taking advantage of the opportunity now available for actively

collaborating with the International Committee.

* * 6 ok

The First All-India Congress of Zoology sponsored by the

Zoological Society of India, which was proposed to be held last year

but had to be postponed, will now be held at Jabalpur (M.P.) from,

24 to 29 October 1959 on the invitation of the University of

164. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (i)

Jabalpur. Further information may be had from the General Secretary,

Dr. B. S. Chauhan, c/o Zoological Survey of India, 34 Chittaranjan

Avenue, Calcutta 12 (India).

* * * *

The third award of the Zoological Society of India’s Sir Dorab

Tata Medal has been made to Dr. A. P. Mathew, retired professor of

Zoology, University College, Trivandrum, for his important contri-

butions to zoology during the three-year period 1955-57.

Readers of the Journal will recall Dr. Mathew’s excellent paper on

the Scorpion Heterometrus scaber published in Vol. 54 (4), pp. 853-

857.

: * *k ok **

The Bombay Natural History, has a project in hand for setting up

a well-equipped centre for the study of bird migration on the edge

of the Great Rann of Kutch. Dr. Salim Ali’s ornithological survey

of Kutch, made in 1944-5, had revealed that this is a particularly

suitable venue for the purpose. Before deciding on the location of

the permanent station it is proposed to set up six temporary field

stations strung out at every ten miles or so along the northern boundary

of Kutch. ‘These stations will operate for a fortnight during the next

autumn migration and another fortnight in spring 1960, and will serve

to pin-point the exact spots where the best potentialities for trapping

and netting lie. It is expected that the project will have the support

of the World Health Organization, which is interested in the work for

the clues it may provide to the dissemination of arthropod-borne

viruses by migratory birds.

CORRIGENDUM

Vol. 55 (3): 423. Lines 20 and 21. The extracts\trom) the fei

notes mentioned as being given at the end of the paper were not

published since the more important details were already embodied in

the paper.

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY V. M. PHILIP AT THE DIOCESAN PRESS

18 CHURCH ROAD, VEPERY, MADRAS—15-5-1959. C1523

EDITORS: SALIM ALI, AND H. SANTAPAU

91 WALKESHWAR ROAD, BOMBAY 6

“ag

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CONTENTS

PAGE

THE LOVE AND LIFE OF FippLer Crass. By Rudolf Altevogt ahi fs BEE, B

SOME EDIBLE WILD PLANTS FROM THE HILLY REGION OF THE POONA DISTRICT,

BomBAY STATE. By V.D. Vartak .. a ee se: Cae

UNUSUAL AND SUPPLEMENTARY FOOD PLANTS OF KUMAON. By K. S. Bhargava 26

OBSERVATIONS ON THE MACKEREL FISHERY OF THE NETRAVATI ESTUARY, WEST

Coast, SouTH INpIA. By P. C. George, M. H. Dhulkhed, and V. Rama-

mohana Rao bi -. es Fn nie Oe

THE Lire-HisToRY AND BIOLOGY OF THE WAX-SCALE, Ceroplastes pseudoceriferus

GREEN (COCCIDAE: Homoptera). By T. Sankaran =a oe

SOME NEW AND INTERESTING FORMS OF Oedogonium FROM UTTAR PRADESH. By

G.S. Venkataraman oe sa ay He .. 60

NOTES ON THE BUTTERFLY GENUS Ypthima. By Sir Keith Cantlie, and Dr. ;

T. Norman i Hf, at ~ 6

ZOOGEOGRAPHIC (CONSIDERATIONS ON THE INDIAN AVIFAUNA. By S. Dillon

Ripley .. a be « re 2 ee ee

THE BIOLOGY OF THE WEEVIL Alcidodes bubo (FABRICIUS) (COLEOPTERA :

CURCULIONIDAE). By T. R. Subramanian sien Sa - oo) Oe

OBSERVATIONS ON THE FLORA OF MARUNDUVALMALAI, KANYAKUMARI (CAPE

ComorIN). By C. A. Lawrence 4 Pe, oA age

THE BioLoGy oF Sclerogibba longiceps RICHARDS AND Sclerogibba embiidarum

(KIEFF.) (SCLEROGIBBIDAE: HYMENOPTERA) PARASITIC ON EMBIOPTERA.

By K. S. Ananthasubramanian and T. N. Ananthakrishnan .. 101

REVIEWS .. a Pe eS a ah .. 114

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES “a ig 2 i 525

NOTES AND NEWS 5% fe ars

Journal of the

Bombay Natural History Society

526,54

B72 Vol. 56, No. 2

Editors

SALIM ALI & H. SANTAPAU, s.1.

AUGUST 1959

Rs. 15

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: EpITorRS,

91, Walkeshwar Road, Journal of the Bombay Natural

Bombay 6 History Society.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME 56, NO. 2

PAGE

‘SEED DisPERSAL. By Charles McCann. (With five plates) ws 2. ) 165

‘OBSERVATIONS ON THE MATING AND OVIPOSITION OF TWO LAND PULMONATES,

Achatina fulica BowpicH AND Macrochlamys indica GODWIN-AUSTEN. By

Krishna Chandra Ghose te +, at Ne £30183

‘CRITICAL NOTES ON THE ORCHIDACEAE OF BOMBAY STATE. 1. THE GENUS Habenaria

WiLtD. By H. Santapau and Z. Kapadia. (With six plates) .. .. 188

“New MARINE NEMATODES OF THE SUPERFAMILY ENOPLOIDEA FROM THE ARABIAN

SEA. By Richard W. Timm. (With two plates) a hp .. 204

he LirE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY. By H.J. Kitchener. (With a plate) sot DU

‘OBSERVATIONS ON THE TAXONOMIC CHARACTERS OF Triops orientalis (TrIwARI),

WITH A NOTE ON ITS BioLoGy. By A.A. Karandeand N.B.Inamdar. (With

a plate) ae ne fi ae ae Bae 2) bs,

A PRELIMINARY TAGGING EXPERIMENT ON THE Mu.iet, Mugil cephalus LiNNAEUS

IN CHILKA LAKE. By V. G. Jhingran and J. C. Patro. (With three text-

figures) ::. uf a if a “0226

SOME MEDICINAL WEEDS IN AND AROUND PONDICHERRY. By R. K. Gupta, M. V.

Dabholkar, and P. S. Tejomurthy ae ss ot Raety 25)

FisHING METHODS FOR THE INDIAN SHAD [Hilsa ilisha (HAMILTON)] IN THE INDIAN

REGION. PartI. By S. Jones. (With two text-figures and fifteen plates) 250

LECTOTYPES OF THE SPECIES AND VARIETIES DESCRIBED BY BLATTER AND HALLBERG IN

THEIR “ FLORA OF THE INDIAN DESERT’. By H. Santapau ve i216

THE FLORA OF THE SCRUB JUNGLES OF MADRAS STATE. By K. A. Shankara-

narayan and M. V. Dabholkar ae, ne Ay ee aoe

‘OBITUARY :

Lt.-Col. E. G. Phythian-Adams uA Ae a yai-298

REVIEWS :

1. An Introduction to Biology (B.J.T.) A ce s. j293

2. Portrait of a Wilderness (L.W.-T.) .. i ae .) 296

3. An Atlas of airborne Pollen Grains (H. Santapau) ss Slo

4. Lalbagh Botanical Gardens, Bangalore, India, 1856-1956 Centenary

Celebrations. August 1957 (H.Santapau) .. us .. 298

5. Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants (H. Santapau) ge es Woe ie ae

6. A Handbook of some Indian Weeds, containing complete descriptions

and short notes on some of the common weeds indigenous and

introduced in South India (P. V. Bole) es ne 510) OO

. Flowering Plants of Eastern India. Vol. I (P. V. Bole) ar ee sOL

8. Ahead lies the Jungle (E.P.G.) ae 14 5 ~ = 302

. On Indian Insect Types—V (E.G.S.) aa .. 303

10. Kingdom of the Octopus : The Life-history of the Cephalopoda (D:E-R.) 305

11. The Birds of the Palaearctic Fauna—Passeriformes (S.A.) .. eae oOY,

12. About Indian Birds (L.W.-T.) ei nie ee <2 309

ADDITIONS TO THE SOCIETY’S LIBRARY “is Das ae «+ 310

li CONTENTS OF VOLUME 56, NO. 2—(contd.)

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES :

1. A tiger’s unorthodox method of commencing its meal. By B. Subhiah Pillai

(p. 316). 2. The present status of the Indian Lynx. By N. N. Sen (p. 317). 3. The

voice of the Cheetah or Hunting Leopard (Acinonyx jubatus Erxleben). By Lieut.-

Col. R. W. Burton (p. 317). 4. Increase of Swamp Deer (Cervus duvauceli Cuv.)

in the Kaziranga Sanctuary, Assam. By J. H. Burnett (p. 318). 5. Some sorry notes

on wild life in NW. Madhya Pradesh (With a plate). By Humayun Abdulali (p. 319).

6. Further wild life notes from Madhya Pradesh (With a plate). By Humayun Abdulali

(p. 321). 7. A visit to some Indian wild life sanctuaries. By T. H. Bassett (p. 323).

8. Notes on the Spiny Babbler, Acanthoptila nipalensis (Hodgson), in the Nepal valley.

By Desirée Proud (p. 330). 9. A new white-throated race of the babbler Dumetia

hyperythra. By Humayun Abdulali (p. 333). 10. On the validity of Harpactes ery-

throcephalus hodgsoni (Gould) [Aves : Trogonidae] (With a text-figure). By Biswamoy

Biswas (p. 335). 11. Edible-nest swiftlets in Burma. By T. Chein Hoe (p. 338).

12. Remarks on the subspecies of the Grass Owl, Tyto capensis. By Dean Amadon

(p. 344). 13. Local movements of resident waterbirds. By Salim Ali (p. 346). 14.

Drowning of aquatic birds. By C. Brooke Worth (p. 347). 15. A flying accident to

a swift. By Christina Loke (p. 349). 16. A python’s meal. By Raja of Jasdan (p.

349). 17. Vocal sounds from snakes. By N. L. Corkill (p. 350). 18. A note on

Hydrachna sp. parasitic on Ranatra filiformis and Ranatra elongata. By T. K. Raghu-

natha Rao (p. 351). 19. On the occurrence of Nebalia longicornis in Indian waters

(With a plate). By N. Krishna Pillai (p. 351). 20. On some longicorn beetles of

Dharwar (Mysore). By M. H. Dhulkhed (p. 354). 21. A new butterfly from Assam

(With a text-figure). By Keith Cantlie and T. Norman (p. 357). 22. Butterflies

of Bombay and Salsette—Further additions. By Editors (p. 358). 23. Asphondylia

sp. a new record of a Cecidomyid on Sesbania speciosa flowers in Madras State (With _

a text-figure). By S. Venugopal (p. 359). 24. Some preliminary notes on the insect

life in Sambhar Lake. By Inder Chand Baid (p. 361). 25. Rose variant of Polygala

erioptera. By R. M. Patel (p. 364). 26. Salmalia malabarica and S. insignis

in Bombay. By H. Santapau (p. 364). 27. The occurrence of Triumfetta pentandra

A. Rich.in Bombay State (With a plate). By V.D.Vartak (p.365). 28. A remarkable

case of twining of a branch in Pinus canariensis C. Smith (With a photo). By T.C.N.

Singh (p. 366). 29. Occurrence of Curcuma inodora Blatt. at Pavagadh (Gujarat).

By V. G. Phatak and G. M. Oza (p. 368). 30. New record of Mariscus paniceus Vahl

and Cyperus leucocephalus Retz. from Gujarat. By A. R. Chavan and S. D. Sabnis

(p. 369). 31. Khaya senegalensis A. Juss.—A new plant record from Pondicherry,

South India (With a text-figure). By K. A. Shankaranarayan (p. 370).

Journ. BomBay Nat. Hist. Soc. PLATE |

Water Dispersal

The lotus (Nelumbo speciosa) fruit, Bandra.

Wind Dispersal

A large specimen of Ak (Calotropis procera), Rann of Kutch.

Photos: C. McCann

1960

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JOURNAL

OF THE

BOMBAY NATURAL

HISTORY SOCIETY

1959 AUGUST Vol. 56 No. 2

Seed Dispersal

CHARLES MCCANN

(With five plates)

INTRODUCTION

Seed dispersal is a most fascinating subject. Its study calls for close

observation and careful reasoning. However, some forms of dispersal

are forcibly and annoyingly impressed upon us when we are out of doors

by adherent fruits and seeds, which stick to clothing as one passes through

vegetation. Further, its understanding enables us to interpret some of

the problems of plant distribution, leading us into the realm of plant

geography.

The presentation of a botanical subject in a popular form is often

fraught with difficulties owing to the absence of or the incorrect appli-

cation of popular names. Perhaps in India the difficulties are even

greater owing to the diversity of language. It happens, not infrequently,

that a single species is referred to by many names or a single name is

applied to several species. English names, like the vernacular, can also

be misleading, if not incorrect (particularly in the strictly botanical

sense); for example, the word ‘lily’ is applied to several species which

are not even remotely related to the true lilies ! Some years ago, this

misapplication of names was adequately illustrated by the question:

what is the Flame of the Forest? This question was dealt with in the

Answers to Correspondents section of the Society’s Journal.1 Never-

theless, I shall endeavour to introduce the more familiar examples of

Indian plants and confine my remarks to such species as far as possible.

Next to self-preservation, the propagation of the species is the chief

end of all living matter, and so it is with plants. The young of animals

- 2°1928, Vol. 33 : 218.—Eps.

166 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

are frequently tended by their parents till they are capable of fending

for themselves. The more highly developed the animal in the scale of

evolution the longer the parental care. In the vegetable world, seeds

take the place of ‘young’ in the animal world. Generally, plants shed

their seeds as soon as they are mature. On germination of the seed, the

young plant or seedling has to make the best of life fromthe very begin-

ning. In addition to the production of seeds, some plants are able to

propagate themselves by various means of vegetative growth, such as

runners, suckers, or budding, but this is yet another story of plant life.

If all seeds produced were to fall directly to the ground from the

parent plant they would all germinate in a heap. Owing to their in-

ability to move to a new locality of their own power, the struggle for

existence would be so acute that they would inevitably crush each other

out of existence. Perhaps, only one would survive the ordeal. To

avoid such ‘fratricide’ Nature has devised various and numerous means

of enabling the population to grow and find new territory.

Normally, the word fruit is used in its correct sense, but the popular

conception of the word is not always clear and is frequently at variance

with the strictly botanical meaning. For example, tomatoes or pump-

kins are spoken of as vegetables whereas both are in reality fruits. The

fruit is that part of the plant which contains the seed, but in the botanical

sense the term is restricted to the seed itself which is capable of ger-

minating and reproducing the species whether the fruit be single or multi-

seeded, and whether it is surrounded by a succulent protecting investment

or not. Botanically, therefore, the definition of the term fruit is wider

than in the popular sense. Accordingly, to the botanist a melon or a

tomato is just as much a fruit as is a grain of wheat. However, the

botanist has a special terminology descriptive of the various kinds of

fruit and to the initiated each term has a definite significance.

Unripe fruits, as is well known, are very often hard, green, and dis-

agreeable to the taste. They are frequently acid or bitter. These ele-

ments protect the immature seeds from the ravages of animals or birds

till such time as they are ready for dispersal. On ripening the fruit

generally assumes an: attractive colour suited to its peculiar dispersal

agent; the once distasteful juices become more palatable to the normal

consumers. The plants advertise the fact that the seeds are ready for

dispersal. The colours, scents, and taste of fruits are adapted to the

requirements of the normal dispersal agents—the ‘commercial travellers’

of Nature ! |

In the interest of the species, it is essential that the seeds should be

transported to some distance from the immediate neighbourhood of the

parent plant so as to prevent overcrowding and to increase the range of

the species. To ensure survival and spreading of the species, Nature

has evolved many different kinds of fruits and enlisted the aid of the

SEED DISPERSAL 167

elements and her creatures to assist the otherwise immobile plants in the

distribution of their seeds.

The agents which assist plants in seed dispersal are: (1) wind, (2)

water, (3) special devices of the plants themselves, and (4) animals.

These agents may act singly, or one or more may come into play together

to produce effective dispersal.

WIND DISPERSAL

(Plate IIT)

Obviously, the first essential for the wind to be an effective agent of

dispersal is that the fruits or seeds must be light or provided with some

form of ‘sail’ or ‘parachute’ to facilitate carriage by the wind. Secondly,

the fruit or seeds must be developed on the plant in such a position as to

be readily accessible to the wind, or they must be provided with some

‘mechanical’ device to cast the seeds upon the wind when they are ready

for dispersal. The last named method is often achieved by ‘explosion’

or by the catapulting of the seeds by the sudden curling of the carpels.

Perhaps, another important point worthy of notice is that the plants

themselves must grow in a suitable position and ripen their fruit when

the winds are in season. ;

~ Normally, from March to May, when the weather in India is becoming

hotter and hotter, strong winds prevail—the March winds. The hot

dry winds of this period contribute largely to the ripening of the fruit

and the eventual dispersal of the seeds. In the deciduous forests the

trees are mostly devoid of foliage at this period; there is no shading of the

ripening fruit, nor obstructions in the path of the wind-borne seeds. At

this period there are frequently whirlwinds. These dust-devils, as they

are often called, are frequently seen along roads and are responsible for

picking up quantities of seeds along with other debris and whirling them

high up into the air and carrying them many miles away to be deposited

when the dust-devil has spent itself.. Not infrequently one reads or hears

of 'a rain of seeds or other objects and even of some forms of animal life;

it is these dust-devils or whirlwinds which are responsible for these

phenomena. — 3 |

The first requisite, lightness, is perhaps best illustrated by the seeds

of orchids. The seeds of orchids are extremely minute and are blown

out of the dehisced capsules, which remain on the plant, like fine dust.

This ‘dust’ is transported on the wings of the wind through the trees and

enables the epiphytic species to reach their normal habitat high on the

branches of forest trees. Epiphytic orchids would stand little chance of

survival if it were not for the wind.

A feature of some air-borne fruits or seeds is their flatness. In many

instances the seed itself or the fruit is provided with a membranous ‘sail’

168 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

attached to its margin. In the case of the Indian Elm (Ailanthus excelsa)

(fig. 1) the entire one-seeded fruit is papery and when dry is readily trans-

ported by the wind. Each strong gust of wind that rustles through the

branches dislodges and bears away thousands of fruit. Oroxylum indicum

adopts a similar method with this difference : this species, which is not

uncommon in the hills around Bombay and Salsette, produces large

ski-shaped fruit on the top of long stalks; the fruits contain a large num-

ber of flat seeds, each with a very thin, papery margin all round. When

the fruit is dry and the seeds ready for dispersal it splits along the sutures

with a small report. The seeds fall out in a shower and are wafted in all

directions. More often than not the whole contents of the fruit do not

leave at once, but in periodic batches at the will of the wind. Some of

the other members of the Bignoniaceae disperse their seeds by the

carpels twisting spirally on dehiscence.

In some trees which depend on the wind for dispersal, the seeds are

tailed like a dart and on the opening of the carpels the seeds are blown

off by gusts of wind. Once launched on the air the seeds travel like darts

away from the parent plant. Some of the species of the Sterculiaceae

exhibit this form of dispersal.

We come now to a large number of plants which have evolved various

forms of ‘parachutes’ composed of ‘silk’ to assist the wind in transporting

their seeds. Seeds with parachutes, I think, are familiar to most people.

Frequently one sees asilky plume drifting about the garden, field, or even

entering the house through an open window or door. If such a para-

chute were examined closely, it would be noticed that it was probably

carrying a seed; if not it is a spent parachute which has already dropped

its load and awaiting destruction by rain. Many members of the Com-

positae have adopted this form of dispersal (figs. 14, 15). The common

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) (fig. 12) is a good example. This

form of dispersal undoubtedly contributes very largely to the almost

cosmopolitan distribution of the family.

Another successful family, the Asclepiadaceae, which uses this form

of dispersal is exemplified by the Ak (Calotropis gigantea and C. pro-

cera) (fig. 10). Plants of this family have finger-like follicles which, when

they ripen and burst, send many hundreds of seeds, each provided with

a silken parachute of fine ‘hairs’, into the air. The duration of transport

varies much with the species and the obstructions the parachutes meet

with in passage. Once the seeds are dropped the parachutes continue

their flight till they finally disintegrate. A closely allied family to the

Asclepiadaceae, the Apocynaceae, employs much the same method of

dispersal, but there are some exceptions; one genus enlists the aid of

water for its purpose. Mention of this member of the genus will be made

later. Some grasses have also adopted a similar means of transport for

their seeds.

JOURN. BomBaAy Nat. Hist. Soc. PLATE III

WIND-BORNE SEEDS

1. Ailanthus excelsa, 2. Ventilago sp., 3. Erythropsis colorata, 4. Pterocarpus

marsuptium, 5. Terminalia sp., 6. Shorea robusta, 7. Salmalia malabarica, 8. Dipte-

rocarpus sp., 9. Hiptage madablota, 10. Calotropis, 11. Dioscoreasp., 12. Taraxa-

cum, 13. Clematis, 14 & 15. Compositae.

JouRN. BOMBAY Nat. Hist. Soc. PLATE IV |:

MECHANICAL AND ANIMAL DISPERSAL

16. Impatiens, 17. Ecballium, elaterium, 18. Martinia, 19. Plumbago, 20.

Hymenodictyon, 21. Papaver, 22. Argemone mexicana, 23. Leucas, 24. Acanthaceae,

25 & 26. Awns of grasses.

SEED DISPERSAL 169

The silk-cotton trees such as the Simul [Salmalia malabarica (fig. 7)

and S. insigne and Ceiba pentandra] use silk for the dispersal of their seed,

with this difference that the seeds are not attached to a parachute but are

merely cradled in the silk. When the fruit is ripe it bursts, the carpels

fall away leaving the centrai winged portion still attached to the stalk.

The cotton swells up and with each puff of wind portions of the silk are

carried away like drifting snow. As the cotton is shredded by the wind

the seeds are shed en route. In some localities the silk gets piled up in

fair quantities awaiting the monsoon rains to destroy it.

Incidentally, at the same time as the silk-cotton trees are fruiting the

cotton-bug (Dysdercus singulatus) is laying its eggs on the fruit. The

young bugs are eventually cradled in the cotton and wafted around the

countryside. Later swarms of cotton-bugs are to be seen feeding in

clusters round seeds, or individuals walking about with a seed pendant

from the proboscis. These seeds appear to be their main diet at this

time of the year.

There are yet numerous other examples of wind dispersal. In

addition to the species mentioned above in which silk is used as a vehicle

there are very many examples in which the entire fruit is provided with

sails, propellers, etc. to enable the wind to carry it along. The carpels

have special appendages, or they assume a special shape. A few random

examples will have to suffice to illustrate this form of dispersal.

Erythropsis colorata, a fairly common tree in the Western Ghats,

produces open follicles. The seeds develop on the margin of the follicle

(fig. 3). The follicle itself is papery and dries hard. When the seeds are

mature the dry follicles are swept away by the winds prevalent at this time

of the year : thus, the papery follicle performs the function of a ‘sail’.

In the family Dipterocarpaceae, of which the Sal (Shorea robusta) is a

familiar example (fig. 6), the fruits are provided with two to five pro-

peller-like blades according to the species. These appendages assist

the wind in transporting the fruit. In some the form and size of the

appendages direct the flight of the fruit through the air. In Hiptage

madablota the fruit itself has three propelier-like blades (fig. 9). When

the fruit is ripe it is detached by the wind and spins through the air

for some distance. It descends earthwards at an oblique angle as one

blade is longer than the other two. Here it lies till the next gust of

wind takes it up again. Some other examples of propeller-like fruit

are Symphorema involucratum and Kydia calycina. In these two species

the dried calyx performs the function of a propeller.

Yet another wind dispersal device is resorted to by a grass known as

Spinifex squarrosus ; it might well be called the ‘rolling pin-cushion’.

This grass is an useful sand-binder and is commonly found along sandy

shores. Its seeds are tucked away in the scales or glumes which form the

florets. One of the glumes in each floret is developed into a long awn,

170 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

which may reach two or three inches in length: Numbers of these florets

are grouped together and the whole mass constitutes a large, spiny ball,

often eight to ten inches across. This ball is the female inflorescence ; the

males are borne on separate spikes. The whole inflorescence breaks

away from the main stalk and is blown about the sands. As it speeds

hither and thither at the will of the wind, it sheds its seeds. It may chance

to be blown into the sea and then be carried away by the tide to be

stranded on some other distant shore. Perhaps some have had the un-

pleasant experience of treading or sitting on one of these vegetable

‘hedgehogs’ buried in the sand !

Two species of Hymenodictyon (Pl. IV, fig. 20), not uncommon in

the Western Ghats, enlist the aid of the wind in yet another manner per-

haps peculiar to themselves. When under one of these trees during the hot

season when the trees are leafless, one’s attention is drawn to a constant

gentle rattling, as of dry leaves. On looking up it will soon be noticed

that the sound is produced by stiff dry bracts scattered over the branches

at the base of the now dry inflorescences. When fresh these bracts are

often creamy white and would appear as banners to attract insects to

the small florets. The spikes of capsules dry and remain attached to

the trees. The seeds are small. The stiff dry bracts act as sails and

catch every gust of wind that passes. As they do so they cause the fruits

to vibrate and the seeds to be shaken out of the capsules and cast on the

wind.

WATER DISPERSAL

(Plate V)

Like wind-borne seeds, fruits and seeds dispersed by water are often

highly specialised in structure. For one, the seed-coat or the external

coat of the fruit must be impervious to water for some period before

actual germination; the length of time varies with the species. Again,

water-borne seeds must also be able to float for some time. The coco-

nut is one good example of a water-borne fruit.

One may well ask why the coconut (Cocos nucifera) is sulindac by

so much coir and such a hard shell? A section made of an entire coco-

nut will provide the answer. The highly polished tough outer skin is

waterproof; beneath it lies a thick layer of fibre, the coir, which when

dry encloses numerous air spaces and ‘cork’ (fig. 29). This material acts

as a float; internal to the coir is the hard woody shell, enclosing the pulp

and the embryo plant. The shell is also water resistant for a time.

When the coconut is ripe the outer coverings dry and in addition to pro-

tecting the embryo within assume the function of a float. Within these

coverings the embryo lies perfectly protected and provided for for a long

time. When the nuts dry they fall to the ground. :

Generally, coconuts grow best near the sea and naturally on tropical

JouRN. BomBay NAtT. Hist. Soc. PLATE VY

OUTER SKIN

WATER

SHELL

PuLP

COIR

WATER-BORNE FRUITS

* ‘ ° 27, Rhizophora (seedling), 28. Acanthus ilicifolius, 29. Cocos nucifera,

30," Nelumbo speciosa, 31. Cerbera odollam, 32. Pandanus, 33. Avicennia (seedling).

“ \

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2 Ta Cae j

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7 ie

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_ SEED DISPERSAL 171

coasts. If the nuts on falling do not drop directly into the water, they

reach the sea by extraneous causes. Once in the sea they are at the

mercy of the tides and wind, and so starts perhaps a long and precarious

journey. In this process the nuts very often spend many months at sea,

- tossed about on the waves, carried hither and thither by winds and cur-

rents. Thus the nuts may travel many hundreds of miles and across

great oceans. After a long and checkered career, the fruit finally settles

down, like a wayward bachelor, and establishes itself, conditions per-

mitting. It will be interesting to note that although the coconut is so

common in many parts of India it is not considered to be a true native

of the country.

It will not be out of place to recall a passage from the late Rev. E.

Blatter’s book, THE PALMS OF BRITISH INDIA AND CEYLON. He writes:

‘ The original home of the coconut tree and the history of its spread are

not yet sufficiently known. The Sanskrit name indicates its ancient

cultivation in India; it was, however, not known to classic writers, and

it seems certain that it was introduced by the Portuguese into western

Africa and the Cape Verde Islands and that it did not exist in the West

Indies, Guiana, nor Brazil at the time of the discovery of America. It

has been supposed to be indigenous in the East Indian Archipelago and

on the Nicobar and Cocos islands of the Bay of Bengal—and this would

explain its early cultivation on the coasts of India and Ceylon. But all

the other species of the genus Cocos are confined to South America; and

those which have been said to be indigenous in Mexico seem to belong to

the genus Attalea. Considerations of botanical geography would, there-

fore, point to the west coast of Central America as its home. Martius,

indeed, considers it not improbable that the original home of this palm

was on the islands near the Isthmus of Panama, and the nuts were trans-

ported thence by westerly currents to Cocos Island, 200 miles west of the

Panama coast, which was found densely covered with coconut trees by

its first discoverer, without any sign of human habitation. From there

it is not difficult to explain the further spread of the nuts by the regular

currents and storms to the Sandwich, Marquesas, and other islands of

the Pacific, and to the Islands of the Indian Archipelago, whence it may

have been introduced into India. A. DeCandolle seems to accept the

American origin of the coconut, and Griesebach entertains no doubt on

the subject. Cook has recently shown that the coconut is in all prob-

ability a native of America.’ Perhaps, the recent ‘drift’ voyages across

the Pacific and more observations on the oceanic currents will go a long

way to support the South American origin of the coconut.

The Brazil-nut (Bertholletia excelsa) appears to be another example

of water transport. In this species about twenty nuts are encased in a

fibrous coat with a waterproof ‘skin’. It is a native of South America

and the West Indies, Some years ago I picked up a complete fruit on

172 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

the Juhu sands, a beach near Bombay. As the nuts are not imported

encased in their outer covering, but as individual nuts, it is reasonable

to ask: how did the entire fruit turn up on Juhu Beach? And pertinent to

reply: possibly by sea from its native land, a distance of thousands of

miles ! How long did it travel and by what route? True, it is wide

speculation when [| say from ‘its native land’, but how else is one to ex-

plain its occurrence on Juhu sands ?

Yet another example of water-dispersal is that of the fruit of Cerbera

odollam, an apocynaceous plant which is a member of the mangrove

formations. It is not uncommon along the coastal strips of southern

India and Ceylon. The fruit is the size of a large apple. Externally

it is protected by a tough waterproof skin surrounding a dense, hard coat

of fibres containing air spaces. Within these protecting layers the flat,

solitary seed is encased (fig.31). The fruits, when mature, are light and

are carried away by the tides. After a checkered career, at the mercy of

the waves and wind, the fruits come to rest on some shore and if the con-

ditions are favourable will establish themselves. Some may not travel

far from their native swamps, but others may drift to some distant shore.

On my way through Cochin and Colombo, I found numerous examples

of the fruit of Cerbera in various stages of development among the jet-

sam along the shores, and some were seen far out at sea. Species of

Cerbera are distributed throughout the Indomalayan Region and

Madagascar. Although the Apocynaceae are generally characterised by

plumed, wind-borne seeds, Cerbera has departed from the ‘general rule’.

It has adapted its seeds to the requirements of a marsh plant.

In these instances the fruits are admirably protected from the action

of seawater as well as of fresh water. In addition they are provided

with floats. Thus equipped they are able to survive long journeys tossed

about by waves and winds, but just how long this immunity to the

elements lasts has not been fully observed.

Before passing on to other examples of water dispersal, it will not be

out of place to refer in passing to some other members of the mangrove

formations and examine their mode of dispersal. The Rhizophoraceae

produce seeds which germinate while they are still on the tree. The

seedlings look like long pencils hanging down, this is the ‘radicle’ or

rhizophore (fig.27). When mature these ‘javelin-like’ seedlings fall and, if

the tide is out, stick upright in the exposed mud and soon establish them-

selves. But if they are not embedded deeply enough the next tide will

wash them out and carry them away. On the other hand if the tide is in

when the seedlings fall their chances of entering the mud are greatly

reduced. In either case those seedlings which have not fixed themselves

firmly in the mud are invariably washed out to sea and may be adrift for

many weeks. Large quantities of these seedlings are washed up along

the Indian coast, particularly during the early monsoon swells.

SEED DISPERSAL 173

In another member of the mangrove formation, the Sea-Holly (Acan-

thus ilicifolius), the capsule often breaks away and cradles the seeds on

the waves. In this species, the embryo itself is well developed and is

provided with a spongy float (PI. IV, fig. 24). This advanced state of the

embryo enables the plant to establish itself rapidly on reaching suitable

ground. The capsules also explode and eject the mature ‘seeds’.

The water-lilies present us with yet further examples of seed dis- _

persal by water. In the case of the common water-lily Nymphaea, the

flowers are usually borne well above the surface of the water and are

pollinated by visiting insects. As soon as the fruit begins to form it

drops just below the surface of the water and remains there till it is ripe

and ready to disperse its seeds. When ripe the external coating ruptures

irregularly and curls backwards freeing the seeds in the water. Each

seed is surrounded by an umbrella-like aril. On contact with the water

the aril expands and forms an ‘umbrella’ over it. The aril, together

with its seed, drifts away from the parent plant. The life of the aril is

short for it soon sheds its seed, but it has lasted long enough to carry the

seed away from its parent. The seed sinks to the bottom and there

either rests for a season or germinates. In this way the seeds are carried

off and distributed all over the lake or pond. Should the lake or pond

dry during the hot weather, further dispersal is effected by marsh haunting

animals which wallow in the mud and carry the seeds away sticking to

their bodies, by the wind in the dust on the bed of the lake, or by flood-

ing at the break of the next monsoon rains.

The Lotus (Nelumbo speciosa) presents us with perhaps a unique form

of water dispersal. Its flowers are borne high above the water level on

long stalks. Unlike Nymphaea the stalk remains erect and the chalice-

like fruit is borne on its extremity. The interior of the chalice is filled

with spongy tissue and the spongy tissue is beset with cells in which the

seeds develop. The seeds are beautifully retained within their sockets

by a slight constriction of the opening of the cells, so that, even if the

cup were inverted the seeds would not fall out (fig. 30).

The receptacle, as this cup is called, dries on the plant and even-

tually drops off its long stalk. The cup always floats the right way up.

Cradled in this admirable raft, the seeds are carried and drift about at

the will of the wind and the waves. After a protracted period in water

the receptacle decays and the seeds sink to the bottom; but more fre-

quently, the seeds germinate within the seed sockets and when the recep-

tacle decomposes, the seedlings sink to the bottom and there establish

a new generation.

On such rafts the seeds or young plants may travel for many weeks

and journey long distances, particularly if the parent plants are growing

near the banks of a slow-moving stream or if the rafts are carried

along by flood waters.

174 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL) HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

The monsoon rains are responsible for the dispersal of large quantities

of seeds, bulbs, and sometimes even whole plants, which lie on the surface

of the parched earth just before the rains set in. With the first heavy

showers ‘rivers’ are formed on the surface before the earth has:time to

absorb the moisture and before the seeds have had time to germinate—

everything is swept away before the wild rush of water and lines of debris

are left in many places which, if examined carefully, will be found to

contain large numbers of seeds of many species. :

Rivers in flood not only transport millions of seeds eae on occasion

are responsible for the transfer of entire trees ! With the vegetation,

the attendant animal life also finds passage to new localities. Thus we

see that the elements play a very important role in seed dispersal.

MECHANICAL DEVICES OF THE PLANTS TO AID DISPERSAL

(Plate IV)

Apart from the winged seeds and fruits adapted to wind dispersal

already referred to, there are numerous other devices evolved by the

plants themselves to ensure successful dispersal of seed, which are purely

mechanical in form. The various contrivances are far too numerous to

enumerate in a short paper and the reader will have to be content with a

few random examples. .

There are ‘explosive’ fruits, eich on ripening burst vaadenk and

expel the seeds with considerable force to a distance away from the

parent plant. The common succulent Euphorbia (often erroneously

called cactus) is one good example of this type of explosive fruit. During

the months of March and April, when the fruits are ripening, one’s atten-

tion is attracted to the plant by an incessant and, at first, unaccountable

clicking sound going on in and around the bushes. To those unfamiliar

with the habits of the plant, the clicks are puzzling. On closer obser-

vation the observer may from time to time be struck by some small

object. The sound is made by the explosion of the small fruits and the

missiles are no other than the seeds being forcibly ejected as the cap-

sules ‘explode’. The force of the explosion in this case is often strong

enough to hurl the seeds a yard or more away from the parent plant.

This form of seed dispersal is common to most of the family Eaphot

biaceae.

The capsules of many of the Acanthaceae, when ripe, burst and

eject the seeds in a similar manner. The two-valved seed case springs

open with an audible report and hurls the seeds out to a cons deey

distance.

Perhaps, the most common example of the explosive type of dis-

persal is to be met with among the Balsams (Impatiens spp.). Every

boy delights in touching or pressing the ripening fruit to see the carpels

SEED DISPERSAL | 175

recoil upon themselves and in doing so hurl the seeds out with appre-

ciable force (fig. 16). Only the fruits ready to discharge their seeds will res-

pond to such treatment and exhibit this phenomenon. Normally, the fruit

explodes automatically on ripening. An explanation of the mechanism |

of the balsam fruit will not be out of place. When the fruit is ripe and

ready to explode the drying up of the liquid contents of the cells produces

the necessary tension. The fruit is composed of five separate carpels

the walls of which are composed of three layers of cells. The layer

immediately below the outermost layer (epidermis) consists of large cells

charged with sap. It is called the turgescent layer. It is in a great

state of tension, and when the seeds are mature the sutures between the

carpels give way ; a relaxation of the tension takes place, the loosened

tissue along these lines is torn, the carpels roll back suddenly upon

themselves with great rapidity resulting in the catapulting of the seeds.

Incidentally, in most of the balsams the seeds are comparatively

large and often shining, but in the case of Impatiens acaulis, a beautiful

species with large flowers growing on rock faces under waterfalls in

many parts of the Western Ghats, the seeds are minute and are provided

with minute hooks to enable them to adhere to the substratum the

species normally inhabits. The structure of the seeds coupled with the

semi-aquatic habit of the species probably accounts for its fairly res-

tricted distribution. The minute seeds could be blown up the cliffs

during the dry weather or perhaps be carried ge eure to the bodies of

insects.

From the explosive type of fruit we pass on to another form

of catapult, which, however, needs a combination of factors to make it

effective. In some species it is necessary for the plant to die and remain

erect. In such instances the fruits are produced at the top of the plant

and remain open with the seeds loose within. The dry stems are flexible

and do not break easily. The upright stems are either bent down by

sharp gusts of wind or by passing animals and on release of the pressure

spring back with considerable force to the erect position once more.

In so doing the seeds are catapulted out of the capsules. The Mexican

Poppy (Argemone mexicana), a common weed of waste land and dry water

courses, is a good example of this form of dispersal (fig. 22).

The Common Poppy (Papaver somniferum) is another example of this

form of dispersal, but in this case the seeds are minute and are encased

in the “‘pepper-caster’ capsule supported on a long stalk (fig. 21). The

dry stalks wave about in the wind and as they bend cast the seeds through

minute holes around the rim of the capsule.

Many of the Labiatae (Tulsi family) exhibit a similar type of dispersal.

Many of these plants produce rigid stems. In the axils of the usually

whorled leaves are to be seen the open calyx with the seeds within, like

minute eggs in acup. The rigid stems are bent down by the wind or by

176 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

passing animals and as soon as they are released spring back to the erect

position, at the same time catapulting the seeds which are ready

for dispersal.

Yet another form of mechanical dispersal is achieved by the fruits

of some plants which are able to ‘creep’ or ‘hop’ along the ground.

Such fruits have stiff bristles projecting from one side of their external

coats. These bristles are sensitive to atmospheric moisture and accord-

ingly change their direction in response to the environment and by their

movement propel the fruit or seed in a definite direction.

The awns which project from the glumes of many grasses and other

plants are good examples (figs. 25, 26). In all these instances the

hygroscopic structures are furnished with small teeth. Sometimes the

teeth are on one or both sides, or they may be restricted to the tip. The

position of the teeth renders retrogression impossible and accordingly

determines the direction in which the fruit must move. In barley and

several other species of grasses the awns from the enveloping giumes are

bent elbow-wise. The part below the elbow is spirally twisted and, as the

tissue is extraordinarily hygroscopic, the spiral relaxes or contracts in

proportion to the amount of moisture in the atmosphere. The spiral

motion causes the part above the bend to move like the hands of a

watch, but now to one side or the other. In some such instances there

appears little doubt that the most important function of the movements

is to fix the seed in the soil, but on the other hand it cannot be denied

that a limited amount of dispersal is effected by this means. The awns

of the Speargrass (Heteropogon contortus) is a good example of. cork-

screw-like awns which perform the function of a ‘drill’ to embed the seed

in the soil. We shall have occasion to refer to this species again under

the heading of animal dispersal.

Many of the mechanical devices of plants are coupled with animal

dispersal and will be dealt with under that heading.

SEED DISPERSAL BY ANIMAL AGENTS

(Plate IV)

In the animal world we find a whoie host of dispersal agents. The

service the animal agents render may be direct or indirect. By ‘direct’

service I mean such agents as feed on the fruit and derive some ‘reward’

for their service—they feed on the pulp and discard the seeds often many

miles from the place where the fruit was eaten. ‘Indirect’ service is

done by animals which more often than not accidentally transport fruit

or seeds attached to their bodies as they pass through the vegetation in

the course of feeding or travel. The animals of the second category

derive no benefit at all; on the contrary they may suffer from wounds,

or irritation caused by the spines or hairs adherent to their coats. In

a few instances even death is the ‘reward’ for the service they render !

SEED DISPERSAL 177

When animals feed on succulent fruits, the seeds are often swallowed

along with the pulp. The pulp is digested, but the seeds are often

resistant to the gastric juices and eventually pass out in the faeces. By

the time the seeds are excreted the animal may be many miles from the

parent plant. This form of transport is effected by a large number of

frugivorous birds. In some instances it is perhaps essential that the seeds

pass through some animai to ensure early germination.

A well-known group of parasitic plants, the Loranthaceae, is well

exemplified by the common Loranthus and the Mistletoe (Viscum).

These plants often parasitize many of our useful fruit and timber trees.

Sometimes the infestations are so severe that the hosts are crippled or

even killed in a few years.

When ripe, the fruits of Loranthus turn to a brilliant red or orange

whereas those of the mistletoe turn whitish. In both instances the seeds

are large and are surrounded by a very viscid pulp. The berries of both

are eaten by many birds, particularly the little flowerpeckers (Dicaeidae).

Some birds only eat the skin and pulp and the seeds are wiped off the

bill on to a neighbouring branch ; others swallow the fruit whole. Each

seed bears a thread-like appendage at each pole which survives the gastric

juices. These threads help to secure the seeds on to the branch when

voided with the faeces. In this way the seeds are often carried great

distances and to fresh hosts. On germination the seed of Loranthus

produces a radicle with a disc which attaches it to the new host.

The growth of a Banyan (Ficus bengalensis) or Peepal (Ficus religiosa)

on a house-top, a wall, or perhaps on the stem of a palm or other tree

is not an uncommon sight in many parts of the country. The question

is ; how did it establish itself in such an exalted position ?

Figs produce fruits (receptacles) which contain hundreds of seeds

(as people with dentures often discover to their discomfort and perhaps

embarrassment !). Figs when ripe are eaten by a large number of

animals (including birds). The pulp and the seeds are ingested together,

but the seeds survive the gastric juices ; in time they are voided intact.

The droppings of a bird may fall on a wall or other spot, such as the leaf-

stalk of a palm or in the fork ofa tree. When the droppings are dry some

of the seeds may be blown away by the wind or washed out by rain and,

perhaps a seed or two may germinate where they fell. The seedling,

in time, sends roots downwards in an effort to reach the ground. If

germination has taken place on a roof-top or on a wall there is danger

of the roots destroying the masonry. When the plant starts life on a

palm or other tree the roots of the sapling invariably encircle the trunk

of the ‘host’ and after a few years eventually strangle it. The ‘host’

plant dies and disintegrates leaving a tangled mass, often merely a lace

work, of stout roots supporting the now vigorous Banyan (Plate I]).

Figs frequently start life as epiphytes, merely using the trees they grow

178 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

on as supports. They are not parasites. Perhaps, in India the word

fig should be substituted for ivy in the common expression ones

like the ivy to the wall’ !

On coffee plantations large quantities of the ripe ‘chore are eaten

by civets, jackals, and other animals, and birds. The sweet pulp is digested

and the seeds voided. The droppings of these animals are found all

over the plantations, almost entirely composed of coffee seeds. Special

collectors are deputed to gather, this rich harvest and Jerdon even tells

us that the seeds collected in this way make the best coffee !_ It is perhaps

unnecessary to reassure readers that the seeds are thoroughly washed after

they have passed through the animals ; they have only saved the labour

of ‘pulping’ the fruit. In the forests surrounding the plantations ‘wild’

coffee plants frequently spring up. These have been derived from the

excrement of animals that had been feeding in the coffee plantations.

The jackal, although mainly a carrion feeder, will also feed on fruit

when available. Figs, jambools (Eugenia jambolana), the bitter Olea

dioica and many other fruits are greedily eaten when in season. Some

of the fruits act as a purge upon the beasts. For some unknown reason

the neatly placed, white-washed mile and furlong stones along the roads

seem to have a special attraction for these animals and, much to the

annoyance of the P.W.D., they commonly discolour the stones with their

faeces !

Many of the Mimosaceae and the Caesalpiniaceae have indehiscent

fruits. When mature, the fruits fall to the ground and are eaten by many

ungulate mammals for the sweetish pulp they contain. The seeds usually

pass through the animal uninjured and are dropped many miles from the

parent plant. Some of the Cassias and Acacias, e.g. Babool (Acacia

arabica), are good examples. The ungulates that feed on grasses also

transport the seeds of many grasses. Although the grains are ‘usually

digested, a certain number escape digestion and appear in the dung.

Sick animals often void a lot of undigested seeds which are pees of

germination.

Many foraging animals, such as field rats, squirrels, and ants, and birds

like jays and nuthatches frequently collect large quantities of seeds and

store them for lean days, and thus are responsible for seed dispersal.

Some seeds are lost in the course of transport while others are abandoned

in the burrows and tree-holes, the owners being killed by floods or by

enemies. Under suitable conditions these stored seeds will germinate.

Incidentally, some of the jungle tribes who feed on field mice and rats

during times of scarcity are well aware of the habits of such animals and

they will excavate the burrows and take possession of the store of grain.

In some instances there is a close link between an animal and its normal

food plant, so much so that the distribution of the one is dependent

on the presence of the other. An example is the distribution of the Pilu

SEED DISPERSAL . 179

(Salvadora persica) and the White-eared Bulbul (Pycnonotus |. leucotis).

Where Salvadora flourishes the bulbul. is usually present ; thus in the

neighbourhood of Bombay the bird is found only in the salt marshes

containing this plant. Likewise the distribution of the Dromedary and.

Salvadora also appears to be closely linked.

For successful dispersal it is not always necessary. that the fruit

should be eaten by some animal. An animal may carry seeds or fruits

externally by attachment to its coat. Many who have made excursions

into the country have undoubtedly experienced the troublesome burrs,

awns, and other fruit and seeds adhering to clothing, particularly woollen

clothing. These are the seeds of plants they have been inadvertently

transporting and helping to disperse. |

- .Many herbaceous plants, in particular, have evolved special hooks,

hairs, and viscid glands to effect the dispersal of their seed. When dis-

cussing mechanical dispersal, mention was made of the awns of grasses.

Besides falling under that heading, some fall into this category as well.

We have also observed that some seeds have awns armed with minute

teeth which attach themselves to the fur or feathers of passing animals

and are thus transported from one locality to another. The common

Speargrass . (Heteropogon. contortus) and its ilk are good examples

(figs. 25, 26).

_. Among the Tiliaceae we find some burr-bearing plants, such as

Triumfetta, a common weed in fallow or waste land. In such cases the

fruit is covered with minute hooks, which attach themselves to passing

animals and are carried away long distances. Among the Compositae,

the fruit of Xanthium strumarium is distributed in the same way as Trium-

fetta. Incidentally, Xanthium, to the best of my knowledge, found its

way into Bombay and Salsette some twenty to twentyfive years ago as a

common weed. It first appeared along the railway track of the Bombay

Baroda and Central India Railway (now Western Railway) entering the

area. It was particularly common at first at the points where buffaloes

were stabled. It seems reasonable to conclude that its arrival in the

areas mentioned may be linked with fodder and buffalo traffic.

Larger hooks and other devices for attachment to animals also exist.

Martinia, an exotic herb, now well established in many parts. of India,

is a good example of large hooks. Incidentally, when hat-pins were in

vogue the seeds of Martinia were largely used to ornament the heads of

the pins. Itis possible that its first introduction into India may have come

through the trade (?). When green, the fruits appear quite harmless as

the two sharp hooks are hidden in the flesh of the fruit. During the

monsoon rains Martinia flourishes commonly in some parts of Bombay

and Salsette islands. When the rains are over, the stems of the plants

‘dry and remain rigidly erect, just as we have observed in the case of the

Mexican Poppy. The stems become very hard and the large seeds,

180 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

devoid of their covering, remain attached by short brittle stalks. The

seeds are now ready for dispersal. The vicious hooks attach themselves

to passing animals and are thus carried away from the parent plant

(fig. 18).

Yet another means of plants affixing their fruits to passing animals is -

exemplified by the common garden Plumbago and several other

herbaceous plants. The fruits are covered with glandular hairs which

adhere readily to almost any passing object (fig. 19). |

The cucumber family, Cucurbitaceae, presents us with some curious

means of seed dispersal. Apart from the excellent edible qualities of

some of the family, melons and cucumbers were ‘evolved’ to be stamped

on! When fully ripe the fruits become soft and watery; in this condition

they are ready for action. Should a passing animal tread on one, the

result is obvious—the fruit bursts and its contents are shot out in all

directions. A similar result is achieved also when a ripe fruit falls to the

ground from a pendant position.

The fruits of some others of this family harden with age, particularly

some of the pumpkin group. The pulp dries and the seeds remain loose

within the external shell. Incidentally, the ‘shell’ forms an excellent

float. In the dry state such fruits are easily water-borne. In India

these gourds are often used for carrying water and for the storage of

food, and by the snake charmer or madari for his bunsli (musical pipe).

One of the most interesting examples of the cucumber family is the

squirting cucumber (Ecballium elaterium). Its fruits resemble small

fleshy cucumbers beset with bristles and are borne on hooked stalks

(fig. 17). The ends of the stalks project into the interior of the fruits like a

stopper. When the seeds are ripe, the tissue surrounding them is trans-

formed into a mucilaginous mass. The tissue around the conical stopper

breaks down at the same time and thus the connection between the fruit

and the stalk is loosened. In the wall of the fruits there is a layer of cells

which is under great tension and endeavours to stretch itself out. The fruits

sever their connection with the stalks and simultaneously the expansion

of the strained tissue takes place resulting in a sudden expulsion of the

contents with considerable force through the opening left by the stalk.

This form of seed dispersal really belongs to the section dealing with

mechanical devices, but it is introduced here to show how different

members of the same family may employ different modes of dispersal.

Amphibious and aquatic animals and birds, particularly migratory

species, also play an important role in seed dispersal. Tiny seeds of

marsh plants may be carried in blobs of mud sticking to their feet and

bills. In the case of wallowing animals, the seeds are carried away in

the mud sticking to their bodies.

Strange as it may seem, even carnivorous animals and birds of prey

play an indirect but significant role in seed dispersal. The contents of

SEED DISPERSAL 181

the stomach or crop of a seed- or fruit-eating victim are discarded, but

the seeds are capable of germination under favourable conditions. I

have frequently observed birds of prey tearing to pieces the crops of their

quarry and scattering the contents.

Diseased animals with impaired digestion often transport a lot of

seeds originally consumed as food, but voided intact.

MAN AS SEED AND PLANT DISPERSAL AGENT

Among the animal agents, Man is perhaps the foremost in the

distribution of plants and animals. Apart from the useful plants and ani-

mals, he often carries with him in his travels deliberately or accidentally

a number of useless and often harmful animals and plants to ‘remind’

him of the homeland he left ! Ina newcountry, after a while, the travel-

ler often wishes he had left the ‘reminders’ behind—the new arrivals

get beyond his control and do incalculable damage in the new environ-

ment.

As food and for other commercial purposes Man frequently transports

by land and sea large quantities of seeds. The consignments are often

contaminated (accidentally or sometimes deliberately) by the presence of

the seeds of weeds and other useless plants which, very often, in a new

habitat become pests to the detriment of the indigenous fauna and flora.

As a gardener, Man transports not only seeds, but whole plants.

Many of these frequently become escapes and overrun the new country.

A very good example is that of Lantana. The plant was first introduced

into Ceylon in 1824 as a ‘beautiful garden plant’. Lantana was well

suited to the Ceylonese environment and the necessary avian dispersal

agents were present. The Bulbul (Pycnonotus) and other frugivorous

birds found its fruit excellent food and inadvertently spread the Lantana

far and wide. Lantana spread like wild-fire and has become a serious

pest and a menace to valuable forest, so much so that many thousands

of rupees are now spent annually for its removal and control. When

introducing a plant into a new country most of its natural controls are

not imported with it and so, if the country is suitable, the plant spreads

unhampered. Some may well ask : why not import the controls as well?

In the first place we have to know all the controls and, even if this were

possible, there is always the danger that some of the controls may attack

something more valuable of the indigenous fauna or flora. Lantana,

for example, belongs to the same family as the Teak or Sag (Tectona

grandis), one of India’s and Burma’s most valuable timber trees. As

these two plants are nearly related, there is always the possibility that

one of the controls of Lantana may attack Teak, which, as we all know,

already has numerous pests to ravage its plantations. The use of bio-

logical controls is already well known and practised in almost every

182. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

country, but it has to be carried out with the utmost care and fore-

thought. 7

Another classical example of the efforts of Man is the spread of the

Cactus (Opuntia) in India and Australia. In both countries this cactus

soon became a positive pest ruining thousands of acres of arable land,

and sheltering noxious vermin. However, this plant was brought under

control by the use of a biological control—in this case one of the

Coccidae, a scale insect.

Yet another outstanding example of unwise human interference with

the balance of Nature is the Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia). This aquatic

plant is a native of South America and the West Indies. It was introduced

into many countries as an ornamental waterplant. Its beautiful leaves,

with curious floats, and colourful spikes of mauvish flowers make it

most attractive. In almost every country into which it was introduced

it has become a serious pest clogging up the surfaces of lakes and water-

ways, covering the entire surface and, in time, forming a dense mat to the

exclusion of all other plant life and also animal life ! Around Bombay

and Salsette I have seen many streams, lakes, and pools completely choked

by water hyacinth to the exclusion of all else. The plant will not only

thrive when afloat, but will flourish equally well so long as there

is sufficient moisture in the soil. It is spread by suckers as well as seed.

To-day efforts to control this prolific weed are costing the affected

countries enormous sums of money without much success. In some

areas, Slow moving rivers are being so effectively choked that the plants

are interfering with navigation. Large blocks of the plants are being

cut out and towed out to sea, but even this method of dealing with it is

not very effective. Various methods have been tried to put the plants

to agricultural use by burning and composting, but these often prove

costly and of little avail to control this very prolific species.

The obvious lesson to be learned from these instances, is that

Man should exercise the greatest care and forethought when about

to introduce a plant or animal from one country to another. His inter-

ference with the balance of Nature will invariably boomerang; we may

succeed in beating Nature for a time but she will invariably stage a

come back—we cannot beat her ! ,

Observations on the Mating and

Oviposition of two land Pulmonates,

Achatina fulica Bowdich and

Macrochlamys indica Godwin-Austen

KRISHNA CHANDRA GHOSE

Department of Zoology, City College, Calcutta

INTRODUCTION

Considerable diversity is encountered in the number of eggs pro-

duced by gastropods. On one side of the range stands Doris

producing 600,000 eggs in one brood (Kroschelt & Heider, 1900),

and on the other Macrochlamys indica and Nassa producing only

2 and 5 eggs respectively (Kroschelt & Heider, 1900). A relationship

exists between the number of eggs laid and their size. The amount

of albumen present in the egg has a direct bearing on the develop-

mental period of an animal. A large amount of yolk is essential

for the development of those where free larval stages are absent, and

consequently the large size of the eggs has led to a proportionate

reduction in the number. of eggs produced by an individual. In

addition there appears to be a correlation between the total volume

of the eggs produced in one year and the size of the animal.

OBSERVATIONS

After a long period of aestivation (November to June) the snails

become active with the coming of the rains. In the first few weeks

they are less active and remain busy in search of food. Egg-laying

usually commences when the monsoon is fairly advanced, i.e. towards

the end of July to the beginning of September. Mating, though not

essential for reproduction, has been described by the previous workers

(Meer Mohr, 1949; Mead, 1950; Balasubramaniam, 1952; and Rensch,

1955) to be a common feature. During mating two individuals come

side by side in such a manner that their genital apertures are apposed.

The intromittent organ of one comes out through the genital aperture

and is pushed into the vagina of the other and vice-versa. Mating

is said to last for a variable period,’ after which the intromittent

* About 13 to 2 hours in A. fulica (Meer Mohr, 1949) and 45 minutes in M. pedina

(Rensch, 1955).

184. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

organ is withdrawn and the animals separate. Sperms received by

the partners in the act are stored in the spermathecae for subsequent

fertilization of the ova. |

The present author could not observe mating in these snails in

spite of continued observation both during the day and in the night

in caged specimens as well as in specimens in their natural habitats.

In a heavily populated area, they are often found to embrace each

other, and this may be mistaken as a case of mating. In certain

cases, an intromittent organ was seen to protrude through the genital

aperture, but no tendencies of mating were observed. The protruded

organ is conical with a swollen base and bears a narrow genital pore

at the tip.

During the breeding season the reproductive organs of nearly fifty

snails of each species were dissected. The specimens taken were of

different stages in relation to oviposition. Some of them were taken

before, some during, and others after oviposition. Sperms were found

both in the spermathecae and the uteri of- several M. indica and.

only one A. fulica. The snails are protandrous, sperms develop prior

to ova, and the ovotestis duct with the ovisperm vesicle remain

packed with living sperms throughout the year, a state which continues

during the whole life. While coming down from the ovotestis the

ova are likely to be fertilized in the basal ovotestis duct since they

have to pass through the swarms of sperms, and it is very difficult

to conceive how the mature ova may come down unfertilized.

Embryos in different stages, from the zygote to many cell stage in

A. fulica but only in the zygote stage in M. indica, are found in the

eggs taken out from the apex of the apical uterus. The sperms

cannot penetrate the egg membrane and, if cross-fertilization is to be

effected in such cases, the sperms from some other snail must at least

reach the apex of the apical uterus. In no case were degenerating

sperms found in the albumen mass of the egg. The absence of

sperms in the uterus is a normal feature, and it appears, that self-

fertilization is a common mode of reproduction in A. fulica, while

both cross- and self-fertilization are normal in M. indica.

To ascertain if self-fertilization is a common mode of reproduction

in them several snails were separated from the early stages (15 mm.) and

reared with special precaution. Normal young snails hatched out

from the eggs laid by these isolated individuals on attaining sexual

maturity. Separation at early stages rules out even the remotest

possibility of fertilization by the sperms received in the previous year;

though the survival of sperms for a whole year in the genitalia of

another individual is not expected.

The eggs are laid in batches in small holes made in damp soil by

THE MATING & OVIPOSITION OF TWO LAND PULMONATES _ 185

the snail with the help of the snout and the anterior end of the foot.

Oviposition usually takes place towards the evening or in the night

though laying during daytime is not rare. The eggs are dropped one

after another in the hole along with a profuse quantity of a slimy

substance discharged through the genital aperture. Laying con-

tinues for about two hours in A. fulica, the period depending on the

number of eggs which varies extremely. The known record in a

single brood is minimum 82, maximum 315 in Sumatra (Meer Mohr,

1949) and 120 in Kenya (Rees, 1950). The present author found the

number varying from 27 to 356, the average being 200. The colour

of the eggshell varies from light to deep yellow, but white ones are

not very rare. It is calcareous, porous, tough, and thick, needing;

considerable pressure to break. A non-separable shell membrane is

present in most cases just inside the shell. The laying of eggs

without any eggshell is not rare, and these eggs contain normal

developing embryos. The number of eggs in one brood of M. indica

varies from 2 to 35, the average being 14. The outer egg cover is

smooth, tough, elastic, and translucent white in colour.

The shape and size of the eggs in A. fulica are also variable.

Usually they are broadly ellipsoid, but a few round ones are also

sometimes found. Meer Mohr (1949) found the average size

5.4X4.28 mm. and Rees (1950) 7.15.6 mim. In the eggs collected

by the author the average maximum size is 5.5X4 mm.; and the

average minimum is 3.5X3 mm. Several small eggs are found in

almost every brood, and the snails to hatch out last are always from,

these small eggs. In M. indica the eggs are always round and the

size varies from 1.7 to 3 mm., the former being only a few and only

in some of the broods.

The eggs are covered with a thin film of mucus, which absorbs

water from the surrounding damp soil and protects the eggshell from

drying up. The embryos in eggs freed of mucus or removed from

their damp surroundings do not hatch out. On dissection it was

found that in such eggs the albumen dries up quickly and the embryos

cannot develop further. The eggshells of A. fulica exposed to sun-

light or dry air crack with a sharp click, audible from a distance

of several feet. If removed from their damp surroundings the eggs

of M. indica shrivel up due to loss of water, but they regain their

normal shape and size once more if placed in contact with moist

substance.

The colour and viscosity of the albumen vary considerably. The

former ranges from colourless to deep yellow, and the latter from very

fluid to thick state in A. fulica. The albumen is always very fluid

and colourless in M. indica. |

186 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

The stages of the embryos at which the eggs are laid are extremely

variable in the different species. Embryos earlier to the formation of

the heart (3 mm.) were rare in A. fulica and they were in the seg-

mentation stage in M. indica. In a high percentage of cases, the

embryos are found in fairly advanced stages at the time of laying and

hatch out from the eggs within a day or two in A. fulica. Laying of

eggs with very early stages of embryos is rare, and in such cases the

embryos usually fail to develop. Attempts were made to obtain

young snails from the eggs with very early embryos taken out by

dissection of the uterus, but these were almost always infructuous.

It appears that the A. fulica has progressed considerably towards the

attainment of ovo-viviparity while M. indica lags far behind. The

percentage of hatching in the eggs laid with late embryos is very high.

In general, it can be said that in A. fulica, the smaller or whiter

the eggs the earlier will be the stages of embryos in them. Again,

the larger and more yellowish the eggs the more advanced will be

the developing embryos. No such generalisation is possible in M.

indica. |

The snails begin to lay eggs at the end of their first year. The

minimum size’, at which A. fulica and M. indica have been noted to

lay eggs is 59X27 mm. and 12X8 mm. respectively (A. fulica

bred and reared in the laboratory reached 67X34 mm. in eight

months). Under no circumstances a single individual A. fulica laid

eggs more than once in a year? though several broods per year

are common from one M. indica. The number of eggs laid by an

A. fulica in the first year of its sexual maturity is the minimum; the

number gradually increases with age and is again on the decline from

the fourth or fifth year, but never comes down so low as in the

beginning. |

Various attempts*® to induce Achatina to lay eggs throughout the

year met with partial success only. The earliest date of egg-laying

in a caged specimen was 24th March and the latest was 29th

September, M. indica could be induced to lay eggs throughout the

year by keeping them active artificially and supplying their favourite

food lavishly. |

pees cee eee seca hy teal e stn See ei ee

760 mm. (Meer Mohr, 1949). '

* Meer Mohr (1949) states that several batches of eggs are laid by an individual in

one breeding season.

° (a) The humidity of the rearing chambers was controlled, and the snails were

kept active throughout the year.

(6) Snails were awakened from aestivation by spraying of water, and the same

repeated at regular intervals to keep them active. Eh

ses, and some of them were released in chambers with active residents.

(d) A liberal supply of favourite food was maintained.

THE MATING & OVIPOSITION OF TWO LAND PULMONATES 187

The snail waits for a few hours by the side of the eggs after the

completion of laying. This may be due to partial exhaustion of the

animal in the process of oviposition. After recovery, it slowly moves

away from the eggs, never to turn back again. In a few cases, the

snail has been noted to cover its eggs with foreign matter, like leaves

or the soil pushed from the sides of the hole.

parent is totally absent.

Incubation by the

Table showing particulars of eggs laid in different years

S 80 °

” 5 Ge "S a iz S a

; Bae |S) | ee ea lap eke | 3h2

S$ |g/5 | 32 | 88 | oB) $8 8g Skb| 588

2 Se Ge aes) o 2 = a5 nO Rofl) eae

n 3 20,0 Soe es (eal ee) Os €

° 2 m OF Diao Slee oh Ot

Z 2 Ex on eS CAS) =I As

! = 1% 128 E

A. fulica :

1951 4 1024 256 24 2.3 1 1 2

1952) 16 3092 193°25'\" -75 2.4 3 3 10

£953 4; -15 2196 146.4 | . 61 2.8 3 5 qi

Total .. 35 6312 180.34; 160 2.53 7 9 19

M. indica :

5) 0 a 251 16.7 | 40 15.9 4 9 4

1952 | 30 385 12.8 74 19.5 6 20 4

iS5Si\" 25 341 13.6 | 42 1273 6 16 3

Total ... HO W977. 2 44.0 [136.0] 160 | 16 | 45 9

ee eee

REFERENCES

Bahl, K. N. (1928): On the reproductive

process and development ‘of Pila globosa

(Swainson). Mem. Ind. Mus. 9: 1-11.

Balasubramaniam, T. S. (1952):

Development of Ariophanta bristrialis

Beck. J. Anam. Univ. 17: 94-100.

Kroschelt, E. & Heider,K. (1900): Text-

eee of Embryology of Invertebrates

7102.

Meer Mohr, J. C. Van der. (1949): On

the reproductive capacity of the African

or Giant snail, Achatina fulica (Fér.).

Treubia 20 (1): 1-10.

Rees, W. J. (1950): The Giant African

snail. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 120 (3):

‘577-98.

Rensch, L. (1955): On some Indian

Land snails. JBNH'S 53 (2): 163-176,

Critical Notes on the Orchidaceae of

Bombay State

I. THE GENUS HABENARIA WILLD.

H. SANTAPAU, S.J., F.N.I. AND Z. KAPADIA, PH.D.

(With six plates)

INTRODUCTION

The Orchidaceae of Bombay were revised by Blatter and McCann

in the Journal in the years 1931-1932 ; in our intensive work on the family

we have found a number of details in which some further revision work

is necessary. Except for a few isolated cases, we have not been able

to study the types of the new species described by Blatter and McCann;

in some cases their types were not actual specimens but careful draw-

ings with notes taken from fresh plants at the time of collection; we

have based our study on the illustrations and descriptions given by

Blatter and McCann for the revision of their new species.

A number of our specimens have been checked with the types in

Kew Herbarium or, where the types were not available, then with speci-

mens critically examined by a number of authors, among them O. Kuntze,

J. S. Gamble, etc. For our study we have had at our disposal photo-

graphs of many of the Kew types taken by the senior author, also photo-

graphs of most of the Bombay orchids represented in the Kew Herbarium.

We have relied much on the synonymy given by Hooker f. in FLORA OF

BRITISH INDIA, for it is clear from Huxley’s LIFE AND LETTERS OF SIR J. D.

HOOKER that Hooker spent more time and energy in the study of the

Orchidaceae of India than in any other family with the possible excep-

tion of the Gramineae. Hooker’s synonymy is not disputed ; his choice

of names is sometimes rejected in these pages.

Both of us, but particularly the younger author, have spent many

days in the field all over Bombay State in an attempt to collect, as far as

possible, all the orchids of Bombay in perfect condition. With but few

exceptions we have succeeded in this ; the exceptions are mostly species

that do not seem to have been collected by subsequent botanists after

the original collection and publication of the species. Our collections,

then, become important especially in cases where no type sheet was

designated when the new taxon was described by Bombay botanists.

THE ORCHIDACEAE OF BOMBAY STATE 189

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The junior author has been helped in his work by a grant of

money from the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust received through the Bombay

Natural History Society, to whom he is grateful for the assistance

given.

In this our first paper of a series on the Orchidaceae, we shall deal

with the genus Habenaria; there are quite a few changes in the nomen-

clature and identity of the species of Habenaria; in spite of the revision

of Blatter and McCann; in particular we find that several of the new

species described by these authors have had to be reduced to synonymy.

In our revision we shall briefly give the names and some of the more

important references for those species, where no change is necessary ;

where some change in the nomenclature or in the synonymy of the plants

is required, we shall give full details to show the grounds for the change.

Further we give our own key, which has been based, as far as possible,

on obvious and simple characters; we have found by experience that it

is difficult for students to identify plants when the basis of the identi-

fication are characters that need careful dissection of the same. Our

revision covers the genus Habenaria in Bombay State as the latter stood

prior to the re-organization of States, that is to say, those parts of N.

Kanara, which formerly belonged to Bombay, are included in our review.

KEY TO THE SPECIES OF HABENARIA OF BOMBAY

Identification of the genus is about the easiest among the ground

orchids of Bombay; identification of the species is somewhat difficult.

There is little variation in the general habit of these species, except that

some species have leaves flat on the ground, most species have leaves,

which are either radical or cauline, but are not flat on the ground. Some

of the species appear mostly on old walls; others favour an open situa-

tion in grass fields, whilst others occur in the undergrowth of dense

forest ; one plant of the genus is found to be epiphytic.

1. Petals 2-partite :

2. Sepals with filiform tips; lateral lobes of lip

less than half as long as midlobe Hs stenopetala

2. Sepals without filiform tips ; lobes of lip sub-

equal, or the lateral ones much longer:

3. Flrs. pure green, occasionally faintly

whitish or yellowish, strongly foul-scen-

ted after sunset; lower segment of

petals filiform, less than (or rarely up

to) half as long as the upper ones; spur

scarcely clavate ie o digitata

190 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

3. Flrs. pure white, greenish- or rarely

dirty brownish-white, odourless or foul-

scented in day time; segments of petals

subequal or the lower slightly shorter,

not filiform; spur ae es clavate at

apex

3. Firs. white or oom nn or not at all

scented; lower segment of petals 2-3

times longer than upper one; spur

clavate or globular at apex:

4. Ls. several, clustered about middle of

stem; firs. brownish-green, scent-

less ; segments of petals and of lip

filiform, variously contorted

4. Ls. few, radical; firs. white, faintly

scented ; upper segment of petals

somewhat triangular ovate ; lower

segment much longer, filiform ; late-

ral lobes of lip filiform, as long as or

longer than the broader linear mid-.

lobe :

5. Ls. 2-5, oblong or oblong-lanceo-

late, thin, not flat on ground;

anthers rounded on top

5. Ls. 1-2, ovate to almost orbicular,

flat on ground, fleshy, coria-

ceous; anthers distinctly tricus-

pidate at top

1. Petals entire :

6. Ls. 2, rarely more, flat on ground, opposite

or subopposite, coriaceous, broadly ovate

to suborbicular :

7. Lip shorter than lateral sepals, 3-lobed ;

lateral lobes oblong, rounded, half as

long as whole lip; spur twice as long

as ovary or more ws

7. Lip longer than lateral ope 3-partite ;

lobes subequal or lateral ones longer;

spur about equalling the ovary :

8. Firs. greenish-white; petals narrow,

linear oblong; segments of lip fili-

form, the lateral ones much longer

than the midlobe oe Bc

gibsonii

multicaudata

_rariflora

grandifloriformis

platyphylla

diphylla

THE ORCHIDACEAE OF BOMBAY STATE 191

8. Firs. white; petals ovate or ovate-

oblong; segments of tp subequal,

linear-oblong , ; crassifolia

6. Ls. radical or cauline, not flat on caine

9. Ovary long-beaked; petals broad, ob-

long; lip 3-partite, segments filiform,

lateral ones longer ; tube of anther cells

long : he Pe commelinifolia

9. Ovary scarcely peaked segment of lip

not filiform ; tube of anther cells short :

10. Petals narrow-linear; lateral lobes

of lip with long filiform tails, mid-

lobe 2-lobulate with minute mucro

between the filiform-tailed lobules... crinifera

10. Petals linear-oblong, spathulate or

broadly ovate or ovate-oblong;

lobes of lip not tailed :

11. Firs. white; lateral lobes of lip

broader than midlobe, obli-

quely truncate-denticulate at

apex : |

12. Spur shorter than or equal-

ling ovary :

13. Lip not at all or scarcely

longer than lateral

sepals; spur about as

long as ovary 3 suaveolens

13. Lip 14-2 times as dhe ds as

lateral sepals; spur

much shorter than

ovary ...... panchganiensis

12. Spur 14-3 times longer fee

ovary :

14. Ls. radical, + spread-

ing on ground; ovary

sessile or subsessile ;

lip 7-12 mm. long;

stigmatic, processes

somewhat oblong,

white... Sti plantaginea

14. Ls. -- grouped at base

of stem; ovary on long

pedicel ; lip 14-29 mm.

192 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

long; stigmatic pro-

cesses clavate, green..

11. Firs. white, yellow or green; late-

ral lobes of lip not broader

than midlobe, linear oblong

to linear filiform :

15. Stem leafy upwards; firs.

white, then yellow, drying

black, secund or subsecund..

15. Ls. radical, clustered at base

of stem (except in AH. mar-

ginata var. fusifera); firs.

yellow, not secund :

16. Ls. broad, oblong with

narrow yellowish mar-

gins; floral bracts

equal to or longer than

ovary bi ts

16. Ls. narrow, lanceolate o

linear-oblong, without

yellow margins; floral

bracts up to half as

long as ovary ak

15. Ls. clustered about middle of

stem; firs. green, not

secund :

17. Floral bracts longer or

Shorter than ovary;

midlobe of lip ovate-

oblong, obtuse, inflex-

ed, meeting dorsal sepal

and petals at apex, thus

enclosing column, shor-

ter or about as long as

the linear or linear-

oblong spreading late-

ral lobes ; spur longer

than ovary, straight ..

17. Floral bracts longer than

ovary; midlobe of lip

straight, broader and

shorter than the fili-

form spreading lateral

longicorniculata

heyneana

mar ginata

viridiflora

ovalifolia

THE ORCHIDACEAE OF BOMBAY STATE 193

lobes ; spur longer than

ovary, incurved see furcifera

17. Floral bracts much shor-

ter than ovary; lobes

of lip similar, straight,

narrow linear or linear

oblong, spreading ; spur

shorter than ovary,

incurved .. 3 hollandiana

ENUMERATION OF THE SPECIES OF HABENARIA OF BOMBAY STATE

1. Habenaria stenopetala Lindl. Gen. Sp. Orch. 319, 1835; Hook.

f. Fl. Brit. India 6 : 134, 1890; Cooke, Fl. Pres. Bombay 2: 715, 1907

(excl. syn. H. modesta Dalz.); Blatt. & McC. in Journ. Bombay Nat.

Hist. Soc. 36:14, t.1, 1932.

This is one of the few Bombay orchids that we have been unable

to collect in the field ; it seems to be a rather rare plant. Lately Vartak

has collected it from Helwak in the Deccan.

Cooke gives H. modesta Dalz. as a synonym of this plant, but with

some reservations; Blatt. & McC. consider H. modesta Dalz. identical

with Peristylus stenostachyus Kranzl. Judging from Dalzell’s general

description, and particularly from the structure of the lip, the plant seems

to be identical with Habenaria ovalifolia Wight.

2. Habenaria digitata Lindl. Gen. Sp. Orch. 307, 1835; Hook. f.

134, pro parte; Cooke 715, pro parte; Blatt. & McC. 14; Santapau in

Rec. Bot. Surv. India 16(1) : 306, 1953. H. trinervia Wight, Icon. t.

1701, 1851. (See Plate III, fig. 7-8)

This plant has been confused with some of its allies; after examina-

tion of numerous fresh specimens, we consider the following to be the

distinctive features of this species: i. Flowers pure green, fading to

whitish- or yellowish-green, emitting a pungent foul scent after sunset.

ii. Lateral sepals erect or spreading, not reflexed, more or less similar

to the dorsal one. ii. Segments of petals unequal, the upper one about

as long as the lower segment and lying along the dorsal sepal; the lower

segment up to half as long as the upper one, filiform. iv. Lobes of lip

linear, more or less thick, the lateral ones reflexed at right angles to the

midlobe, which is straight or rarely inflexed. v. Stigmatic processes

thin, lying on the lip. vi. Mouth of spur liguled, narrow, not funnel-

shaped ; spur green, slightly clavate.

This is a common orchid on the Western Ghats, where it has been

collected from Matheran, Khandala, Purandhar, Panchgani, Maha-

bleshwar, etc. It is also fairly common in N. Kanara.

194 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

3. Habenaria gibsonii Hook. f. Fl. Brit. India 6 : 135, 1890; Santapau,

Fl. Purandh. 126. #H. digitata Cooke 715, pro parte (non Lindl. 1835).

H. digitata var. gibsonii Fischer in Gamble, FI. Pres. ‘Madras 1469, 1928 ;

Santapau 306.

Three varieties of this species have been recorded from Bombay

State; they can be separated from one another by the following key :

1. Flowers scentless during the day time:

2. Dorsal sepal broadly ovate-elliptic, up

to 10-12 x 9 mm.; lateral sepals up to

18-20 x 7-8 mm.; upper segment of

petals longer than the lower one 3 v. gibsonii

2. Dorsal sepalovate oblong,6-7 x 3-5 mm.;

lateral sepals 8-9 x 3 mm.; segments

of petals about equal, or the lower

slightly longer . : v. foliosa

1. Flowers ile during te day Pee

dorsal sepal broader than long, 7 x g

mm.; lateral sepals 9 x 5-6 mm.; upper

segment of petals slightly longer than lower

one, 7-8 x 1-1.5 mm., the lower segment

5-7. x 0-3 mm: te. - a v. foetida

3A. Habenaria gibsonii var. gibsonii Hook. f. (See Plate II, fig. 3-4)

This is the typical variety of the species; it has been recorded from

Khandala and Lonavla as common; McCann collected it from the hills

east of Vehar Lake in Salsette I.

3B. Habenaria gibsonii var. foetida Blatt. & McC. in Journ. Bombay

Nat. Hist. Soc. 36:16, 1932. (See Plate II, fig. 5)

This variety seems to be more common than the typical one; it is

found in dense undergrowth in forest areas, often on sloping ground.

We have recorded it from Waghai in the Dangs, from Borivli

and Ghodbunder in Salsette Isl., from Khandala, Lonavla, Purandhar and

Bhimashankar on the Western Ghats, and from Dapoli in the Deccan.

The carrion-stench of the flowers during the day time is very liad oo

and unpleasant. - ;

3C. Habenaria gibsonii var. foliosa (A. Rich.) Sant. & Kapad.

comb. nov. H. foliosa A. Rich. in Ann. Sci. nat. (ser. 2) 15:71, t. 3A,

1841; Wight, Icon. t. 1700; Blatt. & McC. 15. 4. digitata var. foliosa

Hook. f. Fl. Brit. India 6 : 135, 1890; Cooke 716; Fischer 1469. A.

spencei Blatt. & McC. loc. cit. 17, t. 3, 1932. (See Plate II, fig. 6)

The flowers of this variety are much smaller and more delicate than

in the typical variety; they are scentless, or at any rate, without the

pronounced carrion-stench of the var. foetida ; the dorsal sepal is ovate-

THE ORCHIDACEAE OF BOMBAY STATE 195

oblong, the segments of the petals straight, the upper segment included

within the dorsal sepal ; the spur is distinctly inflated in the lower portion.

This variety until recently has been considered either as a distinct

species or as a variety of H. digitata Lindl. We consider it to be more

appropriately placed under H. gibsonii Hook. f. and base our selection

on the following characters: i. The petals are bipartite to the base, the

segments being subequal, directed upwards. ii. The lip is tripartite to

the base, the segments being more or less similar, uniformly linear-

subulate.

Two of our specimens (Kapadia 614, 622) from Mahableshwar match

the illustration and description of H. spencei Blatt. & McC. We have

examined the specimens carefully and think that they belong to our new

variety, and that therefore H. spencei Blatt. & McC. is conspecific with

the new variety.

This variety is not too common; we have recorded it from the Western

Ghats and from the high hills near Poona in the Deccan; also

from Karwar in N. Kanara. ;

4. Habenaria multicaudata Sedgw. in Rec. Bot. Surv. India 6 : 352,

1919; Fischer 1469 ; Blatt. & McC. 16. (See Plate VI, fig. 21)

The type was described from Guddehalliin N. Kanara near Karwar ;

it has also been collected from other places in N. Kanara ; Fischer has

recorded it from the Nilgiri and Anaimalai hilis. It has not been found

in the re-organized Bombay State.

5. Habenaria rariflora A. Rich. in Ann. Sci. nat. (ser. 2) 15: 70,

t. 2D, 1841; Wight, Icon. t. 924; Hook. f. 136; Cooke 716; Blatt. &

McC. 17, t. 2; Santapau 306 & Fl. Purandh. 127. 4H. rariflora var.

latifolia Blatt. & McC. loc. cit. 17, 1932. (See Plate III, figs. 9-10)

During the first half of the monsoon this orchid is very common on

the Western Ghats, usually growing on vertical rocks and old walls;

very rarely it is found growing in the ground.

We have examined many specimens from the W. Ghats, and found

that the leaves are very variable in shape, size, and consistency; the var.

latifolia seems to be but one of the variants of this very variable plant.

The name rariflora was given by Richard to this plant because of

the small number of flowers in each scape, usually 1-2 ; in some of the

more robust specimens collected on Purandhar hill we have noted up to

13 flowers ; in these large specimens the flower and all its parts are slightly

larger than in the normal few-flowered plants; the floral structure is,

however, identical.

6. Habenaria grandifloriformis Blatt. & McCann in Journ. Bombay

Nat. Hist. Soc. 36: 17, 1932, charact. emend. Sant. & Kapad. H.

grandiflora Lindl. in Wall. Cat. n. 7032, 1828, nom. nud.; Dalz. & Gibs.

196 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

Bombay FI. 267, 1861, cum descriptione; Hook. f. 136; Cooke 716;

Fischer 1469; Blatt. & McC. 18; Santapau 307 (non Torr. ex Beck,

1823). H. rotundifolia Lindl. Gen. Sp. Ofch. 306, 1835 (non Rich.,

1823). H. grandifloriformis var. aequiloba Blatt. & McC. loc. cit. 18, 1932.

(See Plate I, fig. 2-21)

The identity of grandiflora and grandifloriformis is clear to us; the

latter plant is said to have flowers slightly larger than the former, but the

basic floral structure is the same in both plants. Further in grandi-

floriformis, as delimited by Blatter and McCann, there is a continuous

range of variation in the size of the floral parts; it appears somewhat

incongruous to make size the basis for the new species. Similar variations

have been noted for grandiflora by Cooke and others. The measurements

given for grandifloriformis by Blatt. and McC. are the following : lateral

sepals 15 x 6 mm.; lower segment of petals 17 mm. long; lip up to 22

mm. long. We have measured a number of specimens in the field, and

our data are the following: lateral sepals 10, 12, 14, or 15 mm. long,

5-6 mm. broad; lower segment of petals 9, 12, 14, 15 mm. long; lip

9, 12, 15, 16, 17.5, 18 mm. long. Blatter and McCann in their key to

the species of Habenaria give the length of the lip as the distinctive

character between grandiflora and grandifloriformis, the former being 12,

the latter 22 mm. long; if this be correct, then what is the systematic

position of specimens with lips 14, 17.5, 18 mm. long? _

Given, then, that there is great variation in the size of the floral

parts of this plant, we feel justified in fusing the two species into one.

The question then remains about the correct nomenclature for the complex

group; H. grandiflora Lindl. 1828 is nomen nudum, the validity of which

dates only from the publication by Dalzell and Gibson in 1861 of the

description of the plant; but by then the specific epithet grandiflora was

not available for the genus, it being legitimately used for another plant

by Torrey ex Beck in 1833. Of the names mentioned above in

the synonymy only grandifloriformis is available, which we adopt for the

plant in an extended sense, so as to include both Lindley’s and Blatter

and McCann’s types.

We have recorded this plant from several places in the Konkan

plains, from the Western Ghats and from N. Kanara. It is common

on rocky plateaux among short grasses; it is one of the first species of

the genus to come into flower at the beginning of the monsoon.

7. Habenaria platyphylla (Willd.) Spreng. Syst. Veg. 690, 1826;

Graham, Cat. 201, 1839; Wight, Icon. t. 1709; Hook. f. 140; Cooke

717; Fischer 1470; Blatt. & McC. 18. Orchis platyphyllos Willd. Sp.

Pl. 4:10, 1805. Orchis plantaginea Roxb. Pl. Cor. 1:33, t. 37, 1795

& Fl. Ind. 3: 450, 1832.

We have not seen this species from Bombay; Blatter and McCann

JourN. BomsBay Nat. Hist. $oc. PLATE |

Habenaria longicorniculata Grah. : Fig. 1. Upper part of inflorescence; Fig. 17. Sepals

and petals dissected. H. grandifloriformis Blatt. & McC.: Fig. 2. Whole plant; Fig. 2'.

Sepals and petals dissected.

JouRN. BomMBAY Nat. Hist. Soc. PLATE II

Oo 1 2 3 cM

i ©) |

O 1 20M ° 1 rae

“ Habenaria gibsonii var. gibsonii Hook. f.: Fig. 3. Upper part of inflorescence; Fig. 4.

Sepals and petals dissected. Habenaria gibsonii var. foetida Blatt. & McC.: Fig. 5. Sepals

and petals dissected. Habenaria gibsonii var. foliosa Sant. & Kapad.: Fig. 6. Sepals and-

petals dissected.

THE ORCHIDACEAE OF BOMBAY STATE 197

did not see it either. However, we have been able to study the plant in

detail from specimens collected in the parts of India covered by

Roxburgh’s PLANTS OF THE COAST OF COROMANDEL, where it seems to be

fairly common.

8. Habenaria diphylla Dalz. in Hook. J. Bot. 2: 262, 1850; Dalz.

& Gibs. 268 ; Hook. f. 151 (excl. Lip. diphyllos Nimmo) ; oc 22

(excl. Lip. diphyllos Nimmo); Fischer 1471; Blatt. & McC. 25 (excl.

L. diphyllos Nimmo). JH. jerdoniana Wight, Icon. t. 1715, 1851. (See

Plate VI, fig. 22)

This is a rare plant; it has been mentioned for the Konkan by Stocks

and Dalzell; it is more common in N. Kanara where we have collected

it from several spots.

9. Habenaria crassifolia A. Rich. in Ann. Sci. nat. (ser. 2) 15 : 72,

t. 3C, 1841; Hook. f. 151, (excl. syn. H. brachyphylla Reichenb. f.);

Cooke 722; Fischer 1471; Blatt. & McC. 25; Santapau, Fl. Purandh.

126. Platanthera brachyphylla Lindl. Gen. Sp. Orch. 293, 1835; Wight,

Icon. t. 1694; Dalz. & Gibs. 269. Habenaria brachyphylla (Lindl.)

Kranzl. in Bot. Jahrb. 16: 153, 1893 (non Reichenb. f. 1886). (See

Plate VI, fig. 23)

This is a common orchid on sionies grass fields on Pcsandlnen Hill ;

the leaves are suborbicular and rather stiff.

_ The name of the plant requires attention. Habenaria brachyphylla

Reichenb. f. 1893 is a later homonym of H. brachyphylla Aitch. & Hemsl.

1882, which Hook. f. and Duthie list as synonymous with H. aitchisonii

Reichenb. f. The name brachyphylia then is not available for this plant,

although it is the oldest epithet for the plant.

10. _Habenaria commelinifolia Wall. ex Lindl. Gen. Sp. Orch. 325,

1835 ; Hook. f. 143; Cooke 719; Fischer 1470; Blatt. & McC. 20;

Santapau 308. Orchis commelinifolia Roxb. Fl. Ind. 3: 451, 1832.

(See Plate IV, figs. 11-12)

This is a very common ground orchid on the Konkan plains; we

have recorded it from Bassein, Andheri, Tulsi Lake, Kandivli, Mumbra,

etc.; we have also seen a few specimens from Purandhar and N. Kanara.

The general structure of the inflorescence is typical.

11. Habenaria crinifera Lindl. Gen. Sp. Orch. 323, 1835; Wight,

Icon. t. 926; Hook. f. 142; Cooke 718; Fischer 1471; Blatt. & McC.

20. H. schizochilus Nimmo ex Grah. Cat. Bombay Pl. 252, 1839.

Synmaria schizochilus Nimmo in Grah. loc. cit. pag. ult. sine no. (See

Plate IV, figs. 13-14)

A rare orchid; we have found it in the Koyna Valley; it has also

been recorded from the Konkan and the W. Ghats. Our specimens were

found epiphytic on tree trunks about | m. from the ground; Dalzell

)

198 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

and Gibson also recorded the epiphytic habit of this plant; this is the

only species of the genus in Bombay which is truly epiphytic.

12. Habenaria suaveolens Dalz. in Kew Journ. Bot. 2 : 263, 1850 &

in Dalz. & Gibs. Bombay Fl. 263; Hook. f. 140; Blatt. & McC. 19.

This seems to be one of the rarest of Bombay orchids ; after the

original collection in the ‘Konkan’ by Dalzell, it has been recorded

only from between Vengurla and Malwan by Dalzell & Gibson ; none of

the subsequent Bombay botanists have found the plant again.

13. Habenaria panchganiensis Sant. & Kapad. in Journ. Bombay Nat.

Hist. Soc. 54: 478, 1957. H. variabilis Blatt. & McC. in eodem op.

36 : 19-20, tt. 4-5, 1932 (non Ridley, 1886). (See Plate VI, fig. 24)

This species seems to be endemic on the Western Ghats of Bombay ;

it is one of the commonest and most abundant ground orchids of Maha-

bleshwar and Panchgani during the monsoon.

H. variabilis Blatt. & McC., 1932, is an illegitimate name, it being a

later homonym of H. variabilis Ridl., 1886; the latter is an Abyssinian

plant. The one point in which both the Indian and the Abyssinian

species agree is the great variability in the shape and size of their floral

structures.

14. Habenaria plantaginea Lindl. Gen. Sp. Orch. 323, 1835; Wight,

Icon. t. 1710; Hook. f. 141; Cooke 718; Fischer 1420; Blatt. & McC.

20 ; Santapau 308. (See Plate VI, fig. 25)

We have recorded this species from various places on the Western

Ghats and N. Kanara. It usually occurs either solitary or in small groups

in open, sloping ground in exposed situations; it is rarely found in the

shade.

15. Habenaria longicorniculata Graham, Cat. Bombay Pl. 202, 1839.

H. longecalcarata A. Rich. in Ann. Sc. nat. (ser. 2) 15:71, t. 3B, 1841;

Wight, Icon. t. 925; Hook. f. 141; Cooke 718; Fischer 1470; Blatt.

& McC. 20; Santapau 307. AH. longecalcarata var. viridis Blatt. & McC.

in J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 36 : 20, 1932. (See Plate I, figs. 1-11)

The identity of this plant is quite clear ; the name needs correction

from what is usually given in our floras and from what the senior author

has given elsewhere. There is no doubt that the oldest legitimate name is

that of Graham, 1839 ; his description seems to be sufficient to bring out

the essential characters of the plant. On a previous occasion the senior

author did not adopt Graham’s name on account of ‘ the solid weight

of authority in favour of Jongecalcarata.’ WHerewith we reinstate

Graham’s specific name on the basis of priority.

The var. viridis Blatt. & McC. is but an immature specimen of the

typical species, with which it is therefore merged. The typical species

is usually green in its early stages, gradually changing to cream or pure

white.

THE ORCHIDACEAE OF BOMBAY STATE 199

This orchid is common in sloping grass fields; the size of the plant

seems to keep pace with the growth of grasses; in the early part of the

monsoon, when grasses are low, this plant is but 30 cm. tall; by the end

of the season it may reach beyond | m. in size. Very common on the

Western Ghats, not so common in N. Kanara.

16. Habenaria heyneana Lindl. Gen. Sp. Orch. 320, 1835; Wight,

Icon. t. 923; Hook. f. 148; Cooke 719; Fischer 1471 & in Kew Bull.

1928 : 284; Blatt. & McC. 22; Santapau 308. A. subpubens A. Rich.

in Ann. Sci. nat. (ser. 2) 15 : 75, t. 4C, 1841; Hook. f. 148; Cooke 720.

H. glabra A. Rich. loc. cit. 75, t. SA, 1841. H. candida Dalz. in Hook.

Bot 2 +262, 1850. A. cerea Blatt. & McC. 21, t. 6, 1932. HA. cerea

var. polyantha Blatt. & McC. ibid. 22, 1932. (See Plate V, figs. 15-16)

The senior author, in Rec. Bot. Surv. India 16 (1) : 308, 1953, has

discussed the identity of the plant, after examination of the types in Kew

Herb. ; the plants listed above are all one and the same species, the oldest

legitimate name being H. heyneana Lindl.

This orchid is rather variable; it grows in abundance in rocky pla-

teaux on the Western Ghats. Locally the plant is known as ‘ The Tooth-

brush Orchid’ on account of the secund arrangement of the flowers ;

the pedicels, however, are arranged all round the stem, the twisting of the

flowers being a later development. Flowers at first cream or white,

with age they turn yellow, on drying they become almost black.

17. Habenaria marginata Coleb. in Hook. Exot. FI. t. 136, 1825;

Graham 201; Hook. f. 150; Cooke 721; Fischer 1471 (excl. syn. A.

fusifera Hook. f.); Blatt. & McC. 23 (excl. syn. AH. fusifera Hook. f.);

Santapau 310 & Fl. Purandh. 127. (See Plate V, fig. 17)

The specific epithet of this plant refers to the clear margins along

the edges of the leaves, the margins being whitish or yellowish. This

is a common species, which we have recorded from the Dangs Forest,

from various places in the Konkan especially in Salsette Isl., from the

Deccan and the Western Ghats and from N. Kanara. It is found among

low grasses in moist soil during the monsoon.

17A. Habenaria marginata f. flavescens Blatt. & McC. in Journ.

Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 36: 24, 1932. H. flavescens Hook. f. FI. Brit.

India 6: 150, 1890. H. marginata var. flavescens Cooke, Fl. Pres.

Bombay 2: 721, 1907.

This is but a slender form of marginata with fewer flowers and an

ovary that is somewhat more beaked than the typical plant. It is a rare

plant, which we have been unable to locate in the field.

17B. Habenaria marginata var. fusifera (Hook. f.) Sant. & Kapad

stat. nov. H. fusifera Hook. f. Fl. Brit. India 6 : 147, 1890.

200 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

This plant differs from the typical variety in the position of the

leaves, which here are arranged all along the stem for a distance of 12

cm. from the base; in the typical variety the leaves are clustered at the

base of the plant. The inflorescence of our variety is lax, the spur shorter

than the ovary, thin, slightly clavate at the apex but not inflated. The

whole plant grows to 45 cm. high. Leaves are margined with a yellowish

strip, and are elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, 8-15 x 1.6-3.5 cm. Flowers

yellow, similar to those of the typical species.

Fischer, in Kew Bull. 1928 : 285, remarks that he has examined the

type and only specimen of H. fusifera Hook. f. which was preserved in

the Calcutta Herb.; Fischer considers the plant identical. with H.

_ marginata Coleb. We have found a specimen in the Dangs Forest

(Santapau 19279) which in the structure of the flowers is definitely H

marginata Coleb., but the leaves are not radical, as in the typical species,

but are arranged along the stem for some distance. Hook. f. placed

his fusifera in the group with ‘ stem leafy upwards’, whilst marginata

is placed in the group with ‘ leaves clustered at the base or middle of the

stem’. We consider this arrangement of the leaves to be of sufficient

importance to justify our retaining fusifera as distinct from the typical

marginata.

18. Habenaria viridiflora (Sw.) R. Br. Prodr. 312, 1810; Wight,

Icon. t. 1705; Hook. f. 150; Fischer 1471. Orchis viridiflora Sw. in

Act. Holm. 706, 1800. Habenaria graminea A. Rich. in Ann. Sci. nat.

(ser. 2) 15:73, 1841 (non Spreng. 1826, nec 1835). H. viridiflora

var, dalzellii Hook. f. Fl. Brit. India 6: 150, 1890; Cooke 701;. Blatt.

& McC. 24. Coeloglossum luteum Dalz, in Hook. J. Bot, 2: 263, 1850.

(See; Plate Vy fea 9)

This is another rare species; we have not seen it in the field; Stocks

found it in the Konkan, Dalzell and Gibson in Malwan; no other Bombay

botanist has collected it again. We have been able to study the plant

from a specimen (Fischer 4225) from S. India.

From the descriptions, and we have nothing but the descriptions

to go by, of these two plants, 1.e. viridiflora and var. dalzellii, we consider

that the two plants are one and the same species, perhaps at most the latter

plant may be accepted as a form of the former.

19. Habenaria ovalifolia Wight, Icon. 5 (1): 13, t. 1708, 1851 ; Hook.f.

149; Kranzl. 139; Fischer 1471; Blatt. & McC. 23; Santapau 309. 4.

modesta Dalz. in Kew Journ. Bot. 2: 262, 1850; Hook. f. 166 (?) H.:

hallbergii Blatt. & McC. in Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 36 : 24, 1932;

Santapau 310. (See Plate V, fig. 18) 7

We have collected this plant from various places in Salsette Isl.,

from Khandala on the W. Ghats, and from N. Kanara. It is generally

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crinifera Lindl. : Fig. 13. Whole plant ; Fig. 14. Sepals and petals dissected. ;

THE ORCHIDACEAE OF BOMBAY STATE: 201

found in forest in dense undergrowth, occasionally in forest clearings ;

the flowers presenta problem for pollination ; the pollinia and stigmatic

surfaces are more or less completely covered by the sepals and petals;

it appears that only very minute insects can pass through the small

opening between the petals and the midlobe of the lip.

The type of Dalzell’s H. modesta has not been available in this study ;

but from the description it seems to us that this plant must be fused

with H. ovalifolia Wt. The structure of the lip, especially the midlobe,

which is reflexed upwards and joins with the dorsal sepal and the tips

of the petals, is very characteristic of this species. In accordance with

the Rule of Priority this plant should be called by the oldest valid name,

H. modesta Dalz. We defer to the authority of Hook. f. and others,

especially since we have not been able to see the type, and leave the

nomenclature unaltered; there seems to be some doubt about the iden-

tity of H. modesta Dalz., the evidence of the doubt being that the plant

has been put under A. stenopetala Lindl. or Peristylus stenostachyus

Kranzl.

On the other hand we have examined the type of H. hallbergii

Blatt. & McC. in Blatter Herb.; the basic floral structure is iden-

tical with that of H. ovalifolia Wight, and in consequence we place the

former name as a synonym of the latter.

20. Habenaria furcifera Lindl. Gen. Sp. Orch. 319, 1835 ; Hook. f.

149; Kranzl. 161; King & Pantling in Ann. R. Bot. Gard. Calcutta

8 : 313, t. 410; Prain, Bengal PI. 1033 ; Duthie in Ann. R. Bot. Gard.

Calcutta 9: 184, & Fl. Upp. Gang. PI. 3 : 225, 1920 ; Haines, Bot. Bih,

Or iisy. (See Plate V; fis. 20)

As this is a new record for Bombay, we give herewith a full des-

cription of the plant.

Terrestrial herbs, 40-60 cm. high. Tubers 1-2, ovate-ellipsoid,

3 x 1.5 cm. Leaves 13-17 x 3-6 cm., oblanceolate or obovate or ellip-

tical, acute or subacuminate, clustered just below the middle of the

stem, gradually passing into the bracts of the scape. Inflorescence

25-40 cm. long, stout, erect, lax, many-flowered ; scape bracteate, glab-

rous, at times longitudinally grooved ; bracts the lowermost 6-7 x 3-6

cm., the others 2 x 0.8 cm., lanceolate, acuminate. Flowers small,

green, very shortly pedicelled, bracteate ; pedicels 1-1.5 mm. long;

floral bracts 1.3 x 0.3 cm., ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, slightly concave

at the base, about as long as the ovary, the margins minutely papillate,

Sepals subequal, 3-nerved ; dorsal sepal 4-5 x 1 mm., spreading, some-

what falcate and concave at the base, subacute to acute, sparsely gland-

dotted. Petals 4x 2.5 mm., broadly oblong, obtuse or subretuse

Lip 6 x 6 mm., trifurcate right to the base ; lateral segments filiform,

diverging, curved, much longer than the stout, blunt, entire midlobe.

202 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

Spur slightly longer than the ovary, slender, laterally compressed, in-

volute at the base. Anther cells 2, touching, rather short; pollinia

ovoid with slightly curved slender caudicles, and small narrowly oblong

glands ; staminodes 2, somewhat large, broadly oblong, white, glan-

dular, placed at the sides of the column below the anther cells. Stig-

matic processes 2, elliptic, blunt, one on either side of the entrance to

the spur ; rostellum a thickened horny rim just above the orifice of the

spur, from the centre of which a small ligulate projection is given out,

which forms a flap over the entrance to the spur. Capsule 1.5 x 0.55 cm.,

fusiform, turgid, decurved, with strong ribs ; beak of capsule one-fourth

the length of the body.

Flowering : August to September ; Fruiting : up to November.

Occurrence in Bombay State: The following specimens are pre-

served in Blatter Herbarium from the Dangs Forest: Waghai,

R. Fernandes 2223, Santapau 19143-19144, 19204, Kapadia 681-683, 1411,

1438; Ahwa, Santapau 19393.

This species is widespread in northern and north-eastern India ;

Sikkim and Garhwal in the Himalayas, Orissa, East Bengal and Assam ;

this is the first time it has been recorded from Bombay State.

21. Habenaria hollandiana Sant. Fl. Purandh. 126, 1958. 4H. affinis

Wight, Icon. t. 1707, 1851 ; Hook. f. 149 ; Cooke 720; Fischer 1471 ;

Blatt. & McC. 23 (non D. Don, 1825).

This is a plant of rare occurrence in Bombay ; only Woodrow and

Ritchie seem to have found it in Purandhar and Belgaum respectively.

Wight mentions that his sheets do not show any definite locality, but

were probably received from Mr. Law of Belgaum. No subsequent

botanist after Woodrow has been able to locate the plant in Bombay.

H. affinis Wight, 1851, is a later homonym of H. affinis D. Don,

1825, and therefore an illegitimate name. The new name commemorates

the help received by the senior author in his exploration of Purandhar

hill, during the time Mr. A. S. Holland was the Commandant of the

Internment Camp and Parole Centre, Purandhar, during the second

World War.

IMPERFECTLY KNOWN SPECIES

Habenaria caranjensis Dalz. in Hook. Journ. Bot. 2: 262, 1850

‘(‘ caraujensis’) ; Dalz. & Gibs. 267 ; Hook. f. 166 ; Cooke 723.

There are no specimens of this species in Kew Herb. or in any of

the herbaria we have consulted ; the plant does not seem to have been

collected by any other botanist after Dalzell. The following are the

data given by Dalzell in the original description : ‘ Lower leaves sub-

rotund, the upper ones oblong-lanceolate, 3-nerved. Bracts acuminate,

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THE ORCHIDACEAE OF BOMBAY STATE

shorter than the ovary.

203

Upper sepal rotundate ; petals semi-ovate,

obtuse ; middle segment of the tripartite lip oblong, somewhat obtuse,

the lateral segments shorter, cuneate, truncate at the apex ; spur clavate,

shorter than the ovary. Flowers small, yellow.’

The original locality given by Dalzell is the island of ‘ Carauja near

Bombay ’.

There is no place with such a name near Bombay ; there is,

however, a place called Karanja or Caranja on the sea-coast across the

harbour of Bombay, which seems to be the locality of Dalzell’s collec-

tion.

REFERENCES

Blatter, E. & McCann, C. (1932):

Revision of the flora of Bombay Presi-

Dee (Orchidaceae). JBNHS 36: 13-28,

tt. 1-6.

Duthie, J. F. (1906) : The Orchids of

the North-Western Himalaya. Ann. R.

Bot. Gard. Calcutta 9 (2): 61-211, tt.

94-151.

King, G. & Pantling, R. (1898) : The

Orchids of the Sikkim Himalaya. Ann.

R. Bot. Gard. Calcutta 8: 1-342, tt.

1-444,

Kranzlin, F. (1893): Beitrage zu

einer Monographie der Gattung Habe-

naria Willd. Il. (Systematischer) Teil.

Bot. Jahrb. 16 : 52-223.

Lindley, J. (1835): The genera and

species of orchidaceous plants. London.

(1830-1840).

Richard, A. (1841) : Monographie des

orchidées réceullies dans la chaine des

Neilgherries... par M. Perrottet. Ann.

Sci. Nat. (ser. 2) 15: 5-20, 65-82, tt.

1-12.

Santapau, H. (1953): The Flora of

Khandala on the Western Ghats of

India. Rec. Bot. Surv. India 16(1):

1-392. (Habenaria on pp. 306-310).

— — — (1958): The Flora of

Delhi. (Habenaria on

& Kapadia; “Z. »(1952),;

Habenaria panchganiensis—new name for

a Bombay orchid. JBNHS 54: 478.

Purandhar.

pp. 126-127).

—_—_—_—_— -

~~.

New Marine Nematodes of the

Superfamily Enoploidea from the

Arabian Sea

RICHARD W. TIMM

Notre Dame College, Dacca, East Pakistan

(With two plates)

A collection of large marine nematodes was sent to the author for

identification by the Zoological Survey Department of Pakistan in

December, 1958. The worms were taken in 1957 and 1958 from rocks

and algae at low tide at Manora Island and from rocks beneath the

bridge at the native jetty, Karachi, West Pakistan. Six species of the

Superfamily Enoploidea are represented, four of which are new to science.

The systematics of these nematodes is given below, toupee with the

number of individuals.

Family ENOPLIDAE

Enoplus mammillatus n.sp., 4 0h, 2 22.

Family LEPTOSOMATIDAE

Thoracostoma karachiense n.sp., 105 oot, 78 29, 70 juveniles.

Leptosomatides reducta n.sp., 193%, 12 29, 4 juveniles.

Leptosomatum sp., 1 broken 0, 1 9.

Family ONCHOLAIMIDAE

Pontonema multisetosus n.sp., 3 ho.

Oncholaimus sp., 1 &.

The type habitat for all the new species is ‘ algae growing on rocks’.

The type locality is ‘ Manora Island, Karachi’. The type specimens,

mounted in glycerine jelly, are deposited in the slide collection of the

Pakistan Zoological Survey, Karachi. Paratype slides and specimens

are in the author’s personal collection. In the descriptions of Thora-

costoma karachiense and Leptosomatides reducta the numbers in paren-

theses refer to the mean for a particular set of measurements, based on

10 males and 10 females,

JourRN. BoMBAY NAT. Hist. Soc. PLATE I

A-C. Enoplus mammillatus n.sp. A. Male head. B. Male tail. C. Male genital

apparatus, ventral view. D-F. Thoracostoma karachiense n.sp. D. Male head.

E. Male tail. F. Spicule dissected out (hollow part in black).

Journ. BomBAy Nat. Hist. Soc. 5 ie - PLATE Ii

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———————

A-C. Thoracostoma karachiense n.sp. A. Female tail. B. Female head, en face

view. C. Gubernaculum dissected out. D-E. Leptosomatides reducta n.sp. D. Female

head. E. Male tail. F-H. Pontonema multisetosus n.sp. F. Male head. G. Male

tail. H.Hypodermal gland cell.

NEW MARINE NEMATODES OF ENOPLOIDES FROM ARABIAN SEA 205

Enoplus mammillatus n.sp. (PI. 1, A-C)

Description.—Body short and broad, tapering little toward

the head end. Colour deep reddish-brown, clearing only partially in

lactophenol. Cuticle moderately thick, in 2 distinct layers. Head

rounded; lips weakly-developed, surrounded by inner circle of 6 papillae

or protruberances. Mandibles 16-18 « long or 5/11 head diameter.

Cephalic setae 8 + 2, 16 and 14 u long respectively, 36° head diameter

in female, 40-44°% in male; few short cervical setae. Amphids trans-

versely elliptical, almost reniform, 4 ;. wide in male or 1/8 head diameter,

6 » in female or 1/5 head diameter. Ocelli with lens 30-32 « from

anterior end; little scattered ocellus pigment. Excretory pore about

150 , from anterior, inconspicuous. Excretory cell prominent, extend-

ing to just above oesophageal base, turned at right angles to base, as

figured by Wieser (1953b) for Enoplus benhami Ditlevsen, 1930. Nerve

ring broad, 134-180 « from anterior or 41-47% of oesophagus. Oeso-

phageal-intestinal valve hemispherical, 30 wu long. Male and female

tails both half-conical half-cylindrical, with caudal glands extending

anterior to anus and 2 spines at tip.

Female reproductive system amphidelphic; ovaries reflexed 4§ dis-

tance to vulva. Ova with clear thin shell, stacked vertically in uterus,

3 + 0 in 1 female, 6 + 5 in other, 135 + 80%. Vulva not conspicuously

sclerotized. Tail 3-3.3 anal diameters long.

Male reproductive system double, testes outstretched; anterior testis

extending almost to oesophagus. Spicules thick, with knobbed head;

ventral tooth-like projection on head. Two semi-circular plates on inner

margin of spicules, 1 just above tip, the other just above gubernaculum;

these seem to mark attachment points of small muscles. Spicules 112-

125 » long, 83 ~ in ventral view. Gubernaculum with vertical central

piece and 2 side pieces, projecting posteriolaterally, attached by broad

muscles leading to lateral walls anterior to anus. Narrow tubular supple-

ment 141-144 ~ anterior to anus, 55-60 4 long. Fine subventral setae

anterior and posterior to anus. Mammillate supplement just behind

anus, with prominent innervation. Numerous copulatory muscles

extending far forward. Tail 2.3-3 anal diameters long.

Female dimensions (2 99).—Length 2.5-2.6 mm.; a, 20-20.8; b,

fete], 11-8-12.8; Vi,52-52.5°7,;' Ov;yy 19.3-23 %: Ov,, 23.7-27Y,

Syntype female—L. 2.5 mm.; a, 20.8; b, 7; ©, 11.8; V, 52%; ova

3+ 0.

Male dimensions (4 3o).—Length 1.9-2.9 (2.5) mm.; a, 17-22 (19.7):

ip =8-9706:9); \c, 9.5416 (12.5); T4243 To,’ 21%.

Syntype male.—L. 2.9 mm.; a, 22; b, 8.9; c, 16; spicules 125 uw or

1.6 anal diameters; supplement 60 wu.

Discussion.—This species falls within group C in Wieser’s key to

206 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

the genus (1953b), containing only Enoplus stekhoveni Wieser, 1953.

Our species can be distinguished easily by its mammillate supplement.

Thoracostoma karachiense n.sp. (Pl. 1, D-F; Pl. 2, A-C)

Description.—Body cylindrical, tapering gradually from base

of oesophagus to narrow anterior end; male and female tails short and

bluntly-rounded. Colour deep reddish-brown and completely opaque,

to transparent. Cuticle thick, with 2 distinct layers. Cuticle of head

with fine criss-cross striations 1 « apart, composed of closely-set dots,

extending also above cephalic capsule. Prominent longitudinal fibrils

of cuticle in posterior region.

The terminology of Wieser (1953a) is followed in the description of

the morphology of the head. Cephalic capsule remarkably uniform;

locules and pigmentation completely lacking. Cephalic suture 33-36 u

from anterior end, usually with slight notch between incisions. Fenes-

trae with posterior cornua. Distance from anterior of fenestra to

cephalic suture 19-21 . Incisions narrow (broad in one female only).

Stomadeal ring asymmetrical. Amphids circular, within lateral fene-

strae, 6.5-7 « wide in female or 1/6-1/7 head diameter, 9 w in male or

1/5 head diameter; pore at anterior of amphid. Small dorsal tooth

on buccal wall and dentiform projections at anterior of buccal capsule.

Internal circle of 6 small papillae and external circle of 10 cephalic

setae; lateral setae single, subdorsal and subventral setae paired, 4.5 u

long or 1/9-1/10 head diameter. Group of 4 subcephalic setae just

posterior to cephalic suture in line with amphids (only 3 in 2 specimens);

all 4 in transverse row in 60% of specimens, and most of these with

group of 3 setae directly posterior to them. Cervical setae not arranged

in ranks.

Ocelli composed of crystalline lens and red pigment, half-embedded

in wall of oesophagus, 115-149 (127) from anterior end. Ocellus

pigment extending throughout oesophagus posterior to ocelli, especially

dense along outer margin. Oesophagus surrounded by large cells of

hypodermal chords. Nerve ring prominent, located 535-590 (554) u

from anterior end or 26.6-30 (28.3)% of oesophageal length. Narrow

oesophageal-intestinal valve. Excretory pore and excretory gland cell

absent. Caudal glands extending anterior to anus.

Female reproductive system amphidelphic, with ovaries reflexed

3/4 distance to vulva. Oocytes in ovary pyramidal, in 2 alternating

ranks; 6-9 large brown oocytes in oviduct in single row. Usually 1

mature ovum with fully-formed shell in each uterus at a time (1 speci-

men with 2 in each uterus); shell thick and clear. Ova when single

392-445 x 122-148 (412 x 131) 1; ovawhen 2 in uterus 338-378 x 140-149u.

Vagina muscular; vulva heavily sclerotized,

NEW MARINE NEMATODES OF ENOPLOIDES FROM ARABIAN SEA 207

Male reproductive system double; junction between testes not

clearly -visible. Spicules thick, with knobbed head, 192-200» long.

Gubernaculum consisting of an unpaired basal median piece (cuneus),

2 upright pieces (corpora) 96 » long, and 2 triangular horizontal pieces

(crura) 50 x long. Prominent muscles from spicule head anteriorly

and posteriorly to dorsal wall, and from gubernaculum to ventral wall

of tail. Thin bands of muscle behind anus, 2 prominent broad bands

at anus, and numerous paired preanal copulatory muscles. One large

tubular ventral preanal supplement 70, anterior to anus; 4 pairs of

hemispherical subventral papillae, coloured red and warty in appear-

ance in larger males (1 male with 5 pairs of papillae, another with only

3 on | side), anteriormost 840 « from anus; 9-10 pairs of preanal sub-

median setae, 1 pair adanal, and | or 2 pairs postanal.

Female dimensions (10 22).—Length 11.2-13.7 (12.4) mm.; a, 55-83

(69); °b,°S:7-6.6 (6.2); c, 107-141 (124); V, 62.1-67.7 (65.6)%; Ov,,

15-20 (16.8) %; Ovz, 14.1-18.5 (15.9) %.

Syntype female.—L.'11.3mm.; a, /0; b, 5.7; ©, 119; V, 66%; Ov,,

19.1%; Ova, 18%; ova 1 + 1, 432 x 135 « and 410 x 135 yw; ocelli 125 p;

nerve ring 540 2 or 27%.

Male dimensions (10 &$).—Length 10-12.8 (11.4) mm.; a, 54-80

(69); b, 5.3-6.4; (5.9); c, 111-162 (135).

Syntype male.—L. 11.4mm.; a, 60; b, 6.1; c, 105; ocelli 122 p;

nerve ring 553 w or 30%; spicules 192 x.

Discussion.—This species bears the closest resemblance to Thora-

costoma magnificum Timm, 1951, from Alaska, which is over twice the

size of the present species. The cephalic capsule is similar in the two

species, but the group of 4 subcephalic setae just behind the amphids in

T. karachiense is lacking in T. magnificum. In the latter there are 9 pairs

of subventral preanal papillae, 9 pairs of submedian preanal setae, and

2 pairs of submedian postanal setae.

It should be emphasized that attaching undue importance to variation

in polymorphic species can easily lead to excessive fragmentation. On

the other hand, failure to recognize stable variations within different

populations can lead to excessive lumping of species. The application

of statistical analysis to populations from different localities, as employed

for subspecific determination in vertebrate phyla, will be helpful in solv-

ing the species problem for many of the larger and more familiar marine

nematodes. |

Leptosomatides reducta n.sp. (Pl. 2, D-E)

Description. Resembling Thoracostoma but narrower and

with cephalic capsule and crura of gubernaculum reduced. Body

cylindrical, tapering gradually from base of oesophagus to anterior end.

Male and female tails short and bluntly-rounded; male tail coiled in

208 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

half-circle. Colour light yellow, transparent. Cuticle of tail with fine

transverse and longitudinal striations on surface, composed of closely-

set dots.

Cephalic capsule reduced; amphids posterior to cephalic suture.

Suture faint and variable in outline, marking off 6 shallow arcs, as in

Pl. 2, D, with the tips of the arc occasionally extending down to the

middle of the amphids. Anterior of oesophagus cuticularized as an

asymmetrical stomadeal ring. Amphids circular, 13 « from anterior in

female, 16 u in male; 7-7.5 « wide in female or 20-23% of head diameter,

9-10.5 w in male or 25-37% head diameter. Amphidial duct with oblong

sensilla, containing 2 small nuclei at posterior. Rugose projections at

anterior of head. Internal circle of 6 small papillae and external circle

of 10 cephalic setae 6.5. or 1/5 head diameter long, situated as in

Thoracostoma. A loose group of 3 setae (4 in | specimen) posterior to

amphid. Cervical setae arranged in 5 or 6 longitudinal ranks, with

setae loosely-organized within each rank; ranks more obvious in male.

Ocelli with crystalline lens and red pigment 94-122 (105) from

anterior end; diffuse pigment scattered along margins of oesophagus

from ocelli to oesophageal base. Nerve ring prominent, located 445-

486 (457) w from anterior, or 33-36.6 (34.3)% of oesophageal length.

Small oesophageal-intestinal valve, 30, long. Excretory pore and

and gland cell absent. Caudal glands extending anterior to anus.

Female reproductive system amphidelphic, with ovaries reflexed

almost to vulva. Two-three brown oocytes in oviduct; 1 or 2 fully

mature ova with shell in each uterus. Ova when single 311-460 (385) x

81-102 (92) 4; ova when 2 in uterus 300-392 (329) x 95-108 (106) pw.

Vagina highly muscular; vulva sclerotized.

Male reproductive system doubie. Spicules thick, cephalated,

128-148 1 long. Gubernaculum with paired vertical pieces (corpora),

70-80 long; cuneus with sleeve around spicules; crura reduced. Muscles

of spicules and gubernaculum as in previous species. One pair of

muscle bands in postanal region, the /evator ani. Large tubular ven-

tral supplement at head of spicules, 80 anterior to anus; 7-9 (12 in

one) pretubal hemispherical subventral papillae with setae, 3-4 smaller

ones between tubular supplement and anus, and 2 pairs postanal, reduced

to setae only.

Female dimensions (10 929).—Length 8.1-10.7 (9.4) mm.; a, 72-91

(80); b, 6.4-7.9 (7.1); c, 106-124 (115); V, 60-67.4 (63. DAS Ov,, 9-14.3

(11.8) 7%; Ov5, 9-13-4011 7:

Syntype female.—L. 9.3mm; a, 80; b, 7.3; c, 117; V, 65.6%; Ov,,

13.6%; Ovz, 10.7%; ocelli 95 w; nerve ring 460» or 36%; ova 2+ 1,

338 x 108 » and 324x 102 nu.

Male dimensions (10 &).—Length 8.1-11.7 (9.2)mm.; a, 82-109

(91); . b,.6.3-8:9 (7.2); c, 99-167 (127),

NEW MARINE NEMATODES OF ENOPLOIDES FROM ARABIAN SEA 209

Syntype male.—L. 8.9mm.; a, 81; b, 7.3; c, 110; spicules 144 yu;

8 pairs pretubal subventral papillae, 4 pairs between supplement and

anus.

Discussion.—The present species in the form of the head capsule

seems closest to the type species, Leptosomatides euxina Filipjev, 1918,

although the cephalic capsule in that species is not clearly figured. The

latter has smaller amphids, situated more posterior to the capsule than

in L. reducta. Moreover, in L. euxina the spicules are unequal and

are not distinctly cephalated. L. conisetosa Stekhoven & Mawson,

1955, is most similar to L. reducta in the structure of the male tail but

the cephalic capsule in that species is well developed, with a truncate

cephalic suture, situated 25 1 from the anterior end, at the posterior

of the lobes. |

Pontonema multisetosus n.sp. (Pl. 2, F-H)

Description.—Body once or twice coiled, practically of con-

stant width except for a slight taper toward the tail end. Tail very

short and bluntly-rounded, coiled in circle. Colour dark red, due to

dense red granules in anterior half of oesophagus and in intestinal cells,

except just before rectum. Granules correspond to red pigment con-

tained in stoma and in intestinal lumen, possibly from a sponge. Cuticle

of many thin layers; striation not observed.

Head truncate. Stoma 112-114 uw deep, 52-54 ~ wide. Dorsal tooth

short; 2 subventral teeth reaching to same level, just anterior to amphid.

Inner circle of 6 small papillae; external circle of 12 setae of equal length

(12 ~). Numerous scattered subcephalic setae; fewer cervical setae.

Amphids circular, 16-17 « wide or 20% of head diameter, with thickened

base and central pore; sensilla broad with numerous fine terminals.

Hypodermal gland cells prominent posterior to oesophagus, averaging

50 x 15 uw, with fine pore opening through cuticle. Ocesophagus clavate,

muscular, 1.08-1.15 mm. long, 80». wide at base. Nerve ring at 25°,

inconspicuous. Excretory pore and duct not seen; narrow excretory

cell extending below oesophageal base. NHemispherical oesophageal-

intestinal valve, 30 ~ long.

Male reproductive system double; testes outstretched. Spicules

distinctly cephalated, arcuate, 192-208 « long. Gubernaculum 70-74 yu

long, adjacent to spicules. Three preanal ventral supplements, the

first 35-45 w anterior to anus, the second 82 4 anterior to first, and the

third 135-162 ~ anterior to second. Anterior supplement with a large

papilla on either side, middle supplement with 2 internal setose inner-

vations, and posterior supplement with a fine tubular innervation.

Numerous fine paired subventral setae just anterior to anus, 5 between

anus and first supplement, and 3 or 4 at or anterior to supplement.

210 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 36 (2)

Numerous copulatory muscles extending far forward from anus.

Caudal glands opening by a large spinneret, with protruding lips. One

pair of narrow /evator ani muscles in tail tip; 1 vertical pair of muscles

from side of gubernaculum to dorsal wall and 1 muscle from distal end

to dorsal wall of tail tip; 2 pairs fine muscles from spinneret to dorsal wall.

Male dimensions (33'o).—Length 6-7.3 (6.4)mm.; a, 32-42 (38):

b, 5.6263) (6); “¢, 160-171,(165); 7, 15.7; Tose

Holotype male.—L. 7.3 mm.; a, 42; b, 6.3; ¢, 162; spicules 192 u;

gubernaculum 74 w.

Discussion.—This species differs from all the other species of Pon-

tonema particularly in the possession of 12 cephalic setae and nume-

rous subcephalic setae. The presence of 3 preanal ventral supplements

instead of only | is also distinctive.

There is much variation in the genus Pontonema, both in the arrange-

ment of cephalic setae and in the spicular apparatus. Therefore, parti-

cularly in the absence of the female, we are accommodating our species

to this genus in spite of its differences. However, a new genus may have

to be created for it in the future.

REFERENCES

Filipjev, I. N. (1918): Free-living living marine nematodes from Kerguelen

marine nematodes of the vicinity of

Sebastopol. Part I. Trudy Osob. Zool.

Lab.. i Sevastopol. Biol. Stantsii Ross.

Akad. Nauk. 2 (4): 1-350, pls. 1-11

(Russian text).

(1922): Encore sur les nema-

todes libres de la Mer Noire. Acta

Inst. Agron. Stauropolitani. 1 (16): 83-184,

pls. 1-4 (French and Russian text).

(1926): Freilebende Marine

Nematoden aus der Umgebung von

Sebastopol. Arch. Naturg. 91 (Abt.A):

94-180 (trans. from Russian of 1918).

Schuurmans Stekhoven, J. H. &

Mawson, P. M. (1955): On some free-

Island. J. Helmin. 29 (1/2) : 87-104,

figs. 1-32.

Timm, R. W. (1951): A new species

of marine nematode, Thoracostoma mag-

nificum, with a note on possible ‘pig-

ment cell’ nuclei of the ocelli. J. Wash.

Acad. Sci. 41 (10) : 331-333, fig. 1.

Wieser, W. (1953a): On the mor-

phology of the head in the family Lep-

tosomatidae (marine free-living mema-

todes). Ark. f. Zool. 6 (3) : 69-74, fig. 1.

— (1953b): Free-living marine

nematodes. I. Enoploidea. Rep. Lund

Univ. Chile Exped. 1948-1949. 49 : 1-155,

figs. 1-92.

JOURN. BomBay Nat. Hist. Soc.

Civet Cat (Musang) taking banana bait. Distance 5 feet and flash

synchronisation.

Photos: H. J. Kitchener

Wild Life Flash Photography

H. J. KITCHENER

Game Warden, Malaya

(With a plate)

For some twenty odd years I have been a photographer of wild

life in the Malayan jungle with some measure of success in the

daylight field. But not until eighteen months ago did I turn my

attention to night photography—-after watching a large sambar stag,

hind, and fortnight-old fawn one moonlight night from a hide near a

a salt lick.

My cameras are an Agiflex III, 24X24, with a 24 cm. tele lens

and a 35 mm. Kine Exakta VX with a 13.5 cm. tele lens. These

cameras are used side by side on a brass bar which is fitted on to a_

turn-tilt head on a very heavy solid tripod. The tripod is firmly

established at one observation window of the hide. At the other

window two flashguns are mounted either on tripods or posts driven

into the ground. A third flashgun—an extension unit from one of

‘the two main flashguns—is mounted on a post at the corner of the

hide some 8 feet away from the cameras and 6 feet above them.

The equipment is assembled, all contacts checked and mounted

at the hide during the day. The cameras are focused on a particular

spot at the edge or centre of a salt lick or waterhole. The loading of

the film into the cameras is done as late as possible during the day,

for humidity is always high and the film can quickly become sticky

and difficult to wind, due to absorption of moisture in the atmosphere.

The hide should be prepared with an eye to prevailing evening

and night winds or breezes, which in Malaya are constant, for a

gentle breeze carrying human scent across the lick or waterhole is

sufficient to keep all animals away. As little clearing as possible

should be done near the hide or the lick, except that any vegetation

below the cameras or to the immediate right and left should be care-

fully removed, for when the flashbulb is fired such obstacles reflect

light into the camera lens and can cause fogging.

The sequence of operation is very simple but should be practised

until each movement becomes automatic, for everything is done in

. * Reproduced from Oryx 4 (6), December 1958, with the kind permission of the

editor.

212 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

complete darkness. So soon as an animal appears at approximately

the point of focus, the shutters of both cameras, which have been set

at ‘Time’, are opened. A quick, quiet move to a flashgun fires its

bulb and the shutters are closed. The film is then wound on to the

next exposure and the fired flashbulb replaced with a fresh one.

With care, it 1s possible to obtain several exposures in this way, the

three flashguns making possible three exposures in a matter of some

three or four minutes. ;

This method, known as ‘open flash’, is most suitable for this

type of work, because the full light output of the bulb is used to

produce a negative of good density. I have obtained satisfactory

results with a G.E. No. 50 flashbulb at a range of 100-120 feet, at

{ 5.5, using Kodak Verichrome Panchromatic, with the Agiflex III, or

Kodak Plus-X with the Exakta VX. Kodak Tri-X with the Agiflex

produces somewhat denser negatives. The use of Ilford HPS in either

camera resulted in very over-exposed negatives at this range,

particularly with the 13.5 cm. lens on the Exakta. The use of the

G.E. No. 22 flashbulb, instead of the No. 50, helped to correct this.

On a cool night, slight mist rising from swampy ground may

slightly fog the negative. Attempts to take photographs during rain

were disastrous; each falling raindrop registers as a streak, widest near

the lens and decreasing in width as the distance from lens increases.

Sambar, seladang (Bos gaurus), tapir, and wild pig react rather

quickly to the flash during nights when there is the slightest trace of

moonlight, leaving the scene after two or at the most three fiashbulbs

have been fired. On the other hand, during pitch black nights, as

many as eight, twelve, or fifteen exposures may be made with no

reaction except the raising of a head for a few seconds. The younger

animals seem to be the most suspicious of a flashbulb.

I do not think I am crediting these jungle animals with intelligence

unjustifiably when I say that their disregard for the firing of flash-

bulbs on moonless nights is due to their knowledge of natural

phenomena. In Malaya at practically any time of night flashes of

lightning may be seen on the horizon or closer. During moonlight

nights these flashes are distant flickerings invisible from the dense

cover of the jungle, but during a storm they are almost blinding in

intensity and usually accompanied by terrific claps and reverberating

peals and rolls of thunder. On several occasions I have obtained

quite reasonable negatives when a bright flash of lightning has beaten

me to the flashgun after I have opened the camera shutters.

The animals take not the slightest notice of these storms but

continue to graze and browse throughout them. They accept, as a

matter of course, intense flashes in the inky blackness and, on a dark

WILD LIFE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY 213

night, likewise accept the rather similar flashes of flashbulbs. But

they know enough to be extremely suspicious of an intensely bright

flash when there are no clouds and when a moon is visible.

The operation of the cameras, changing of flashbulbs, loading

cameras with fresh film, and other necessary movements must be

carried out with the absolute minimum of noise and movement. No

sounds travel further on the still, soft silence of the jungle than the

click-of metal on metal and the tap of a flashbulb on the metal reflector

or flashbulb socket in the gun.

The equipment described for these ‘open flash’ photographs is only

effective for the larger animals frequenting a fixed spot in fairly open

ground and at a distance which permits the photographer to be present.

The problem of the smaller creatures which do not visit salt licks or

similar open spaces, and of carnivores, is different and after consider-

able experiment I found the best plan was to get the creatures to

take their own photographs by using a trip thread or a bait.

The first difficulty was elephants. It would have been unwise to

leave such expensive cameras as the Agiflex and Exakta with their

flashguns in the jungle, for when an article belonging to a human

being is discovered by an elephant, it is soon rendered useless.

After much searching and many trials I chose the Super Richoflex,

a Japanese twin-lens reflex 212} camera. It answered all the

requirements of synchronized flash and would take a solenoid in the

cable release socket comfortably. It was comparatively cheap—there

would be no heart-burning should elephants pass that way. I bought

four of these cameras. For the same reasons I chose and adapted

four Japanese flashguns, Miiniyas.

The apparatus for this synchronized flash photography consists

basically of a trip thread or bait thread which works at coarse or

hair-trigger setting. It runs to a trigger box in which there is a spring

contact. A lead connects this contact to a solenoid which is screwed

into the cable release of the camera and operated by eight to ten U2

torch cells. The flashbulb is operated by two No. 412, 221 volt

batteries. ;

Pressure on the trip thread releases the spring contact in the trigger

box; closing the contact closes also the circuit of the solenoid and

Operates the camera shutter. The camera shutter operates the

flashgun and flashbulb, thus making the exposure.

For the trip thread braided nylon fishing line of 16-30 Ib. breaking

Strain is used in preference to wire, which may well injure an

animal. This nylon line is odourless, undetectable even in daylight,

and stretches very little; neither sun, heat, nor wet affect it. Ordinary

sewing thread was originally used to connect the trip thread to the

214. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

spring contact in the trigger box but termites showed a great liking

for it and ate all they could find.

The key to success is knowledge of the habits of the animal.

When these are known, a little thought and ingenuity will provide

suitable adjustments to the equipment. For example, the only really

effective bait for a prowling mouse-deer is a hanging bunch of leaves

of the mamaya or ludai, Sapium baccatum, in English the Mouse-

deer’s Rubber Tree. A tug by the deer on the lower leaves operates

the spring contacts and the photograph is taken.

It is not often possible to get a longer range than 30 feet in the

jungle without extensive cutting and clearing of undergrowth, which

may well disturb the animals and perhaps add an artificial look to

the resulting print. The largest elephant in the country will fit quite

comfortably at a range of 30 feet on the 24 X21 format, while tapir,

tiger, deer, and seladang will be well covered without any bother.

For real close-up work on mouse-deer, civets, wild dog, and

porcupine ranges from 34 feet to 8 feet are suitable. The smaller

flashbulbs SM Nos. 5 and 8 are ideal for these ranges although the

aperture will have to be kept well closed down if the flash factors

given on the flashbulb carton are used. In this close-up photography

Over-exposure seems more likely than under-exposure, probably

because the subject is invariably in the ‘hot spot’ of the flashgun

reflector beam. .

Many hazards and difficulties have to be surmounted in the humid

rain forests of Malaya. Torrential rain and constant damp make it

imperative that all cameras, flashguns, battery boxes, and trigger boxes

are housed as effectively as possible. These methods. of animal self-

portraiture would give good results in other countries, particularly for

the smaller animals in timbered or scrub country, or where animals

follow well-defined trails from rivers and swamps to browse away

from the water during the night. Ingenuity and a knowledge of the

use of tools go a long way towards success.

Note.—The writer will be only too happy to supply wild life

photographers in India and Africa with details of this equipment and

the wiring plan if they consider that they will find it of any practical

use in furthering their work and enable them to obtain photographs

of wild life which they cannot otherwise get by ordinary daylight

photography.

One small assurance will, however, be asked in this connection

before details and wiring plan are forwarded.

Observations on the Taxonomic

Characters of Tviops orientalis

(Tiwari), with a note on its Biology

A. A. KARANDE AND N. B. INAMDAR!

Dept. of Zoology, Institute of Science, Bombay

(With a_ plate)

INTRODUCTION

The genus TJriops Schrank belongs to the order Notostraca of

Euphyllopod Crustacea with shield-shaped carapace. Keilhack (1909),

Fox (1949), and Longhurst (1955) have suggested that the generic

name Apus Schaeffer, 1765, should be rejected in favour of Triops

Schrank, 1803. This practice will avoid further confusion of this

genus with the equaliy well-known avian genus Apus Scopoli, 1777.

We therefore propose to follow the above-mentioned authors in the

use of the generic name Triops.

The great rarity of Triops and other branchiopods makes this

group of special interest to zoologists all over the world. In India,

Triops has been recorded from only a few places. The present work

deals with Triops orientalis (Tiwari) specimens of which were collected

from the waterpools at Panchgani, N. Satara (W. India), during the

months of July to November 1956.

The taxonomy of. the Notostraca has been based entirely on

characters of the setae and spines which comprise the armature of the

exoskeleton, and on the various body proportions. The validity

of these characters have been discussed by Barnard (1929), Gauthier

(1933), Linder (1952), and Longhurst (1955). Various characters of

taxonomic importance suggested by these workers have been studied

here separately. In addition, observations are also made on_ the

feeding habits and the sex-ratio with a view to re-examine the findings

of Gurney (1925), Fox (1949), and Tiwari (1951).

* The fuancial assistance given to the first author (A. A. K.) during this investi-

gation by the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust through the Bombay Natural History Society

is gratefully acknowledged.

216 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Voi. 56 (2)

COLOUR

The adult body colour in T. orientalis is useful in distinguishing

the sexes both in the fresh and the formalin preserved material.

While juveniles of both sexes are more or less alike in body colour,

Gurney (1925) has rightly described the adult females as deep green,

the males being paler and tending more towards a brownish tinge.

However, in the material we have studied, we find that the males are

yellowish red rather than brownish in colour.

The colour is due to the presence of two pigments within the body

and the brown pigment in the exoskeleton (Longhurst, 1955). It is

also observed that in a number of specimens, particularly in females,

a coating of green algae gives an added green colour to the body.

A dark blue-green pigment is generally more abundant in Lepidurus

which is the only other genus in the order Notostraca. This may be

completely absent in some species of TJriops, but in T. orientalis,

however, this pigment is present particularly at the basal ends of the

thoracic limbs, the edges of the labrum, and the anterior ventral edge

of the head. It is abundant in well-grown and healthy forms as

was noted by Longhurst (1955). Fox (1945) attributed the intensity

of red coloration to haemoglobin depending upon the oxygen content

in the surrounding water, varying inversely with the O, content.

Our observations indicate that the forms that are bright red are

full grown and healthy. The exoskeleton in such animals is also

strong in contrast to those showing pale yellowish colour. The red

coloured forms are more abundant when the conditions of the pond

are more favourable, while the yellowish red forms are more abundant

when the season is almost at the end and the ponds begin to dry. It

would therefore appear that the difference in coloration need not

necessarily be due to poor O, content in the surrounding water, but

could be a sign of good health of the animal.

SIZE

Under normal conditions males and females do not show any

significant difference in size. The growth rate depends upon various

conditions, as was seen in animals kept under laboratory observation.

Table I shows the percentage of different size groups collected at

various times during the season. It will be seen from this table that

the group measuring 2 cm. to 3.9 cm. is predominant and could be

taken to represent the average size of the adult form.

TAXONOMIC CHARACTERS OF T. ORIENTALIS (TIWARI) 217

TABLE I

showing the percentage of different size groups in a total collection made

in one complete season in 1956

Size group Percentage

0 cm. to 0.9 cm. pad 0.66 %

0.9 cm. to 1.9 cm. as 22%

1.9 cm. to 2.9 cm. Je 36.94%

2.9 cm. to 3.9 cm. ae 35.86%

3.9 cm. to 4.6 cm. an 4.44%

CARAPACE (Fig. 1)

The size and shape of the carapace are usually considered as

important taxonomic characters (Ghigi, 1921, and Tiwari, 1951), while

Linder (1952) attaches little importance to these. The differences in

these characters in both males and females of T. orientalis are not

significant enough to consider them as taxonomically important.

The validity of length/width relationship of the carapace as a

taxonomic character has been studied in some South African species

of Triops. In T. orientalis the length and the width of the carapace

is practically the same. This may be characteristic for the species.

The carinal spines (cs) on the carapace which are not arranged

in a straight line but show various patterns are short, blunt processes,

the numbers of which vary from 1 to 6. The majority of individuals

have 3 or 4.

Longhurst (1955) suggests that there is a loose correlation between

the occurrence of the terminal spines (ts) and other characters. In

T. orientalis the only correlation that we find is between the terminal

spine and the body-length. In the long- bodied forms it is usually

absent but when present it is much reduced, while in short-bodied

forms it is well developed.

The sulcal spines (ss) on the posterior emargination of the carapace

show considerable variation between individuals. For this reason,

Barnard (1929) and Longhurst (1955) reject’ its use as a taxonomic

character. We find that the number of sulcal spines ranges from

42 to 71, the majority showing between 50 and 60 spines. It would appear

that the minimum number of 42 spines agrees well with the condition

observed by Tiwari (1952) and may be taken to represent a character

of taxonomic significance. The maximum number of the spines is,

however, variable.

BoDY SEGMENTS

T. orientalis resembles many other species of this genus in being

not nomomeristic. Both the leg-bearing segments and the apodal

218 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

segments show variations in number and are combined in different

ways, so as to give a total number varying from 35 to 40. No

correlation was found to exist between the total number of segments

and the body length (Table II).

TABLE II

showing the body length, carapace length, and the body segment relationship

Length of Length of Total no. of

animal carapace segments

4.4 cm. 1.8 cm. 39

4.1 cm. 1.8 cm. 38

3.9 cm. 1.7 cm. 38

3.9 cm. 1.3 cm: 38

3.8 cm. 1.6 cm. 39

3.7 cm. 1.7 cm. 38

3.4 cm. 1.4.cm. 39

3.4 cm. 1.4cm. 38

3.3 cm. 1.5 cm. 39

3.3 cm. 1.6 cm. 38

3.27em: 1.4 cm. 35

3.2/cm, 1.5 cm. 39

3.Vcm: 1.4 cm. 38

3.1 cm. 1.6 cm. 40

3.0 cm. 1.5:em, 38

2.9 cm. 1.3 cm. 38

2.8 cm. 1.3 cm. 36

2.5-Cm: 1.4 cm. 38

TABLE III

A. Males

Size of Leg-bearing No. of Place of

animal segments legs. * 30th pair of legs

4.9 cm. 26 51 8

3.7 cm. 26 50 9

3.6 cm. 26 48 9

3.6 cm. 26 50 8

3.4 cm. 25 45 10

3.3 cm. 26 53 10

3.3 cm. 25 47 —

3.2 cm. 25 B 48 8

3.1 cm. 26 47 10

3.1 cm. 24 49 8

3.0 cm. 25 47 8 <

3.0 cm 26 53 9

2.8 cm 26 52 q

2.7 cm 24 49 10

2.6 cm ay 49 10

2.4 cm 26 48 9

2.2 cm. 26 46 10.

2.2 cm. 26 52 9

2.1 cm. 26 52 9

TAXONOMIC CHARACTERS OF T. ORJENTALIS (TIWARI) 219

B. Females

Size of Leg-bearing No. of Place of

animal segments legs 30th pair of legs

3.4 cm. 28 53 i

3.4cm. 28 55 9

3.3 cm. 26 Si] 9

3.0 cm. 27 Syl —

3.0 cm. 28 Si, 7

2.8 cm. 28 51 9

2.5 cm. 28 55 7

2.5cm. beg 58 7)

2.5:em: 26 54 —

2.2 cm. —_ — —

2.4 cm. 27 53 8

2.4 cm. 28 55 9

2.4m. Dy, 50 —

2.4 cm. 26 50 8

2.4m. aa, 54 9

2.3 cm. 28 =| fi

2.2.6m. Zi. 2 8

22 Cin. 28 51 i,

Pedal segments (Table III A, B)

In T. orientalis, the number of leg-bearing segments ranges from

24 and 28. Usually, the females have more leg-bearing segments,

varying between 26 and 28, while in the males they are 24 to 27. The

high number of leg-bearing segments is correlated with a correspond-

ing higher number of body segments, especially in females.

Exposed segments

There is a great variation in the number of exposed segments,

which ranges between 15 and 27. However, in the majority of forms

the number recorded is 21 to 23. Generally, in the forms measuring

above 3 cm. the range of exposed segments is 23 to 27 and in those

measuring below 3 cm. the range is 19 to 26. Being so highly

variable, the exposed segments are not considered as of taxonomic

importance, —

LIMBS

In T. orientalis, the number of legs also varies between 45 and 58

and as shown in the Table (III A. B) their number is more in

females than in males. Linder (1952) has noted this phenomenon in

certain N. American species of Triops. As will be seen from the

table there appears to be no relation between the number of legs

and the body length. A pair of legs, except perhaps the first few

pairs, has no definite position on the segment either in the male or

the female. Table III clearly shows the place of the 30th pair of legs,

on the body segments.

220 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

TELSON (Fig. 2)

Longhurst (1955) observes that Triops from different regions show

a strong correlation between the geographical distribution and the

spine pattern of the telson. A study of the armature of the telson

in T. orientalis reveals that this species may be related to those of

Triops found in Europe, W. Russia, N. Africa, the Middle East, and

N. India. All these forms, according to Longhurst (1955), show a

small number of median spines (ms) arranged in a row in the centre

of the telson. The furcal spines (fs) are few and large, while the

posterior marginals (pms) are small and thin.

In T. orientalis, the pattern of the spines on the telson remains

constant unlike most of the non-Indian species of TJriops. The

number of the median spines varies from 0 to 6, but generally it is

2 or 3 irrespective of size or sex (Table IV).

TABLE IV

showing variations in the no. of median spines in 135 specimens examined.

No. of median

spines " 0 I 2 3 4 5 6

Number of occur- 5

rences Es 1 10 39 57 19 6 meg

The furcal spines are well developed and number 5 to 7. The setal

spines (sts) do not show much variation in their pattern but their

number varies from 2 to 6. The number of dorsal spines vary with

the size of the individual. As many as 150 spines were counted in a

specimen measuring 3.8 cm.

SECOND ANTENNA

It is of special interest to note that the second antenna is present

in this particular Indian species. It is a small hook-like structure on

the sub-frontal plate.

HABITS

Triops inhabit temporary water pools, which are formed during

the monsoon and are available from about the beginning of July to

the middle of November, when the Tableland at Panchgani is covered

with a large number of ponds of varying sizes. These temporary

waterpools are at the most knee-deep, and therefore it is very easy

to catch Triops and allied forms without the help of nets. These

animals lay resting eggs which are able to withstand desiccation for

considerable periods and may be collected during the dry season.

JoURN. BomBAy Nat. Hist. Soc.

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Triops orientalis

Fig. 1. Carapace: ds dorsal spines;

sulcal spines ; mrs marginal spines.

%® Fig. 2. Telson: ms median spines: sts setal spines ; pms posterior marginal

spines ; fs furcal spines. (Enlarged).

ts terminal spine; cs carinal spines ; ss

TAXONOMIC CHARACTERS OF T. ORIENTALIS (TIWARI) 22k

It has been observed that Triops feed on bacteria, protozoa,

Daphnia, Copepoda, small oligochaetes, and also on Streptocephalus,

and Leptestheriied forms. However, they find it difficult to eat forms

like Estheria as the latter are covered with hard bivalve shells.

Usually, it catches hold of its prey and with powerful pairs of mandibles

and the first maxillary blades tears off the carapace and eats the soft parts

of the body. This has been confirmed by the examination of the

alimentary canals, where a large amount of semi-digested food is

present. Particularly, parts like the second antenna, limbs, and the

telson of Estheria are of common occurrence, together with shells of

Daphnia and different hard parts of its own kind.

Triops exhibit cannibalism and it is interesting to’ note that even

a small individual can easily eat a bigger one. It catches its prey

from the dorsal side, just posterior to the carapace. It divides its

prey into two parts with the powerful mandibles, and eats up every-

thing except the carapace, mandibles, and certain other hard parts of

the body. It is also observed that a number of Triops together

attack one individual and eat it completely.

Triops is recorded as a pest of rice cultivation in different parts of

the world such as Kashmir (Walton & Kemp, 1911), Spain (Font

de Mora, 1923), Italy (Tassinari, 1941), and California (Rosenberg,

1946). Fox (1949) observes that Triops are not harmful to the plants

as they do not feed on them. However, we have observed T.

orientalis eating the blades of grasses which it bites vigorously by

means of the maxillae and the mandibles. This observation is sup-

ported by laboratory feeding and the examination of a large number

of alimentary canals which showed numerous fragments of grasses.

A female Triops starts laying eggs when it reaches 1.5 cm. in

length. The number of eggs laid by a single individual at a time

ranges from 5 to 20. The egg-laying capacity increases with the age

of the female. The eggs in the oostegopod are red in colour, but

when liberated outside the body the colour becomes pale. These

eggs remain stuck to the blades of grasses, and when the ponds dry

up a large number of eggs are seen buried in the superficial layers

of the soil.

The genus is well known for its discontinuous distribution. A

number of favourable factors help in the thriving of J. orientalis in

the rainwater pools on the Tableland at Panchgani. Here they

appear to have no enemies except frogs and nematode worms, the

latter being found as external parasites on the carapace. The

rainwater pools being temporary, the eggs are adapted to withstand

desiccation for considerably long periods. A large amount of food

222 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

is also available in the form of estherids, copepods, Streptocephalus,

and Daphnia, all of which are found here in great abundance.

SEX-RATIO

With a view to re-examine the findings of Tiwari (1951) and

Gurney (1911) on the sex-ratio in 7. orientalis, more than a thousand

specimens were carefully studied. As many as thirteen trips were

made to Panchagani, from the middle of June to the middle of

November 1956. The collected material was placed in different size

groups and the sex-ratio studied group-wise for every month of the

season (Table V).

In June, with the onset of the monsoon, a number of them develop

from the resting eggs, the females outnumber the males, the former

constituting 65.4% and the latter 34.6% of the total catch. |

In July, the sex-ratio in general does not show much variation in

almost all the size groups.

In August, during the middle of the season, the females are still

more numerous (females 53%; males 47%). The dominance of

females over males is particularly noticeable in specimens measuring

below 3 cm. while in the larger forms the males outnumber the

females.

In September, in almost all the length-groups, females are more

than males and constitute 67% of the total collection. The variations

in the sex-ratio in all the size-groups are not very large, except in

the 2 to 2.9 cm. group. This is the dominant size group in September

and the females here outnumber the males by a large margin showing

a ratio of 4:1.

The same condition was observed in October when out of 368

specimens collected, 62% were found to be females and 38% males.

Group-wise analysis also revealed that in all size-groups females

outnumber males by a considerable margin. :

In November, at the end of the season, forms belonging to the

late generation are found. Here, also, females predominate in numbers

and in some samples the occurrence of males is quite negligible.

Of the total collection made for the month, 84% are females (5:1)

and in the 1.0 to 1.9 cm. group the female-male ratio is 13:1.

Males are generally known to be rare in Genus Triops. Accord-

ing to Gurney (1911) T. orientalis (=A pus asiaticus) males outnumber

females. Tiwari (1951) also arrived at the same conclusion after

examining collections from Panchagani but. observed that ‘as the

samples do not appear to be random no statistical inference can be

derived from them beyond the fact that males are quite abundant.

in this species’,

223

TAXONOMIC CHARACTERS OF T, ORIENTALIS (TIWARI)

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224 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)-

The present investigation, which is based on a large material

(1210 specimens) collected at different periods of the season, clearly

shows that the females outnumbered the males throughout the period

of their existence during the season 1956. At the same time what is

more striking is that the males were fairly common and not rare as

in most other species of TJriops. :

We agree (Table V) with Tiwari’s findings that in samples where

males outnumber females the individuals are large-sized.

SUMMARY

The material of TJ. orientalis (Tiwari) collected at Panchgani,

Bombay State, and recorded in this paper has led to the under-

mentioned conclusions:

1. The body colour is a useful character for distinguishing the

sexes.

2. The predominant size of range of both males and females is

2 to 3.9 cm. although the maximum attained may be eu 4.6 cm.

for both sexes (Table J).

3. No significant difference is found in the total number of

segments of males and females. In view of the considerable varia-

tions, the exposed segments do not appear to be of much taxonomic

value.

4. The number of leg-bearing segments and legs in females is

more than in males. |

5. Unlike some non-Indian species of Triops the carapace shape

and size are of little help in distinguishing the sexes.

6. A study of the armature of the telson reveals that this species

may be related to those found in Europe, W. Russia, N. Africa, the

Middle East, and N. India. | :

7. Periodic observations based on 1210 specimens show that the

number of females in natural populations is several times greater

than males.

8. T. orientalis appears to be omnivorous and was noted to feed

both on grasses as also on other Estherids, Copepods, Fairy Shrimps,

Daphnia, even showing cannibalistic tendencies,

TAXONOMIC CHARACTERS OF T. ORIENTALIS (TIWARI)

225

REFERENCES

Font de Mora, R.(1923): Un destructor

de planteles de arroz. Bol. Soc. Esp.

Hist. Nat. Madrid.. 23 : 313.

Fox, H. M. (1945) : Haemoglobin in

ne parasites. Nature, 156:

475.

— — — (1949): On Apus : its redis-

covery in Britain, nomenclature and

habits. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond, 119 :

693-702.

Ghigi, A. (1921)}: Ricerche sui notos-

traci di Cirenaica e di altri paesi del

mediterraneo. Atti Soc. Ital. Sci. Nat.

60 : 161-188.

Gurney, R. (1925) : Apus asiaticus

Gurney. Rec. Ind. Mus. 27 : 440.

Keilhack, L. (1909) : Zur Nomenklatur

der Deutschen Phyllopoden. Zool. Anz.

3: 177-184.

Linder, F, (1952) : Contributions to

the Morphology and taxonomy of the

Branchipoda, with special reference to

the North American species. Proc. U.S.

Nat. Mus. 102 : 1-69.

Longhurst, A. R. (1955) : A review’of

Aer Oeste. Bull. Bri. Mus. 3 (1):

Rosenberg, L. E. (1946) : Fairy

shrimps in California. Science 104 ; 111.

Tassinari, G. (1941) : Manuale dell’

agronomo. Rome.

Tiwari, K. K. (1951) : Indian species

of the genus Apus (Crustacea ; Branchio-

poda) with description of two new

species. Rec. Ind. Mus. 49 (2): 197-206.

Walton, S. J., & Kemp, S. (1911):

Notes on the occurrence of Apus in

Eastern India, Rec. Ind. Mus. 6 : 351.

A Preliminary Tagging Experiment

on the Mullet, Mugil cephalus

Linnaeus, in Chilka Lake’

BY | cy

V. G. JHINGRAN

Chilka Investigation Unit,

Central Inland Fisheries Research Station, Balugan

AND |

J. C. PATRO

Chilka Biological Station, Balugan ©

(With three text-figures) |

The role of tagging in fishery science to elucidate fish migrations

and delineate certain vital aspects of population dynamics of fishes

is well known. In spite of its immense utility in fishery management

this avenue has hitherto been closed to Indian biologists largely due

to practical difficulties inherent in a large country like India where

the industry is worked by illiterate and very superstitious fisher folk.

Chilka Lake, with an expanse of over 400 sq. miles of water area,

offered a suitable habitat to perform one of the first experiments of

tagging fish in an Indian water which is briefiy described in this paper.

The species tagged was Mugil cephalus Linnaeus, the most important

commercial mullet of the lake, and the tags tried were of Petersen’s

type of local make.

Preparation and description of the @aps 7 ech

tag consisted of four pieces, viz. two celluloid discs (one pink and the

other white) 16 mm. in diameter of 0.58 mm. thickness with a hole

of diameter 1.04 mm. at the centre of each; one silver disc of diameter

12 mm. and thickness 0.33 mm. with a central hole of the same

diameter as in celluloid discs, and one silver pin 48.5 mm. long and

0.75 mm. thick with one end twisted into a loop and the other ending

in a sharp point. The silver and the coloured celluloid discs were

serially numbered the discs of a particular tag bearing the same

number. The pins had sufficient temper to enable them to be pierced

Straight through a muscular segment of fish body without undue

injury. The celluloid discs were prepared in the laboratory from

celluloid sheets with the aid of a steel punch (diameter 16 mm.) and

a hammer ae We central holes were made with a mechanical

—————<—<—— ay

1 Published ce the permission of the Chief Research Officer, Central Inland

Fisheries Research Station, Calcutta, and the Director of Fisheries, Orissa, Cuttack.

TAGGING EXPERIMENT ON M. CEPHALUS IN CHILKA LAKE 227

drill. The numbers on celluloid discs were engraved in the laboratory

with a set of steel numbering punches and a hammer. Numbered

silver discs and pins were made to order by a silversmith.

Figure | a shows the tag with all its four components in position;

figure | b:one of the celluloid discs with a number thereon; figure | c:

a specimen of Mugil cephalus with the tag on the caudal peduncle.

Fig. 1

Tagging operations: Live fish were procured from

Nalban Jano! situated in about the nriddle of the lake and were

temporarily stocked in a rectangular enclosure (called Gohora)

measuring about 6.1 3.01.8 m. erected in a shallow region close

to the source of the fish. A portion of the bamboo enclosure was

cut into a window on one side both for admitting live fish into and

for taking them out of the ‘Gohora’ for tagging. The height of the

window was so fixed that its lower edge was flush with the boat deck

which served as a base for tagging the fish and release into the lake.

The numbered tags were serially pre-arranged and threaded through

a piece of wire in bunches of 100 each. A team of four men was

required for tagging: one for recapturing fish in the ‘Gohora’, another

to hold it tight,” partly wrapped in a wet towel, on a fish-measuring

board in the tagging position, the third to perform the tagging opera-

tion and release the fish in the lake, and the fourth to enter the tag:

number and fish length in a log book and also to hand over a new

tag to the tagger for the next fish. The fish lengths and tag numbers

were read out by the third man, the tagger, who also gently plucked

a few scales from the pectoral region of the fish which were promptly

put in an envelope by the fourth man, who also quickly noted the

1<<Jano” is the local name generally of a huge split bamboo enclosure used for

trapping vast concentrations of fish in rather shallow cesar aclotping shore or

round islands. See description by Devasundaram (1951), p.

228 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

relevant tag number against the corresponding fish length on the

cover. Tags were attached to the fish in the region just posterior to

the second dorsal fin (fig. 1 c). In actual tagging the pin with a serially

numbered coloured disc at its knotted end was pushed through the

fish’s flesh, and when the sharp pinpoint appeared on the other side

of the fish’s body, the numbered white celluloid disc followed by the

silver one were quickly inserted and a knot given by twisting the pin-

point with long-nosed pliers. The fish was then immediately released

in the lake and was seen to swim away. In most cases the complete

tagging of a fish, from its placement on the measuring board to its

release in the lake, took less than a minute.

It was not found feasible to keep the tagged fish under observation

for a few days prior to their release in the lake because of the danger

of the water temperature in the shallow ‘Gohora’ rising to lethal

limits. However, a week-long earlier experiment in a pond with a

score of Mugil cephalus fingerlings with identical tags had shown that

the tagged fish were healthy enough and compared favourably in

vigour and vitality with untagged ones present in the same pond.

THE EXPERIMENT AND THE RESULT

In the present experiment 998 specimens of Mugil cephalus of the

total length range 264 mm. to 578 mm. (shown seriated into classes

of 20 mm. interval in Table 1 and graphically shown in Fig. 2 A)

TABLE 1

Sizes and numbers of Mugil cephalus tagged and recovered

Class range in Number Percentages of Number Percentages of:

millimetres | tagged | total tagged recovered total recovered

1 2 3 4 5

261 - 280 > 0.5 = ane

281 - 300 18 1.8 1 vi

301 - 320 69 6.9 5 10

321 - 340 154 15.4 ip lee 22

341 - 360 280 28.1 12 24

361 - 380 eer et 354 33.5 15 30

381 - 400 114 11.4 5 10

401 - 420 13 1.3 — —

421 - 440 3 0.3 1 2

441 - 460 4 0.4 = =

461 - 480 2 0.2 — —

481 - 500 — — = at

501 - 520 -— = — —_

521 - 540 1 0.1 — —

541 - 560 — = — _

561 - 580 1 0.1 — —

Totals i... 998 100.0 50 100

229

TAGGING EXPERIMENT ON M. CEPHALUS IN CHILKA LAKE

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TAGGING EXPERIMENT ON M. CEPHALUS IN CHILKA LAKE 231

were tagged from two tagging stations, situated near Nalban Jano,

on six different days between third and ninth November 1957.

Table 2 furnishes the details of the number tagged on various days

as well as the recoveries of tagged fish. Table 3 shows the names of

sites of release of tagged fish, numbers released at each, names of sites

of recapture, and the numbers caught at each. The map (fig. 3) presents

the sites of release and recapture in the Chilka Lake indicating the

distribution pattern of the tagged fish and their directions of move-

ment after tagging. In all the fifty recoveries except two the tagged

fish were returned by the fishermen to the laboratory and were

personally examined by one or the other author. Five per cent of

the total number of fish tagged in this experiment were recovered.

72% of the recoveries were obtained in the first week after tagging, 4%

in the second week, 18% in the third week, 4% in the fourth week, and

2% still later. Taking each tagging operation on a different day as

a separate unit the recoveries ranged in percentage from 0 to 7.1.

Taking the total number of tagged fish released as the entire popula-

tion, attempts were made to determine the extent to which the

recovered specimens were representative of the population in so far

as the size composition was concerned’. A fairly close corres-

pondence is clearly brought out between the numbers of fish tagged and

of tagged fish recovered in the different size-groups. Panel B of Fig. 2

gives the percentage of different size-classes of tagged recovered fish

superimposed, as it were, on the percentages of different size-classes

tagged. A close correspondence between the two is obvious. Chi-

square test was applied to test the statistical significance of the

differences between the percentage frequency of specimens of different

size-classes tagged and percentage frequency of different size-classes

of the total of tagged recovered fish. Py? works out to >

0.158 < 0.199 so that the differences between the two frequencies is

insignificant. The conclusion may thus be drawn that the percentage

frequency of each class of fish tagged is not significantly different from

the percentage frequency of tagged recovered fish of each class using

95% fiducial limits.

As most of the recoveries were made during the Ist-4th weeks of

tagging no idea of growth or growth rate can be got from the present

experiment. In most cases the recaptured fish measured about the

same as at the time of tagging, however enabling the comparisons

* This comparison was attempted as recoveries were made within a short time of

tagging, and the recovered fish measured about the same as when tagged.

232 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

shown in Fig. 2 to be made. Unfortunately in the case of the

recovery made later than the fourth week (date of tagging: 9-11-57

and of recovery 22-4-’58) only the tag was returned.

NUMBER

RECOVERED

N=998

270-5 3305 3905 4505 5105 5705

CLASS CENTRES IN MILLIMETRES

Figure 2. Comparison of size frequency distributions of fish tagged and tagged

fish recovered

CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION

The aim of the current experiment was to see to what extent

tagging can be utilised in the Chilka Lake to elucidate fish migrations,

rate of exploitation, and other aspects of the population dynamics of

the lake’s fisheries. Judged from the results obtained this experiment

may be termed to have yielded very encouraging results especially when

it is borne in mind that adequate propaganda could not be done to

ensure the return of all tagged fish captured by the fishermen. A

return of 5% tagged fish under these circumstances is considered high

enough to attempt further tagging. However, many recovered tagged

fish had developed a septic wound at the site of the application of the

tag. In future experiments this will have to be safeguarded against.

The source of live fish will also have to be changed because as a rule

the jano owners handle the fish very roughly and many in the

present experiment were not up to the mark in general condition.

TAGGING EXPERIMENT ON M. CEPHALUS IN CHILKA LAKE — 233

In spite of all these drawbacks, on the basis of the available data in

the current experiment a correlation between size groups of tagged

and recovered fish, referred to earlier, is clearly seen, although to

attempt such a correlation was by no means an aim of this experiment.

Reports were received on several occasions that fishermen had captured

tagged fish in different sections of the lake but the tags were thrown

away and the fish consumed or exported. From the locations of the

captured tagged fish it is inferred that the tagged fish had a tendency

to spread out in different directions and mix with the population of

the lake which tends to prove one of the basic assumptions of a

tagging experiment (Fig. 3, map).

12 mites

Figure 3. Map of Chilka Lake showing sites of release and recapture. The two

sites of release are marked with a cross inside a circle and approximate sites of

capture with large black dots. Probable routes of movement are indicated by

arrows and broken lines. Numbers in the vicinity of broken lines denote the number

of tagged fish collected at each site of capture.

Other sources of study in the lake have revealed that mature

M. cephalus perform a regular seaward migration during the months

234 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

September-December. The sizes of the migrating males and females

are also known. While performing tagging operations in the present

experiment attempts were made to ascertain, as far as possible, the

number of ripe specimens by external means. In 106 cases ripe males,

and in 3 cases ripe females could be so spotted among the specimens

tagged. The vast majority of the fish tagged were immature (probably

I and II year classes) which on present-day knowledge are not expected

to migrate to the sea. In one instance a mature male tagged specimen

was caught heading in the direction of the outer channel connecting

Chilka Lake with the sea, at a distance of about 15 miles from the

site of tagging. In a few cases some tagged specimens (one immature

female measuring 380 mm. in total length and one immature male

measuring 330 mm. in total length) were found to have been caught

in another jano which was installed and operated at a later date

than the Nalban Jano, indicating thereby that some such fish have

a tendency to move to shallow areas presumably for feeding. It is

of interest to note that the majority of fish caught in janos are

immature specimens. In all other cases tagged fish were recovered

from deep waters of the lake in gill net operations. The present

experiment may now be considered as closed because there are no

more reasonable chances left of the recovery of tagged fish.

If by ample and timely propaganda in future work the Chilka

fishermen can be persuaded to return faithfully or report all tagged

fish found in their catches giving the locations of capture and also

record the proportions of tagged to untagged fish in their catches,

tagging can be successfully utilised in the lake to elucidate such vital

aspects of the lake’s fisheries as have a bearing on sound fisheries

management.

REFERENCE

Devasundaram, M. P. (1951): Fishing Vol. XII, Nos, 1-2, Jan.-Feb. 1951.

methods for Chilka mullets. Ind. Farming

Some Medicinal Weeds in and

around Pondicherry

R. K. Gupta, M. V. DABHOLKAR, and P. S. TEJOMURTHY

French Institute, Pondicherry

INTRODUCTION

Our knowledge regarding the botany of this State starts in 1858 from

the times of the famous French botanist M. Perottett. Achart (1905),

Giboin (1949), and Parmananda (1937) have mentioned some plants from

Pondicherry, but their work is not confined to Pondicherry alone.

Recently Shankaranarayan and Dabholkar (1958) have given an account

of the flora of this place. The present paper embodies the results of

the studies of the authors on the weeds of Pondicherry, and their medi-

cinal uses. The weeds were collected during their flowering season.

The plants have been arranged according to Bentham and Hooker’s

system of classification and are preserved in the Herbarium of the

French Institute, Pondicherry.

List OF THE MEDICINAL WEEDS

MENISPERMACEAE

1. Cissampelos pareira Linn.

Local name: Vattetironpicedy. Hindi name: Nirbisi. Habit: A

lofty climber. Flowers: Greenish (male & female both), October to

December.

Uses: Roots used to relieve pain and are useful in nephritic condi-

tions, dysentery, heart troubles, and urinary disorders, |

2. Cocculus hirsutus Diels.

Syn. Cocculus villosus DC.

Local name: Kattukodi. Hindi name: Jamti-ki-leel. Habit: A

climber in hedges. Flowers: Greenish, January to February.

Uses : The juice of the leaves mixed with water coagulates in a jelly-

like substance that is taken internally with sugar. Leaves and roots

are used in rheumatic pains,

236 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

PAPAVERACEAE

3. Argemone mexicana Linn.

Local name: Bramadandu. Hindi name: Sialkanta. Habit : Erect

annual spiny herb. Flowers: Yellow, throughout the year.

Uses : Oil from the seeds is purgative and used in various skin dis-

eases. The grains are purgative and vomitory. ~

CAPPARIDACEAE

4. Cleome viscosa Linn.

Local name: Naikadugo. Hindi name: Halhul. Habit: An erect

annual herb with hairs. Flowers: Yellow, in rainy and cold seasons.

Uses : The juice of the leaves is used to relieve ear-ache. The seeds

are rubefacient, vesicant, and anthelmintic.

5. Gynandropsis gynandra (Linn) Briq.

Syn. G. pentaphylla DC.

Local name: Kadugu. Hindi name: Karalia. WHabit: Erect

annual herb. Flowers: White, in rainy season and cold weather.

Uses : Used as substitute for Cleome viscosa.

VIOLACEAE

6. Hybanthus enneaspermus F. Miiell.

Syn. Ionidium suffructicosum Ging.

Local name: Orle tamarecedy. Hindi name: Ratan-purus. Habit :

Herb. Flowers: Pink, in all seasons except driest.

Uses : Leaves and tender stalks are demulcent. The roots of the

plant are diuretic.

POLYGALACEAE

7. Polygala chinensis Linn. :

Hindi name: Meradu. Habit: An erect spreading herb. Flowers :

Yellow, pink when unopened, July to February.

Uses : Root given in cases of fever and dizziness.

PORTULACACEAE

8. Portulaca oleracea Linn.

Local name: Kogikirai (Tamil) ; Pourpier (French). Hindi name:

Khursa. Habit: A prostrate subsucculent herb. Flowers: Yellow,

July to March.

Uses : Locally used in scurvy and liver diseases,

SOME MEDICINAL WEEDS IN AND AROUND PONDICHERRY — 237

9. Portulaca quadrifida Linn. |

Local name: Peroumpassale cody. Hindi name: Chhotaluniya.

Habit : A prostrate, creeping, and subsucculent herb. Flowers : Yellow,

June to February.

Uses : Leaves are esteemed as cooling and anti-scorbutic.

MALVACEAE

10. Abutilon indicum G. Don

Local name: Tonttycedy (Tam.); Mauve indienne (Fr.). Hindi

Uses : The leaves are demulcent, the bark is astringent and diuretic.

Infusion of the roots is given in fevers. The seeds are laxative and

aphrodisiac.

11. Sida cordifolia Linn. : .

Local name: Nilatutti. Hindi name: Kungyi. Habit: An under-

shrub. Flowers: Yellow, December and January.

‘Uses: The roots are cooling, astringent, stomachic, nervous, and

cardiac tonic, diuretic, alterative, febrifuge, and demulcent. The juice

of the root is a sedative and forms a soothing application for irritable

surfaces ; it is also used for healing wounds and ulcers. Whole plant

contains an alkaloid identical with ephedrine. The juice of the whole

plant is given in rheumatism, gonorrhoea, and spermatorrhoea.

12. Sida veronicaefolia Lamk.

| Local name: Polampasi. Hindi name: Bhiunli. Habit: A peren-

nial herb. Flowers: Yellow, August to November.

Uses : Leaves are used as local application in cuts and bruises.

13. Urena lobata Linn.

Local name: Ofttatti. Hindi name: Bachata. Habit: A shrubby

herb. Flowers: Rose coloured, after the rains. .

Uses : The roots are diuretic and used as external remedy for rheu-

matism. |

14. Pavonia zeylanica Cav.

Local name: Mammatti. Habit: Erect herb. Flowers: Pink,

October to December.

Uses : Plant is used as vermifuge and purgative.

TILIACEAE

15. Corchorus acutangulus Lamk.

Hindi name: Titapat (Bombay). Habit: An erect annual herb,

Flowers: Yellow, after the rains, till March,

238 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

Uses : The withered leaves used as stomachic while dried leaves used

in dysentery.

GERANIACEAE

16. Oxalis corniculata Linn.

Local name: Paliakiri. Hindi name: Amrul. Habit : Small herb.

Flowers: Yellow, rainy and cold weather.

Uses: The leaves are considered as cooling, appetizing, and stomachic.

The juice used against the cancer of rectum.

ZYGOPHYLLACEAE

17. Tribulus terrestris Linn.

Local name: Nerunji (Tam.); Croix de chevalier (Fr.). Hindi

throughout the year.

Uses : The entire plant and especially the fruit is extensively used in

indigenous medicine. Fruits are cooling, tonic, aphrodisiac, used in

painful micturition, calculus affections, urinary discharges, and impotence ;

in form of infusion useful as a diuretic in gout, kidney diseases, and gravel.

The seeds are astringent and used in bleeding from the nose and other

haemorrhages. Fruits contain traces (0.001%) of alkaloid, a fixed oil,

a small quantity of essential oil, resins, and nitrates.

VATACEAE

18. Cissus quadrangularis Linn.

Syn. Vitis quadrangularis (Linn.)

Local name: Piranday. Hindi name : Hadjora. Habit: Climb-

ing shrub. Flowers: Red, most part of the year.

Uses : The leaves and young shoots are used in powder form in diges-

tive troubles. Juice of the stem is used in irregular menstruation and

Scurvy.

PAPILIONACEAE

19, Abrus precatorius Linn.

Local name: Goundoumany cody. Hindi name: Ratti, Ghungchi.

Habit: A perennial twiner. Flowers: Pink, October to December.

Uses : Seeds are purgative, tonic. Used in nervous disorders and cattle

poisoning. The root is considered as emetic and used in the treatment

of poisoning. The seeds are dangerous and should only be used under

the guidance of a qualified physician,

SOME MEDICINAL WEEDS IN AND AROUND PONDICHERRY 239

20. Clitoria ternatea Linn.

Local name: Kagnetancody. Hindi name: Aparajit. Habit: A

beautiful climber. Flowers: Bright blue, having an orange centre.

Uses : The dried roots and the fresh leaves, which contain a bitter

resin, possess laxative and diuretic properties. They are also used in

urinary disorders.

21. Desmodium gangeticum DC.

Local name: Kolakan. Hindi name: Sarivan. Habit: Erect

shrubby herb. Flowers: Lilac, September to December.

Uses : The bark is considered as febrifuge and anticatarrhal.

22. Indigofera enneaphylla Linn.

Local name: Cheppunerungi. Hindi name: Vasuka. Habit .

Prostrate herb. Flowers: Bright red, October to March.

Uses: Juice of plant as antiscorbutic, tonic, alterative, diuretic,

Used in old venereal affections.

23. Phaseolus trilobus Ait.

Local name: Panipayar. Hindi name: Mugani. Habit: Trail-

ing herb. Flowers: Yellow, October to March.

Uses : Leaves are tonic, sedative, used in cataplasms for weak eyes,

administered in decoction in irregular fever.

24. Zornia diphylla Pers.

Habit: Low spreading herb. Flowers: Yellow, September to

January.

Uses : Root is given to children to induce sleep.

CAESALPINIACEAE

25. Cassia occidentalis Linn.

Local name: Payaverecedy. Hindi name: Kasondi. Habit: A

shrubby herb. Flowers: Yellow, rainy season.

Uses : The leaves are used as purgative in Pondicherry ; useful in

cough. The plant is also used in skin diseases.

26. Cassia tora Linn.

Local name: Tagarai. Hindi name: Chakunda. MHabit: An

annual shrub. Flowers: Yellow, rainy season.

Uses : The macerated leaves used for dermatoses and antidote against

snake-bite,

240. JOURNAL, BOMBAY- NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

CUCURBITACEAE

27. Benincasa cerifera Savi

Local name : Cannalapoussini cody (Tam.); Courge blanche (Frt.).

Hindi name: Petna. Habit: Climber. Flowers: Yellow.

Uses: It is used as tonic and diuretic. It is also considered as a

specific remedy for internal haemorrhage.

28. Cucumis trigonus Roxb.

Syn. Bryonia callosa Rottl.

Local name: Youmoutty cody. Hindi name: Gomuk.. Habit:

Trailing herb. Flowers: Yellow, October to December.

Uses: The root, which contains bryonine, is considered as a purgative

and the seeds are used in cases of uterine affections.

29. Citrullus colocynthis Schrad.

Local name: Petoumoutty cody (Tam.); Cologuinte (Fr.). Hindi

rainy season.

Uses : The pulp of the fruit is described as bitter, sour and is used in.

constipation and fever. The root is useful in jaundice. Oil from the

seeds is used to blacken grey hair.

30. Méelothria madraspatana (Linn.) Cogn.

Local name: Moussoumoussouque cody. Hindi name: Agumaki.

Habit : Climbing herb. Flowers: Yellow, rainy season.

Uses : The seeds are used in diabetes and diarrhoea. People masticate

the root for tooth-ache.

FICOIDEAE

31. Mbollugo pentaphylla Linn.

Local name: Parpadaka pullu. Hindi name: Julpapra. Habit :

Erect herb. Flowers: White, September to January.

Uses : Used as antiseptic.

RUBIACEAE

32. Oldenlandia corymbosa Linn.

Local name: Parpadagam. Hindi name: Daman papar. Habit :

An annual herb. Flowers: White, October to December.

Uses : The whole plant is often used as a bitter tonic. It is also used

in fever, skin diseases, jaundice, liver complaints, and chronic malaria,

SOME MEDICINAL WEEDS IN AND AROUND PONDICHERRY 241

33. Oldenlandia umbellata Linn.

Local name: Saya. Hindi name: Chirval. Habit: An annual

herb. Flowers: Bluish, all seasons except driest.

Uses : Leaves given in consumptive and asthmatic affections. Roots

and leaves are prescribed in bronchial catarrh and asthma.

COMPOSITAE

34. Kclipta alba (Linn.) Hassk.

Local name : Garuga. Hindi name : Bhangra. Habit : Small

annual herb. Flowers: White, throughout the year.

Uses : It is used in jaundice. The leaves are used as dye for hair

and to cool the brain after a bath (hair tonic). It is used also in various

skin diseases.

35. Tridax procumbens Linn.

Habit : A straggling herb. Flowers: Yellow, throughout the year.

Uses : Stems, leaves, and roots are useful in healing cuts and wounds.

36. Vernonia cinerea Less.

Local name: Paitincody. Hindi name: Sahadevi. Habit: An

annual herb. Flowers: Pink or lilac, during rainy season.

Uses : Juice of plant given in piles. Flowers administered for conjunc-

tivitis. The fresh juice of leaves is given in blood dysentery. Externally

it is used for rheumatism. The seed for intestinal colic, for coughs,

leucoderma, and other chronic skin diseases. They are also commonly

used as anthelminitic (against round worms and thread worms).

37. Sphaeranthus indicus Linn.

Local name: Kottakkarandai. Hindi name: Mundi. Flowers :

Pink or purple, January to April. Habit : Prostrate small annual herb.

| Uses : Used against cough, jaundice, tumors, etc. It isa nerve tonic.

Root used in bleeding piles.

38. Xanthium strumarium Linn.

Local name: Marlumutta. Hindi name: Chhota-gokhru. Habit:

An annual herb. Flowers: Dull purple tubular florets, December.

Uses : Useful in urinary diseases.

PLUMBAGINACEAE

39. Plumbago zeylanica Linn.

Local name: Velle cody (Tam.); Dentelaire blanch (Fr.). Hindi

December to January.

Uses : Roots. are used in dyspepsia.

242 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 36 (2)

APOCYNACEAE

40. Vinca rosea Linn.

Local name : Nittiakalianyecedy. Hindiname: Nayantara. Habit :

A small shrub. Flowers: White or pink, throughout the year.

Uses : Used as astringent.

41. Rauwolfia canescens Linn.

Local name: Pambukalachedi. Habit: Small shrub. Flowers :

White, throughout the year.

Uses : The root-bark, stem-bark, and leaves contain an alkaloid,

Rauwolfscine, which is depressent to the cardio-vascular system. It is

also sympatholytic in action and abolishes the pressure effects of

adrenaline.

ASCLEPIADACEAE

42. Calotropis gigantea R.Br.

Local name: Eroucancedy (Tam.); Herbe Hirondelle (Fr.). Hindi

throughout the year.

Uses : The milky sap, flowers, the rind of the root, and leaves are

used as purgative, antimalarial, in dysentery, in syphilis, etc. Numerous

preparations are composed with calomel and antimony sulphide, against

elephantiasis and syphilis.

43. Leptadenia reticulata Wt. & A.

Local name: Kodipale cody. Hindi name: Dori. Habit: Twin-

ing shrub. Flowers: Greenish yellow, July to August.

Uses : Root is emetic and expectorant. It is used against dropsy.

44. WHemidesmus indicus R.Br.

Local name : Naneri cody (Tam.) ; Salsepareille indienne (Fr.). Hindi

on the outside, purple within, December.

Uses: Roots are sweet, demulcent, alterative, blood purifying,

diaphoretic, diuretic, tonic. Root is useful in fever, skin diseases parti-

cularly of syphilitic origin. Externally it is used in rheumatic pains.

BORAGINACEAE

45. Trichodesma indicum R.Br. |

Local name: Kalhudaitumbai. Hindi name: Chota kulpa. Habit:

Erect annual herb. Flowers: Pale blue, October to December. —

SOME MEDICINAL WEEDS IN AND AROUND PONDICHERRY — 243

Uses : Root made into a paste applied to reduce swellings, parti-

cularly of the joints ; pounded with water, given as a drink to children

in dysentery.

CONVOLVULACEAE

46. Convolvulus arvensis Linn.

Local name: Bhoomi chakra poondu. Hindi name: Hiranpadi.

Habit : Twining herb. Flowers: White, August.

Uses: Roots purgative. The rootstock contains about 4.9% of

potent purgative resin. The root possesses cathartic properties and is

regarded as poisonous because of the marked gastro-intestinal irritation

it produces.

47. Evolvulus alsinoides Linn.

Local name: Visnukarandi. Hindi name: Sankhapuspi. Habit :

Prostrate herb. Flowers: Light blue, all seasons.

Uses: Plant is bitter, tonic, and vermifuge ; made into cigarettes

and smoked in chronic asthma. It is also used in dysentery.

SOLANACEAE

48. Datura fastuosa Linn. |

Local name: Oumattecedy (Tam.) ; Pomme epineuse (Fr.). Hindi

January.

Uses: All the parts of the weed are strongly intoxicant, narcotic,

aphrodisiac, toxic, and antispasmodic. Their properties are similar to

those of belladona. The leaves and seeds contain the drugs hyoscya-

mine and atropine. The juice of leaves with milk is used in gonorrhoea.

The seeds are used externally for piles, tumors, and skin diseases.

49. Solanum nigrum Linn.

Local name: Manattakkali. Hindi name: Makoi. Habit: Annual

herb. Flowers: White, after the commencement of rains.

Uses: The plant is a valuable cardiac tonic, alterative, diuretic,

sedative, expectorant, diaphoretic, cathartic. The decoction is effica-

cious in jaundice. The juice is useful in chronic skin diseases, piles, and

gonorrhoea. Externally the juice of leaves is applied in ringworm. The

berries are used in fevers, diarrhoea, and heart disease.

50. Solanum xanthocarpum Sch. & Wendl. |

Local name: Kandan_ katiricedy. Hindi name: Kateli. Habit:

Prickly perennial procumbent herb. Flowers: Blue, purple, October

to March. .

244 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

Uses : The whole plant is considered expectorant, bitter, stomachic,

diuretic, astringent, anthelmintic, and alterative. It is used in fevers,

coughs, asthma, heart disease, gonorrhoea. Root is used locally

against smallpox.

51. Physalis minima Linn.

Local name: Nottou-takalicedy. Hindi name: Lakshmipriya.

Habit : Erect, spreading annual herb. Flowers: Yellow, September to

December.

Uses : The fruit is laxative and diuretic.

PEDALIACEAE

52. Pedalium murex Linn.

Local name: Perunerunji. Hindi name: Baragokhru. Habit: An

annual succulent herb. Flowers: Yellow, September to January.

Uses : The leaves, stems, and fruits are used medicinally. Plant

mucilage is useful in gonorrhoea, spermatorrhoea, and other disorders

of urinary system, impotence, and nocturnal seminal emissions. The

fruit is antispasmodic, aphrodisiac, and the decoction is used in irritation

of urinary organs.

ACANTHACEAE

53. Adhatoda vasica Nees

Local name: Kottu-monroungucedy. Hindi name: Bansa, Adusa.

Habit : An erect shrub. Flowers: White, July to September.

Uses : Leaves, bark, flowers and roots are used medicinally. The

leaves contain the alkaloid vasicine and are a powerful expectorant and

antispasmodic. They are used in diseases of the respiratory tract, parti-

cularly in tuberculosis, all kinds of cough, bronchitis, asthma, and other

chest troubles. The flowers are used as anthelmintic, and in gonor-

rhoea and ophthalmia.

54. Barleria prionitis Linn.

Local name: Simmoulle cedy. Hindi name: Katsareva. Habit:

Prickly shrub. Flowers: Yellow, November to March.

Uses : The juice of leaves is prescribed in catarrhal diseases of children.

The dried bark is used in whooping cough.

55. Andrographis paniculata Nees

Local name: Nila-vembu. Hindi name: -Kirayata. Habit: An

erect annual herb. Flowers: Pink, December to January.

Uses : All the parts of the herb are bitter. It is useful bitter tonic,

febrifuge, and anthelmintic. It is also used in advanced stages of dysen-

tery and fevers. ote Mi of

SOME MEDICINAL WEEDS IN AND AROUND PONDICHERRY — 245

VERBENACEAE

56. Vitex negundo Linn.

Local name: Notchimaram (Tam.) ; Gattlier Negundo (Fr.). Hindi

May to December.

Uses : All parts are used medicinally. The leaves are tonic, febrifuge,

diuretic, vermifuge, and expectorant. The leaves are used against malaria.

Roots are tonic, diuretic, febrifuge, and used in rheumatism, worms,

leprosy, and typhus fever. The flowers are used in diarrhoea, cholera,

and liver disorder. The fruits are nervine tonic.

LABIATAE

57. Anisomeles malabarica O. Kze.

Local name: Rettepemesahycedy. Hindi name: Chodhara. Habit :

An erect shrub. Flowers: Pale purple, March to April.

Uses : Leaves are used medicinally. The herb is antiperiodic, carmi-

native, stomachic, antipyretic, and sudorific. The infusion is used in

intermittent fevers, catarrh, and rheumatism. It is also used in

hysteria. The essential oil of the leaves is used as an embrocation in

rheumatism.

58. Leucas aspera Spreng.

Local name: Toumbecedy. Hindi name: Chota-halkusa. Habit :

An erect herb. Flowers: White, October to February.

Uses: The sap of leaves is used against chronic dermatoses and

scabies.

59. Ocimum sanctum Linn.

Local name: Tulasicedy (Tam.) ; Basilie commum (Fr.). Hindi

Uses: Leaves are expectorant, stomachic, antiperiodic, stimulant,

anti-catarrhal, and aromatic ; also used in malaria, cough, bronchitis,

and disorder of the liver. Externally they are used against ringworm.

The seeds are demulcent and are used in diseases of the genito-urinary

organs.

NYCTAGINACEAE

60. Boerhaavia diffusa Linn.

Local name : Sattaranay cody (Tam.) ; Herbe a cochous (Fr.). Hindi

all seasons except driest.

246 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

Uses: The roots are laxative, febrifuge, and diuretic. They are

used in asthma, anaemia, jaundice, scanty urine. The leaves are also

used in jaundice. The most important part is the root and is used

specially in diseases of the heart, kidneys. It is considered a very good

remedy for dropsy. Contains active constituent punarnavine (0.1%).

AMARANTHACEAE

61. Achyranthes aspera Linn. |

Local name: Naiourouvicedy. Hindi name: Apang. Habit: An

erect herb. Flowers: Greenish white, rainy season.

Uses: The herb is used as diuretic, laxative, stomachic, and astrin-

gent. Its juice is administered in diarrhoea, dysentery, piles, rheuma-

tism, inflammation of internal organs, coughs, eruptions, etc. The root

is given for night blindness and cutaneous diseases, pulmonary syphilis,

and rheumatic affections. |

62. Amaranthus spinosus Linn.

Local name: Moullouhiray (Tam.) ; Amarante a epines (Fr.). Hindi

ish, in rainy season.

Uses : The roots are used in gonorrhoea, eczema. The leaves and

roots are used as laxative for children.

63. Aerua lanata Juss.

Local name: Poulacedy. Hindi name: Chaya. Habit: Prostrate

or erect herb. Flowers: Greenish white, August to January.

Uses: Flower top and roots are used in the treatment of headache.

64. Celosia argentea Linn.

Local name: Salvalcoude cedy (Tam.); Amarante argentee (Fr.).

Hindi name : Sufed murg ka-phul. Habit : Erect annual herb. Flowers :

Pinkish to white, December to February. 3

Uses : Seeds used in diarrhoea.

EUPHORBIACEAE

65. Acalypha indica Linn. |

Local name: Kuppaimeni. Hindi name: Khokali. Habit: An.

erect annual herb. Flowers: Very small, rainy season.

Uses : The plant is used as substitute for senega and useful in bron-

chitis, pneumonia, and asthma. Leaves used in scabies.

66. Euphorbia hirta Linn.

Local name : Amampatehaiarisi. Hindi name : Dduhi. Habit : Annual

erect or ascending herb. Flowers: Small, throughout the year.

SOME MEDICINAL WEEDS IN AND AROUND PONDICHERRY — 247

Uses: The plant is used in diseases of children in worms, bowel

complaints, and cough. Decoction of plant is prescribed for bronchial

affections and asthma.

67. Jatropha curcas — Linn.

Local name : Kattamanakoucedy (Tam.) ; Pignon d mde (Fr.). Hindi

name; Bagbherenda. Habit: Soft wooded shrub. Flowers: Yellow-

ish green. ; ,

Uses : The leaves and seeds are used medicinally. Milky juice is

applied to check haemorrhage from wounds and bleeding surfaces ;

used in piles, scabies, eczema, ringworm, and decayed teeth. It is also

used as febrifuge. The root bark used for rheumatism, dyspepsia, and

diarrhoea. The oil of the seed is purgative or alterative in constipation,

worms, etc.

68. Phyllanthus niruri Linn.

Local name : Kijanelli. Hindiname: Jar-amla. Habit: An annual

herb. Flowers: Small minute, rainy and cold seasons.

Uses : The plant is used as a diuretic in dropsial affections, gonor-

rhoea, and other affections of the genito-urinary tract. Infusion of

young shoot is given in dysentery. Fresh roots as remedy in jaundice.

69, Ricinus communis Linn.

_ Local name: Peramanakoucedy. Hindi name: Arand ka_ per.

Habit : A small tree. Flowers: Small, male with white anther.

Uses :. The leaves, roots, seeds, and oil are used medicinally. The

leaves used externally for boils, swellings, and wounds. The bark of the

plant is used also for healing wounds and sores. The roots are effica-

cious in lumbago, rheumatic swellings. The seed-oil is used as pur-

gative, it is also used in conjunctivitis and other troubles of the eye.

LILIACEAE

70. Gloriosa superba Linn.

Local name: Kejangoucody (Tam.); Glorieux du Malabar (Fr.).

Hindi name: Kalihari. Habit: A large climbing herb. Flowers -

Scarlet and bright yellow, October to December.

Uses : The tubers are poisonous. They are used in leprosy, piles,

colic, for intestinal worms, gonorrhoea ; externally for local application

in parasitic diseases.

71. Amorphophallus campanulatus Blume

Local’ name: Karnai-kilangu. Hindi name: Zaminkand. Habit:

Herb with large underground tuber. Flowers: Spathe greenish-pink

with pale blotches, spadix with dark purple appendage at the top.

248 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

Uses : The tuber of the plant is tonic, carminative, and used in piles

and dysentery ; when fresh used in acute rheumatism.

72. Acorus calamus Linn.

Local name: Vashambu. Hindi name: Bach. Habit: Herb.

Flowers : Green. :

Uses : The rhizome is used in remittent fevers, bronchitis, and in

dysentery of children.

COMMELINACEAE

73. Commelina bengalensis Linn.

Local name: Kanavashai. Hindi name: Kanchasa. Wabit : Creep-

ing branched herb. Flowers: Small with funnel shaped bracts, rainy

season. |

Uses : It is used as laxative and is also useful in leprosy.

CYPERACEAE

74. Cyperus rotundus Linn.

Local name : Pirapinkose (Tam.); Souchet (Fr.). Hindi name: Mutha.

Habit: An erect grass-like herb. Flowers: In spikes of 3-10 spikelets,

nut greenish, November to December.

Uses : Rhizome is used medicinally. It is pungent, aromatic, acrid,

diuretic, astringent, anthelmintic, and stomachic. It is used in gastric

and intestinal disorders. An infusion of rhizome is administered in

diarrhoea, dysentery, dyspepsia, vomiting, cholera, fevers, urinary dis-

orders, leprosy, and blood diseases.

75. Kyllinga monocephalla Rottb.

Hindi name: Nirbishi. Habit: Annual herb. Flowers: Spike of

spikelets, rainy season.

Uses : Used as antidote to poisons. It is also useful in fevers.

GRAMINEAE

76. Aristida adscenscionis Linn. :

Local name: Siruthudappam pul. Hindi name: Ghas. Habit:

Annual herb. Flowers: Spike of spikelets.

Uses: An ointment consisting of ashes of flowers is used for itch

and ringworm.

77. Cynodon dactylon Pers.

Local name: Arugampullu. Hindi name: Dub, Harialli. Habit: A

perennial grass. Flowers: In spike on slender greenish or purplish

stalk.

SOME MEDICINAL WEEDS IN AND AROUND PONDICHERRY

249

Uses : The juice of the plant is applied to fresh wounds and is used

in hysteria, epilepsy.

from piles.

Infusion of root is given for stopping bleeding

The juice of the plant is also useful in catarrhal ophthalmia.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors are deeply indebted to Prof. P. Legris, Director, French

Institute, Pondicherry, for the facilities: provided during the course of the

work, and to Mr. M. Viart for his kind encouragement from time to

time.

REFERENCES

1. Achart, D. (1905): Quinze cent

plantes dans Il’Inde. Vol. I. Pondicherry

Imprimerie des Missions Etrangere.

2. Chopra, R. N., Nayar, 8S. L., &

Chopra, I. C. (1956) : Glossary of Indian

medicinal plants. C.S.I.R. New Delhi.

3. ——— & Chopra, I. C. (1955):

A review of work on Indian medicinal

plants. Indian Council of Medical

Research. New Delhi.

4. Dastur, J. F. (1952): Medicinal

plants of India and Pakistan. D. B.

Taraporevala Sons & Co. Ltd. Bombay.

5. Giboin, M. (1949): Epitome de

Botanique et de Matiere Medicale de

VInde. Imprimerie de Sri Aurobindoo

Ashram.

6. Paramananda, Mariadassou (1937) :

Medecine traditionnelle de l’Inde (Matiere

Medicale ayurvedique). 2 Vol. Pondi-

cherry. Imprimerie Ste. Anne.

7. Perottett, M. (1858): Plantae Pon-

dicerianae. Pondicherry.

8. Shankarnarayan, K. A., & Dabhol-

kar, M. V. (1958): Flora in and around

Pondicherry town. J. Biol. Sciences,

Bombay.

9. Tadulingam, C. & Venkatanara-

yana, G. (1932) : A Handbook of Some

South Indian Weeds. Printed by

Superintendent, Govt. Press, Madras.

Fishing Methods for the Indian Shad

[Ailsa ilsha (Hamilton)] in the

Indian Region

S. JONES

Central Marine Fisheries Research Station, Mandapam Camp,

South India

Part I

(With 2 text-figures and 15 plates)

CONTENTS:

PAGE

INTRODUCTION aA a8 wd itt 23 C250

HILSA FISHING METHODS :

I. INDIA... oe nee hid Ee a |

1. West Bengal Rs a fs ol

2. Orissa = A: a .. 263

3. Assam cs ie as eer

4. Bihar het na oe ea e

5. Uttar Pradesh ae ae Bae .. 2714

INTRODUCTION

The Indian Shad, Hilsa ilisha (Hamilton), is one of the few fishes

in the Indian region for which special types of nets and methods of

fishing have been evolved and employed. The object of this article

is to bring together the existing information on the fishing methods

for this important food fish and to record the observations made on

the subject in the course of my investigations on the fish and its

tishery in India. The available information from the neighbouring

countries of Pakistan and Burma is also incorporated for compre-

hensiveness and to facilitate comparison. |

Among the existing records the most important are the accounts

by Hornell (1924 a, 1950), wherein he has given information on the

methods employed in the Cauveri in Madras, in the Ganges in Bengal,

and the Indus in Sind, and by Kulkarni (1951) on the fishing methods

in the Narbada in Bombay. In addition to the above, Naidu (1939)

has given details of a number of fishing methods employed for hilsa

FISHING METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION © 251

in Bengal and more recently Ahmad (1954) has briefly described the

various hilsa fishing methods in East Bengal. |

In this account the important hilsa fishing methods are described

in detail while mention is also made of certain fishing methods which

are of lesser importance and regarding which little has been published.

so far. A particular type of gear is described only once but modifica-

tions and variations, if any, observed in other zones are also mentioned

under the respective zones. The various nets are classified under

different heads like clap nets, gill nets, seine nets, etc. In certain cases

a rigid grouping is not possible since the same net may be used in

more than one way with some minor modifications. In such instances

the fishing gear concerned is described in detail when first referred to.

Illustrations are mostly semi-diagrammatic and are given wherever

possible. A glossary of local names of fishing gear and_ tackle

mentioned in the account is given at the end.

The same type of net is subject to variation from place to place

and may even be known by different names. Two nets are seldom

exactly alike even in one locality though the general pattern of con-

struction will be the same. The mesh size given in the account is in

the stretched condition unless otherwise stated. The ply number

refers to the number of times the particular count of thread is twisted

to make the twine used for the net.

‘Though no pains have been spared to collect as much information

as possible from all available sources, the account is not claimed to

be complete. Any additional information is welcome and it will be

highly appreciated if any inaccuracies could be brought to my attention

so that these may be rectified.

Considerable help has been received faa a number of persons in

effecting this compilation and this is acknowledged in the appropriate

places. All the figures, except 5, 8 b, 19 b, and 22 which are after

Ahmad. (1954), Hornell (1950), and Kulkarni (1951), were drawn under

my supervision and the names of the artists are given against the res-

pective figures. I thank all of them for their co-operation and

valuable assistance.

HILSA FISHING METHODS

I. INDIA

1. West Bengal

In no part of the Indian region do we find such a variety of

fishing gear and tackle, particularly for hilsa, as in the deltaic region

of the Ganges, lying in West Bengal and East Bengal in India and

Pakistan respectively. This is obviously due to the presence of the

252 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

fish in this area in larger numbers than anywhere else, its availability

practically all round the year, and the great demand for the commodity.

While there are certain special kinds of nets operated primarily for

hilsa, there are a number of multi-purpose nets in the catches of which

this fish forms an important item in varying proportions.

Nets are made of either cotton or hemp and are used tanned or

untanned. The tanning is done with a decoction of the fruits of gab

(Diospyros embryopteris Pers.).

The fishing boats in Bengal are of the carvel type made locally of

Sal (Shorea robusta Gaertn.) or Jarul (Lagerstroemia flos-reginae

Retz.) and rarely of Teak (Tectona grandis Linn.) and are collectively

called jalia dinghis, though most of them have their special local

names based on the nets used.

Cilaipynestss

Among the nets used for hilsa in the Indian region, the shangla jal

and the kharki jal (Hornell 1924 a and 1950, and Nayudu 1939) which

are both clap nets may be considered as the most specialised ones.

The latter is a simpler form of the former and slightly smaller in size.

Both are operated from May-June to September-October.

Kharki jal (Pl. I, fig. 1 a). This is a purse-shaped clap net which is

so constructed and contrived as to effect its closure when desired. The

frame of the net consists of two long slender arched bamboo pieces

about 8 metres long tied together at both ends in the form of hinges.

To this frame is attached a wide-meshed rectangular bag-shaped

net having a mesh of 5 cm. to 10 cm. made of 7 to 10 ply 22 count

cotton yarn about 2 metres deep. The net is said to be suspended

in a horizontal position from a boat by two ropes but more often it

is operated without side ropes just as the kami jal of Assam. The

mouth is kept open with a vertical bamboo loosely passing through

a ring in the upper lip and attached to the lower lip enabling it to

be pushed down to the required extent. The boat is allowed to drift

in the direction of the current with thé mouth of the net facing

downstream trapping any fish coming up. The entry of a fish into the

net is felt through the bamboo which is pulled up bringing the two

lips together and trapping the fish inside. Only one kharki jal is

operated from a boat and a minimum of two persons are required

for the purpose, one at the helm and the other in charge of the net.

This net could be used only in the surface and sub-surface waters up to

a depth of about 3 metres depending on the length of the pole.

Hornell (1950) says that it is of the ‘same shape as that of the

ton’ jal of Bogra from which it appears to be directly derived’.

According to Ahmad (1954) the toni jal of East Bengal is a trawl

(ueuLUYsyey] “d ‘W Aq) ‘[esuog jo ;of vjsuvyg ‘q

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(By M. Mydeen Kunju)

FISHING METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION — 253

net, about 3 to 9 metres in length and 2 to 5 metres in width having

mesh from 0.3 to 2.5 cm. It is a bag-like net the mouth of which is

kept open by floats and weights and is used throughout the year for

catching small-sized fish. It would appear that there are two types

of nets with the same name in East Bengal.

Shangla jal (P1. 1, fig. 1 5). This is an improved modification of the

kharki jal. The net is generally slightly larger in size, with the

bamboo lips thinner and the bag about 3 to 4 metres deep. It

could be used from the surface to a depth of several fathoms.

The bag portion is rounded unlike in the kharki jal in which it is

rectangular. The netting is of cotton, 7 to 12 ply of No. 22 count

and the mesh is from 8 to 11 cm. The mouth is kept open by a

brick or stone weight of 8 to 10 kg. tied to the centre of the lower lip.

There is a feeler cord fixed to the upper portion of the net to transmit

the disturbance caused by the entrance of a fish into the net. The

feeler cord is held in the left hand and the haul rope in the right.

There are no balancing ropes as first shown in the figure by Hornell

(1924 a) and reproduced in several subsequent publications. The

stout haul rope is paid out to the desired depth so that the net re-

mains suspended at about the subsurface or midwater region where

according to the fishermen hilsa are present in appreciable numbers.

When a single net is operated from a boat, it is suspended from

the prow by a rope passing through a ring or Y-shaped piece of

wood in the upper lip and attached to the middle of the lower lip

immediately above the weight. Occasionally when the net is operated

at very low levels it gets entangled in submerged obstructions and

if efforts to extricate it are of no avail the rope is cut and the net

abandoned. When two nets are operated simultaneously from a boat

a minimum of 3 persons are required for the purpose, one at the

helm and two others to operate the nets and assist in rowing. The

boat is brought broadside to the current and the nets are shot from

either end of the left side.

The boats used for operating both shangla jal and kharki jal are

of the same type and are known as dinghis. A dinghi is a plank-

built round-bottomed shallow boat most common in the Ganges, about

8 metres long and about | to 1.5 metres wide with long pointed

bow and stern. The boat is strengthened by ribs and cross-beams

with detachable half-split bamboo pieces in the interspaces. Long

paddles are used which serve in steering. One or two spare bamboo

poles are also kept in the boat. When sailing, a bamboo mast is

carried in the front with thin split sail supported by a diagonal

bamboo yard stepped far in front. A hood is not always used

when fishing for hilsa, though there is provision for one at the far

254 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

aft. Those fishermen who seasonally migrate from distant places

invariably fix one in their boats as it forms their living =e

during this period.

Galitene ts

There are several kinds of gill nets, each differing from the other

only in details. Some are of the drifting type, while others are fixed

gill nets, and often the same net is known by two different names.

The net proper may either be of cotton or hemp and tanned or un-

tanned. Tanned nets are used in turbid waters and untanned nets

in clear water. Some have sinkers while most of them have floats.

Chhandi jal (P\. Il, fig. 2.) This is a drift net and is used mainly for

catching hilsa. The size of each piece varies considerably but generally

each piece is about 10 to 12 metres long and about 2.5 metres broad

with 6 to 10 cm. mesh. Nets used in deep areas may be over 8

metres broad. There is a thin head rope of hemp to which are

attached bamboo floats at about 4-metre intervals and a stout ground

rope of hemp to which are attached, by coir ropes (1 to 1.5 metres

long), thick disc-shaped burnt-clay sinkers each of about 10 to 13 cm.

in diameter having an eccentrically placed hole.

For operational purposes several pieces of net from 25 to 75 are

tied together depending on the length required and the resources of

the co-operating fishermen. To one end of the head rope a small

raft of bamboo is attached and the net is paid out across the river,

the other end being tied to a boat. The net as well as the boat

drifts down in the current, gilling any ascending hilsa. When fishing

is done at night a light is kept burning on the raft so that the -

men in the boat can get an idea of the position of the other

extremity of the net. For day-time fishing, the raft is sometimes

substituted by a long pole or any conspicuous floating object.

Chhandi jal fishing is more often carried out at dusk or during the night

when the migratory activity of hilsa is said to be at its maximum.

Though the net is employed mainly for catching hilsa, other fishes

also sometimes get gilled or entangled in it.

The boat used for the operation of this net is known as the

chhandi nauka. This is a shallow plank-built boat with a rounded

bottom, longer and wider than the dinghi. The stern is slightly higher

than the prow and has decking throughout the length. The boat is

provided with a hood and there is provision for a mast and sail. There

are usually 6 to 9 persons in a boat. The net is generally used from

April-May to September-October.

Ilish jal. This net, similar to the chhandi jal but of smaller mesh

(5 to 8 cm.), is mainly employed for catching hilsa and is known as

PLaTe III

JOURN. BOMBAY NAT. Hist. Soc.

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(By M. Mydeen Kunju)

PLATE IV

JouRN. BoMBAY NAT. Hist. Soc.

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b. End of the operation.

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a. Beginning of the operation.

tat

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Fig. 4. Diagrammat

FISHING METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION — 255

the dora jal also. The length varies from about 60 to over 300

metres and the depth from about 5 to 8 metres according to the width

and depth of the river. The net is generally operated after the Pooja

for a period of about 6 months from October-November to March-April

‘and the hilsa caught is of comparatively smaller size than with the

chhandi jal. |

Two modified types of chhandi jal used for capturing hilsa are

the karal jal in which there are no weights along the ground rope

and the Goolti jal in which the lower portion is puckered and is

provided with burnt elliptical-shaped clay sinkers. These are re-

ported to be operated from May to October.

Konta jal (P|. Il, fig. 3). This is a fixed gill net used mainly for

hilsa in the tidal regions. It is rectangular in shape consisting of 4 or

more pieces, each 18 metres long and 8 metres deep, tied together to

make an operational net. The net is made of cotton of 6 ply No. 10

thread and the mesh is about 5 to 8 cm. wide. The foot and head

ropes are brought together at the extreme ends with a pair of bamboo

poles each 4 metres long placed vertically to keep the net open.

The net is stretched across the river and the two ends are tied to

anchors, and a number of buoys in the form of kerosene drums are

tied to the head rope. The current keeps the net distended like a

bag and any large fish that tries to pass through it gets gilled. The

fishermen inspect the net in a dinghi every one or two hours and

collect the gilled fish. This net is generally operated from May-June

to September-October.

Seine nets

Kochal jal (P|. IV, fig. 4 a, b). Among the seine nets one that is

used specially for hilsa is the kochal jal. It appears that similar nets

probably with varying degrees of local modifications are used for

hilsa fishing during the winter months along the Indo-Pakistan-Burma

coast from Orissa to the Mergui Archipelago. In the Sundarbans of

Bengal the kochal jal is used for large-scale hilsa fishing during the

winter months from November to February. The net is made

of cotton of 10 ply No. 20 or 22 count thread with about 8 cm. mesh

towards the head rope and 10 cm. mesh towards the foot rope. Each

piece has a length of about 12 metres and depth of 30 metres and

about 22 such pieces are fastened together giving an over-all length

of about 280 metres to make one operational unit. The middle piece

of net is comparatively narrow, having a depth not more than half

of the rest of the portion and is of stouter thread and smaller mesh

(about 4 cm.). The head rope has wooden floats at regular intervals

~ and the foot rope is stout and strong. A kochal jal fishing unit

256 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2) |.

consists of 5 or 6 boats with a complement of 5 men in each boat.

For operational purposes two open dinghis sometimes smaller than

the rest and connected to one another with a short length of rope are

used as tender boats for carrying the net, stacked half in each.

During the winter months when water in the estuaries and the fore-

shore areas of Bengal is calm, several hundreds of such fishing units

wander about in search of hilsa shoals. As soon as a shoal is

sighted the group disperses and makes an encircling movement, the

two tender boats on one side of the shoal and the other boats on

the opposite side. Before the shoal gets time to scatter the net is

quickly paid off simultaneously from both the boats each describing

an arc and the other boats converge towards the closing circle, the

men in them making a mighty din by beating of poles, shouting, and

striking on the water so as to scare the fish and drive them towards

the nets. The two tender boats meanwhile close up bringing to-

gether the two ends of the net and drawing the foot rope of one side

over the other, converting the whole net into an incomplete bag in

which the fish get imprisoned. They are collected and transferred to

the boats to be disposed off to the merchants who move about with

supplies of ice in carrier boats to purchase the catches. A day’s

catch by a single unit by this method of fishing when large shoals

are sighted runs to several scores of maunds whereas sometimes the

men wander about for days or weeks together without catching a

single fish.

Gai Ber jal. This is a very long rectangular seine net measuring 300

or more metres with puckerings in the lower portion. The simpler

type of seine net without puckerings is known as ber jal. The net

may be made of either cotton or hemp and the mesh varies from 1 to

5 cm. of 5 ply of 5 or 10 counts to 20 ply of 10 counts. The head

rope and the foot rope are of the same size, very stout, and the

depth of the net ranges from 3 to 9 metres. Bamboo or wooden floats

are attached to the head rope. The net is either shot in the middle

of the river by an encircling movement of two boats and then hauled

up into the boat after bringing the two ends of the foot rope to-

gether or one end is left on the shore and the other end is brought

round enclosing a very large body of water after which the net is

hauled in. When pieces of bamboo are tied across the net to facilitate

the hauling operation, it is known as tana ber jal’. Ber jal is generally

operated from October-November to May, when large numbers of

spent and immature hilsa are caught. The net is not exclusive for

hilsa, but this fish forms one of the primary catches.

1The tana ber jal is said to be ‘a favourite net with the fishermen of Dacca,

Faridpur and Kushtia in East Bengal ’ (Ahmad 1952).

FISHING METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION — 257

In the large rivers like the Padma and the Meghna very long ber

jals known as jagat ber jal, meaning universe enclosing net, over 1600

metres in length are used. The operation lasts for several days and

a large variety of fish are caught. Though the jagat ber jal is not.

used primarily for hilsa, it also forms one of the catches.

Kong jal or Bhesha gulli (Fig. 5). This is a boat seine with a

series of bags, each with a funnel-shaped pouch inside to prevent the

escape of trapped fish, at intervals of 9 to 12 metres. The length of the

net varies considerably from place to place and may be anything

from about 30 to 300 metres. The number of bags also varies

accordingly. The net is made of cotton and the mesh is about 5 cm.

The mouth of the bags is rectangular in shape, 6 to 9 metres high and

‘i

Fig. 5. A portion of Kona jal of Bengal

about 4 to 5 metres wide and the mesh is about 2.5 cm. The mouth

of each bag is kept distended by two diagonally placed bamboo

poles. The net is operated from two boats and the fish trapped in

the bags are removed by untying the string at the cod end of each

bag.

The net could be operated as a drag net from the shore or as a

stake net by tying it to poles fixed in the river where there is strong

current. The kona jal is generally used from May to October.

Rixed bag. nets and;stake nets

Behuniti jal (Pl. V, fig. 6). The behunti, behundi, bainti, or bim jal,

Operated in the estuaries where the tidal influence is fairly strongly

felt, is a multi-purpose net used for all fishes and prawns

carried up and down the river by the current. Adult hilsa form only

a negligible percentage of catches while in the middle reaches of the

estuaries during the winter months large numbers of post-larval and

juvenile hilsa are caught along with a variety of other fishes. As this

net is of interest from the conservation point of view of the fishery

and as no illustrated description is available it is described here.

258 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

This is a fixed bag net with a wide mouth, comparatively short

wings and long cod end which is lashed with a string except when

the catches have to be emptied. There is a flap on the inside near

the cod end to prevent the fish from swimming out. The size of the

net, the mesh opening, the thickness of the thread, etc. vary in different

parts of Bengal. Those used in the lower reaches are larger while

comparatively small sized ones are used in the upper zones. A typical

one used in the Barrackpore-Nawabgunge area in which large

quantities of juvenile hilsa are caught is shown in Plate V, figure 6.

Each wing is 9 metres and measures when fully stretched 26 metres

from end to end with a mouth of 6 metres and a bag about 20

metres long. The mesh near the mouth is about 4 cm. but there is

a progressive decrease in the size of the mesh opening towards the

cod end where in some cases the netting will be substituted by

hessian or thick canvas cloth. For fixing the net in the estuary either

a pair of heavy wooden anchors are used or two stout wooden spikes

are driven into the bed of the river with a specially devised ‘battering

ram’. A rope from the lower end of the extremity of each wing

is fastened to them while a large drum is tied to the upper side to

serve as a buoy. The mouth is kept open with the help of two

bamboo poles each about 5 metres long. From the middle of the

upper lip of the net to the cod end a thick draw rope is provided

and sometimes a small empty kerosene tin or some other buoy is

tied by a long rope to the cod end to facilitate the location of the

cod end. Large quantities of post-larval and juvenile stages of oe

are caught especially during the winter months.

The bag nets, suti jal and bada jal referred to in the Marketing

Series No. 66 (Government of India, 1951) are evidently modifications

of the behunti jal. They are made of cotton with about 1 cm. mesh

and are comparatively much smaller in size and serve more or

less as stake nets.

Suti jal (Fig. 8 b). Known as soti jal also, this is a funnel-shaped ‘net

5 to 6 metres long with circumference at mouth about 5 metres and

height of wing | to 1.5 metres. ‘Leader wings extend from each

side of the mouth and are supported on stakes. A stake passing

through the centre of the mouth “anchors” the bag and serves also

to keep the mouth distended. The head rope and the ground rope

are tied to this stake. The posterior end of the bag is lashed with

a string when in use. This net is set in river estuaries where there

is a strong tidal action’ (Marketing Series, op. cit.). According to

Ahmad (1954) this net is common in the Rajshahi, Pabna, and

Kushtia districts of East Bengal and are generally fixed in ‘large

numbers in the river side by side.

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FISHING METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION — 259

Bada jal. This is a bell-shaped net with a pouch inside, which

serves as a trap. There are no leader wings but the mouth is very

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Fig. 8 a. Kephla jal of Bengal. (By M. P. Lakshmanan)

b. Diagram of Suti jal of Bengal. (After Ahmad 1954)

wide and is kept distended by two bamboo poles placed vertically

on either side. A float is attached to the head rope. The net is

tied to stakes, driven in the river and the wide posterior end is tied

up by a string to form the cod end.

260 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

Lift nets | : ? | 3

Lift nets are operated for all small and medium-sized surface and

subsurface fishes and during certain seasons hilsa also constitutes one

of the catches. The lift nets in use are the bhasa jal, gara jal or

gara besal'; and nauka besal or basal jal. All these are lever dip nets

and would probably have evolved from the simpler type of hand-

operated push net (PI. VI, fig. 7.a) known as the hela jal in Bengal and

hadia jal in Orissa.

Basa jal. This dip net is 3 to 4 metres in length and 1.5 to 2

metres in breadth, shaped like the segment of a circle, with a bamboo

of about an inch in diameter on the are side. I have never seen its

operation, but Naidu (1939, p. 11) remarks: ‘It is dipped into

water 5 to 6 feet deep. Radius 6 to 8 feet supported by a dingi.”

Strings from all the three corners form as bridle and it is then held

in hand in the manner of kite flying. Net has 1 to 14 inch mesh

mainly for hilsa and other surface fish’.

Gara besal or gara jal (Pl. VI, fig. 7 b). This is a fixed lever net. It

is roughly triangular with considerable sagging in the middle and is

tied to a V-shaped frame of two long bamboo poles connected

distally by an apical cord. The net is connected to this cord

by two short sticks. The size of the net varies from about 11 to

14 metres along the bamboo sides and about 8 to 11 metres

across the cord. The mesh is about 4 cm. towards the middle. The

V-shaped frame is worked on a horizontally kept bamboo pole serving

as a fulcrum supported on posts fixed in the bed of the river. The

two side posts are strengthened by two or three supporting posts

depending on the size of the net and flow of water. A stout bamboo

pole is planted vertically in a median position in line with the angle

_ of the V-shaped frame. Horizontal cross bamboo poles are tied from

the median post to the side post. A heavy stone or some other

weight is tied to the angle of the frame to balance the weight of the

frame on either side of the fulcrum and facilitate quick operation

by a single person. A short moveable cross stick tied to the median

pole serves as a ‘catch’ and keeps the net in position when lowered.

A person who waits in a boat moored by the side of the fixed engine

periodically gets up on the right horizontal cross bamboo, knocks

off the ‘catch’, raises the net by pushing down the weighted portion

and removes the fish after holding down the V-shaped frame with

the deft. leg.

salen

1 In the gara besal we could see a parallel of the Chinese dip net of the Far East,

the cheena vala of the Travancore-Cochin back-waters and the ndamtee of the French

Cameroons while the nauka jal isin principle similar to the zemi of the Kokoto tribe

of Africa (Hornell 1950). Besal is also pronounced as bheshal, beshal and veshal.

FISHING METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION _ 261

The gara besal is generally fixed close to river banks where there

is eddy formation. Sometimes artificial embankments are put up

across creeks to create eddy and draw fish into it.

Nauka besal (P\. V1, fig. 7 c). This net is similar to the previous

one but comparatively smaller in size and worked from a boat, thereby

increasing its range of operation. Each arm of the bamboo frame

is 9 to 11 metres long with the arc about 6 metres across. The frame

is worked on a short fulcrum supported on two posts fixed in the

middle of the boat. A thick log of wood is tied outside the gun-

wale of the side opposite to the net to serve as a balancer. The

distal portion of the net is wide meshed (2.5 to 4 cm.) while towards

the apex it is close meshed (1.5 cm.). Usually 3 persons go about

in a besal boat and of these one person is engaged in the operation

of the net. The besal boat is 12 to 13 metres long, 1.3 to 1.6 metres

broad, and a little over 60 cm. deep. The boat is provided with a

hood of woven split bamboo or matting in a frame of semi-circular

hoops of thin bamboo or rattan. A variety of surface and sub-

surface fishes including hilsa are caught in the nauka besal.

Cast nets

Ordinary cast nets known as kephia jal are used for hilsa in some

of the smaller rivers like the Damodar and the Rypuarayan. In

winter months a kind of large cast net known as the batchari jal is

used by the fishermen to catch hilsa and other fishes from the

Sundarban areas.

_ Kephla jal (Fig. 8 a). This is the ordinary cast net known by several

other names in various parts of Bengal. The net is of the folding

and puckering type with small cylindrical iron weights along the

ground rope. From the apex to the periphery the net is about 5

metres long. It is made of 4 ply 40 count yarn with the mesh from

.6 cm. to about 7 cm. Along the lower border (circumference), there

are about 60 puckerings with 4 weights in each puckering. All the

Strings from the marginal zone converge to the centre where they are

tied to a central cord 9 to 11 metres which passes through a ring form-

ing the apex of the net.

Batcharit jal or othar jal. This is a large-sized heavy cast net

15 to 23 metres in diameter and provided with puckerings and sinkers.

Though exactly in the pattern of the keplia jal, it is not cast like

that in view of its enormous size. It is paid out from a long narrow

boat known as the batchari nauka having a complement of about 5

men. ‘The net is first kept stretched on one side along the full length

of the boat and dropped as the boat drifts with the current enclosing

262 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

a roughly circular space and as the apical cord tied to the centre of

the boat gets taut by the drift of the boat, it is hauled up. The

net is used for a variety of large-sized fishes, and hilsa which move

about in shoals in the Sundarban estuaries during winter months are

also caught. Generally a number of boats form a circle round a

large shoal and operate the nets simultaneously so that those that

try to escape from one get caught in another.

Barracnpnic ts |

Char-pata jal or char-gherra jal (Pl. VII, fig. 9). This net is used

during the winter months in the foreshore areas of the eastern parts

of the 24-Parganas where large areas get exposed during low tide.

An operational net may be several hundreds of metres long depend-

ing on the strength of the participating fishermen. It is made up of

a number of pieces each 7 to several metres long and 3 to 4 metres

wide. The dimensions as well as the structure of the net vary con-

siderably. It may either be of cotton or hemp or jute and some-

times a combination of any of these in which case the lower half is

generally of cotton yarn. The upper portion is wide-meshed (about

5 cm.) while the lower portion is of about 1.3 cm. mesh. When made

of cotton it is usually of 10 to 16 ply of No. 10 count. The ground

rope is of stout jute, while the head rope is slender.

A series of poles are fixed firmly in the mud just above the low-

water line sometimes extending over 1600 metres. The stout ground

rope of the net is tied to the base of the poles and the whole net is

left flush with the ground, with strings from the head rope attached

to the top of the poles here and there to enable the net to be raised

when required. At the peak of the high tide the fishermen go about

in boats and raise the head rope and fix it on the poles above the

water line. When the water starts receding the net forms an

effective barrier preventing the escape of any fish that has moved into

the flooded area. The stranded fish are collected and the process is

repeated.

The net is operated especially during spring tides in the winter

months when large numbers of fishermen congregate in the lower

reaches of the Gangetic delta for fishing purposes. A variety of fishes

are caught in the net and generally hilsa forms one of the important

catches.

Mal jalo (Pl. X, fig. 12). It is reported that this net is operated on

the Midnapore Coast in West Bengal where there is a wide tidal zone.

It is more common along the Balasore Coast and a typical one in use

in Chandipore is described under Orissa (p. 268). :

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Operation of the Char-gherra jal of Bengal. (By M. P. Lakshmanan)

a. Beginning of the operation—fixing up of the net during low tide.

b. Head rope raised and fixed on the poles at the height of the tide.

c. Fishing operation after the recedence of water.

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Fig. 10. a. Ilishi phandi jalo of Orissa.

b. Tisto jalo of Orissa.

c. Chondi jalo of Chandipore (Orissa).

d. Bar jalo of Chandipore (Orissa).

e. A portion of Tangra jalo of Orissa. ;

f. A portion of Tangra jalo in stretched condition at the time of

hauling. (All by M. Kumaran)

FISHING METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION 263

2. Orissa’

Hilsa is available in all the rivers and estuaries of the State from

the Subharnarekha in the north to the Chilka Lake and _ the

Rishikulya estuary in the south. During the winter months there

is a fishery in the shallow coastal waters also. As the largest river

in the State, viz. the Mahanadi, is spanned by anicuts at Naraj and

Cuttack there is no hilsa fishery above the anicuts.

Since the State is contiguous to West Bengal much of the fishing

gear used is similar with slight modifications and known under different

local names, Hilsa is known in Oriya as ilishi and more than one

net primarily intended for this fish go under the name ilishi jalo.

The suffix jalo is derived from the word jal in Hindi and Bengali

and means net. Along the Ganjam coast in south Orissa where the

sea-going fishermen are all Telugus, the word jalo is replaced by

vala.

Gill nets

Ilishi phandi jalo ox ilishi jalo (P|. VIII, fig. 10 a). This is a fixed

gill net operated in the rivers and estuaries in Balasore District from

the middle of October to the middle of March. Each piece is about 15

metres long and 5 metres broad and two or more of such pieces

joined together make one composite operational unit. It is made of

either 6 ply 10 counts or 8 ply 20 counts yarn or hemp. The head

rope has bamboo floats 75 cm. in length about 4 metres apart. The

head rope and the ground rope are joined at one side and two ropes

each about 11 metres long tied to two poles on either side help to

hold the net in a stretched condition. A boat with a crew of 2 men

goes about collecting the gilled fish which mainly consist of hilsa.

There is another net of larger mesh called the bhekti phandi

jalo fixed in the sea and estuaries for large-sized fishes, such as

Lates (bhekti), sciaenids, etc. Occasionally hilsa is also caught in

this net. It is otherwise known as bar jalo or bara jalo also.

Tisto jalo (P\. VAL, fig. 10 b). This is a very simple type of fixed gill

net without floats or sinkers used in the tidal region of the foreshore

areas in Balasore District from the middle of March to the middle

of July. It has 10 cm. mesh and is made of 6 ply 20 counts yarn or

of hemp. Each piece is 18 to 27 metres long, 1.4 metres broad, and

* Information on bhasani jalo and bhiro jalo has been collected and furnished by

Mr. Ajit Banerjee of the Central Inland Fisheries Research Station. I amindebted to

the late Shri Mukhram, Survey Assistant, Central Marine Fisheries Research Station,

for information on other gill nets, trawl nets and drag nets recorded from Chandi-

pore and Ganjam, Orissa.

264 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL. HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

3 to 5 such pieces are joined together lengthwise to make one opera-

tional net. It is tied during low tide to sal wood stakes fixed about

9 metres apart about 400 metres from the shore. During the high

tide water rises above the net and the fish that get gilled are removed

during the low tide. No boats are used for the operation of the

tisto jalo.

llishi jalo. This is also a simple type of fixed gill net consisting

of a rectangular piece of netting similar to the ilishi phandi jalo,

36 metres or more long and 4.5 to 5.5 metres broad with 7 to 10 cm.

mesh. The head rope and the ground rope which are without floats or

sinkers are tied to 2 poles fixed in the estuary. It is mainly intended

for hilsa but other clupeoids also get gilled.

Basani jalo. This is a gill net operated along the Balasore coast

mainly for hilsa from a single boat by 2 or 3 persons. It is made of

8 ply 16 counts or 10 ply 20 counts yarn or hemp with 4 to 7 cm.

mesh. Total length of the net depends on the number of pieces

used and may sometimes be up to 460 metres long. Each piece is

about 38 metres long and 4.5 metres broad. The head rope has

wooden floats 4.5 metres apart of which the first one is large and

conspicuous and serves as a buoy and the ground rope has small iron

sinkers.

The net is taken in a boat with a crew of 3 or 4 persons and

when a shoal is sighted it is cast quickly around the shoal. When

the buoy is contacted on the completion of the encircling movement,

the two ends of the net are brought together and it is hauled into

the boat removing the gilled fish as they come in. The net 1s

operated from November to February and along with hilsa other fishes

such as Lates, sciaenids, catfishes, engraulids, mullets, etc. are also

caught.

Chondi jalo (P|. VIII, fig. 10 c). This is a long narrow drift net similar

to the chondi jal of Bengal. The net may be up to 370 metres long

and it is 1.2 metres broad with 5 to 10 cm. mesh. There are floats

on the head rope of which the one at the end is large and conspicuous

and serves as a buoy. The ground rope has no sinkers. The net

is held on to the boat by a long rope and is allowed to drift with

the current. It is used in rivers, estuaries, .and .the.isea. in) 4he

Dhamra and Mahanadi estuaries this is reported to be used practically

all round the year except during very rough weather. Fishes other

than hilsa are also caught in the net. It is used as a drag-net during’

the fish drives in the Mahanadi as described elsewhere (p. 269).

Bhiro jalo or bheed jalo or ilishi jalo. This is said to be a

modification of the ilishi jalo and the ilishi phandi jalo with wooden

floats and earthen sinkers and is operated from 2 boats. The net is

ie:

FISHING. METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION — 265

made of 6 ply 10 counts yarn with 10 cm. mesh and may be 200

metres to over 600 metres long, composed of a number of pieces 18

metres long and 5.5 to 9 metres broad contributed by the participat-

ing fishermen. The net is operated along the Balasore coast from

November to March.

Two large boats, each carrying a bhiro jalo with a crew of 6 to 10

persons scout for hilsa shoals along the foreshore waters beyond the

tidal zone. On sighting a shoal, the two boats come together, join

the two nets, and make an encircling movement while paying out the

net. As the two boats meet the two ends of the combined net are

held together in one boat and the other boat goes inside the encircled

area while the men frighten the shoal by making noise and beating

the water with poles. Due to the disturbance caused, the fish scatter

in all directions to get gilled in the encircling wall of net. When it

is felt that very few fish are left uncaught each boat reverses the

operation by hauling the net and stacking it for the next operation

after the gilled fish are removed.

The above net known locally as the bhido jalo or bhida jalo is

a multi-purpose gill net made of yarn or hemp used in the Chilka

Lake for catching all kinds of fishes including hilsa. Each piece

is about 9 metres long and about 3 metres broad with 4 to 5 cm.

mesh and wooden floats 60 to 90 cm. apart along the head rope.

A hundred or more pieces are joined together and loaded in two boats

and cast as the bhiro jalo. 3 or 4 accompanying boats race into

the encircled area just before the opening closes making a great deal

of noise and disturbance in the water. The fish scatter in all directions

and get gilled. |

Gherua jalo. This is a hempen gill net similar to the bhido jalo

used in the Chilka Lake for all kinds of fishes including hilsa.

Odi vaia or odi jalo. This is a multi-purpose drift net used in

the sea along the Ganjam coast (South Orissa) by Telugu fishermen.

It is made of a single piece of netting about 60 metres long and 12

metres broad with 7 to 10 cm. mesh. It is operated from a catamaran

with a crew of 2 men who allow the whole net to drift at the end of

a rope about 73 metres long. The net is used from May to September

and a variety of fishes including hilsa are caught.

Pelagic Traw|

Iriga vala or irgali or irgal jalo (Pl. IX, fig. 11 a, b). This is a conical

bag-net resembling the thurivalai of the Coromandel coast (Hornell

1924 b). This is operated by Telugu fishermen in the sea along the

Ganjam coast in south Orissa. The net is made in two sizes and

the larger one is known as the pedda irgali or bada irgali and the

266 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

smaller one is known as the sanna irgali or chotta irgali. The former

has a bag length of 13 metres and wing span of 27 metres on each side

while the latter has a bag length of 7 metres and wing span of 15

metres on each side. Except in the difference in size both are alike

in construction and mesh size. The cod end of the net has an

opening for emptying the contents which is kept tied with a stout rope

with a stone weight at the end to keep the net at the proper level

during operation. The head rope has floats and the ground rope

sinkers. A typical pedda irgali is figured indicating the different

portions like baromadi, male madi, sinapu vala, ata vala, waram with

the respective mesh sizes.

Two catamarans each with a crew of 2 persons proceed to the

fishing ground with the net loaded in one if it is a sanna irgali or

in both if it is a pedda irgali. On reaching the fishing ground which

may be 2400 to 6000 metres away from the shore the bag is let down

into the water and the catamarans move away from one another and

in a forward direction holding the two wing ropes and stretching

the net to the maximum extent. The catamarans again meet to-

gether bagging all the fish covered by the wings. The net is then

quickly hauled in and the fish caught are removed. Hilsa forms one

of the catches.

Often when a large shoal is sighted two nets are operated from

opposite directions encircling it and the nets are then hauled into

the respective catamarans.

Di ae nets

Bar jalo (Pl. VIII, fig. 10 d). This is a very long multi-purpose drag

net sometimes over 300 metres long depending on the number of pieces

laced together. Each piece is about 18 metres long and 3 to 9 metres

broad, made of yarn or hemp. The mesh varies from 5 to 9 cm. It

has wooden floats and sinkers of burnt clay.

The net is loaded into a boat and a long rope tied to one end

of the net is held by a party on the shore. The boat is rowed far

out making a semi-circle and covering the maximum area possible.

When it reaches the shore most of the crew leave the boat holding

the rope at the other end of the net and both the parties haul it in the

manner of a typical shore seine landing all fishes in the body of

water covered by the net.

Fishing with this net is carried out during the winter months from

November to March when the sea is comparatively calm.

Tangra jalo or tangna jalo or tangni jalo (P|. VIII, figs. 10 e, f). This

is a multi-purpose pocketed drag net, like the ghai ber jal of Bengal,

operated in rivers and estuaries in Balasore district. The main body

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FISHING METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION — 267

of the net is made of 12 ply 20 count thread. Each piece is about

15 metres long and 3.7 to 4.3 metres broad. The head rope has

wooden floats 1.2 metres apart and immediately below it is a narrow

border or ‘baranda of 5 cm. mesh. Below the ‘baranda is the main

body of the net about 2.4 to 3 metres broad and of 6 cm. mesh.

Below this are the pockets about 45 cm. to 60 cm. deep. Each

pouch is about 1.5 metres long and is subdivided into 5 incomplete:

pockets. Along the free margin of the pockets are burnt clay sinkers

15 for a 1.5 metres long pouch or 3 for each subdivision of the

pouch.

_ The net is operated in the same manner as the bar jalo with the

help of a boat with a crew of three or more persons and is hauled

as any typical shore seine with the help of the head rope and the

ground rope. The sinkers help to keep the mouth of the pouches

Open and entrap the fishes, making escape difficult. This net is

used in the estuaries from the middle of October to the middle of July.

Sarni-Phasi jalo. This is a shore seine operated in rivers as a

combination of two nets known as the sarni jalo and phasi jalo with

about 12 pieces of the former in the centre joined to 2 or more

pieces of the latter to the sides depending on the width of the river

to be covered.

(i) Sarni jalo. Each piece is about 7 metres long and nearly

5 metres broad and made of 7 ply 20 counts yarn with 2 cm. mesh.

The head rope is of hemp of 1.3 cm. thickness with wooden floats;

20 to 25 cm. long and 30 cm. apart. The ground rope is also similar

to the head rope and has round clay sinkers of 4 cm. diameter.

(ii) Phasi jalo. Each piece is about 13 metres long and nearly

5 metres broad with 5 cm. mesh. The net is made of hemp and

the head rope and ground rope are as in the sarni jalo. The floats

are 20 to 30. cm. long and 90 cm. apart and the burnt clay sinkers

are almost cylindrical 6 cm. X 4 cm. with a hole in the centre.

This combination net is operated as a typical shore seine in rivers

from the middle of October to the middle of July with the help of

a boat. The head rope and ground rope serve as hauling ropes but

the latter is pressed down by the persons in front to prevent the

escape of any fish.

Patua jalo. This is a drag net operated in the Chilka Lake

and is usually made of about 4 ply 10 counts yarn with hempen head

ropes and ground ropes. Each piece is about 22 metres long and

about 3 metres broad with 2.5 cm. mesh and with floats 46 cm. apart.

6 to 10 pieces are joined together and operated either as shore seine

or boat seine. Small-sized hilsa are caught along with engraulids.

268 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol, 56 (2)

Cast “nets

Khepa jalo (Pl. XI, fig. 13). When the Mahanadi is in flood the

hilsa fishermen wait below the Cuttack and Naraj anicuts perched

precariously like statues on tiny platforms built on poles fixed in the

river bed with a cast net half spread in hand and ready for casting

at any suspected movement of the fish. As soon as a fish is noticed

the net will be seen describing a circle in the air and descending

gracefully on the water, more often than not enclosing one migrant

fish. The net is hauled up slowly and carefully and any fish caught

is thrown in a small dug-out canoe moored below the platform. The

cast net used is a wide-meshed one of the folding and puckering

type similar to the kephla jal of Bengal (Fig. 8 a).

Dip net

Hadia jalo. This is a light triangular dip net similar to the hela

jal of Bengal and is used at the Naraj anicut by Oriya fishermen

for all kinds of fishes including hilsa. There are two sizes, a smailer

one with each arm about 4 metres long and apex 2 metres with

1.3 cm. mesh and a larger one with each arm about 5 metres long and

apex 3.6 metres with 5 cm. mesh. The fishermen remain in pools

below the anicut and go on ‘straining’ the water with rhythmic

regularity, in the course of which they get occasionally specimens

of hilsa also.

Barrier nets

Mal jalo (P1. X, fig. 12). This net is used in Chandipore and Talpada

in the district of Balasore in Orissa and in the adjacent district of

Midnapore in West Bengal where there is a very wide tidal zone.

As the fixing of this net involves considerable initial labour, once

it is fixed in one place it is not shifted till the season which extends

from November to March is over. Two rows of stakes are fixed

about 3 metres apart in the manner of an obtuse-angled V each arm

of which is about 275 to 375 metres long. Behind the angle of the V

a U-shaped row of stakes is fixed to look as if the V is resting on

the U with the opening towards the land. The U-shaped row known

as the chouhandra or chonda is about 90 to 140 metres long and

has stakes more closely arranged. The above work is generally com-

pleted by the co-operative effort of at least 25 to 30 persons who own

the nets and share the catches.

The net used is made of 8 to 10 ply 16 or 20 counts thread or of

hemp. It is divided into 3 parts called the cuna jalo or chuna jalo

at the two free ends followed by manhya jalo or naya jale with

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FISHING METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION — 269

mal jalo with an arm 300 metres long, the cuna jalo will be about

140 metres long of 8 or 10 ply 10 counts yarn starting with 10 cm.

mesh which gradually reduces to 7 cm. where the nanhya jalo begins.

The latter will be about 120 metres long of 6 or 8 ply 10 counts

yarn with the mesh diminishing to 5 cm. where it meets the santiya

jalo. The santiya jalo is of 4 to 6 ply 10 counts yarn and will be

about 46 metres long up to the angle with the mesh rapidly

diminishing to 1.3 cm. The chouhandra jalo behind the main mal

jalo has 1.3 cm. mesh throughout of 8 ply 10 counts yarn and is

about 1.2 to 1.5 metres wide. There is a progressive increase in

the width of the main mal jalo beginning from 1 metre at the tip of

the cuna jalo on the shore seine increasing to 4.6 metres seaward

to the angle of the net.

The nets are tied to the stakes when the tide is low with the

ground rope closed to the bottom and at the highest tide they are

completely submerged with the tops of the poles here and there marking

the lay out of the whole contraption. Fish cross over unsuspectingly

and sometimes the men go in boats and any shoals sighted are

driven into the fenced area. When the water recedes during low tides

the fish get gilled or trapped and these are collected by the

participating fishermen and shared among them. |

The net is operated from November to March and actual fishing

takes place only during spring tides, i.e. about 5 days before and 5

days after the full moon and the new moon which works out to

about 10 days in a lunar month. When it is found that water is not

high enough to submerge the nets and impound the fish, they are

removed and the necessary repairs attended to.

Fish Drives (Pl. XII, fig. 14)

During the winter and summer months large shoals of hilsa fre-

quent the estuaries of the Mahanadi and the Dhamra rivers and

they are caught by collective fish drives by large groups of fishermen

who gather together at vantage points carrying their nets in their

“dongyas’ with the ‘hulis’ towed behind. A ‘dongya’ is a plank-built

flat-bottomed boat about li metres long and 1.8 to 2 metres broad

with a hood to accommodate about 6 persons. A ‘hull’ is a narrow

dug-out canoe about 6 to 9 metres long and 45 to 55 cm. broad

and, on account of its lightness, shallow draught, and _ easy

manceuvreability even by a single person, is used for quick local trans-

portation. Two kinds of nets are used, the chondi jalo with 7.5 cm.

and 9 cm. mesh and chawk jalo with 5 cm. mesh. The breadth

of the net ranges from 6 to 9 metres, while the desired length is made

up by joining several pieces together, The head rope has wooden

270 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol. 36 (2)

floats and the foot rope brick sinkers covered with old netting. All

nets are made of hemp. :

Much time is taken to decide on the commencement of the fishing

operations. This involves considerable waiting, consultations,

arguments, recriminations, and deliberations with frequent lapses of

complacency coupled with morbid inactivity. The fishermen are ex-

tremely superstitious and they wait for auspicious signs to start fishing

even if it entails waiting for weeks together! ' :

In spite of all this, once the decision is taken to conduct fishing,

the scene gets changed to one of busy activity. A stretch of the

river to be fished 2 to 4 miles long, depending on the strength of

the fishing party, is selected and at the upper limit stakes are driven

across the river and two layers of medium-meshed nettings are

fastened to them to block any movement of the fish further upward.

All side creeks and channels are likewise screened to prevent the

escape of fish into them. Scores of fishermen, usually running into

two or three hundred, collect together with their nets at the lower

limit of the fishing stretch in their dongyas and hulis and drive in

with the rising tide all the fish in the vicinity into the area to be

fished and then throw across the river several layers of net completely

blocking the passage of fish in any direction. The width of the net

is adjusted in relation to the depth of water and the foot rope with

the sinkers reaches the bed of the river and the head ropes are supported

by boats above the water line. With boats in front and boats behind

and men on the two banks, the dragging commences amidst lots of

shouting, splashing of water, and display of enthusiasm, rising to a

frenzied pitch in which both young and old join. In case the whole

stretch cannot be covered within one flow tide the nets are fastened

to stakes driven in across the river in two or three rows each several

metres apart to prevent too much pressure on a single wall of net,

and all activity is temporarily suspended till the commencement of the

next flow tide as it is very difficult to drag the net against the current.

Generally not more than two flow tides in all are required for the

completion of the operations.

* Once I had the occasion to see a large contingent of fishermen near Hadakal at

Kujang in the Mahanadi with a fleet of over 50 dongyas and 20 hulis waiting ina

creek for weeks together for fishing. The water in front of them was teeming with

shoals of hilsa and when the men were asked why they did not'start fishing they said

that the auspicious sign has not been received and that it was reported that another

group of fishermen camping somewhere else has done ‘ karab mantara ’ (black magic)

against them and as such they did not expect any success until the evil effects had

been counteracted. Some days later when they were told that another group (not

the group responsible for the alleged ‘ black magic’) a few miles away made a heavy

catch of hilsa they replied with almost fatalistic resignation : ‘Did we not tell you that

we are undera spell. All the fish have been attracted away and there is no reason

why we should spoil our nets and exert ourselves unnecessarily.’

SSS

FISHING METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION 271

The moving wall of net is gradually brought closer and closer to

the fixed one at the upper limit and due to the congestion of the

fish within a limited area the water presents the appearance of a

seething mass of fish. Open dongyas are brought into the enclosure

and the fish are collected in baskets and dip nets and transferred

into them.’

3. Assam?

The Brahmaputra River before its confluence with the Ganges flows

through Assam and hilsa is known to ascend as far as Dibrugarh,

though it forms a sizeable fishery only in the western districts of

Goalpara and Kamrup. It is fished in the Barak also which flows

into the Meghna in the south. All the rivers of Assam flow into

East Bengal (Pakistan) and in the border districts of these States the

fishing methods should be similar.

Clap nets

Sangla jal. Same as the shangla jal of W. Bengal described already

(Pl. I, fig. 1 5). The bamboo frames of the mouth are 6 to 7.5

metres long and the bag is 3 to 4 metres at the widest portion. It

ig made of 9 to 10 ply 40 count yarn and the mesh is 12 to 15 cm.

This is operated two at a time from the layer pansi nauka or

one at a time from the smaller-sized kosa nauka.

Kami jal or ilishi jal or sharki jal (P|. XIII, fig. 15 5)’. This is similar

to the karki jal of Bengal. The bamboo frame is 4.5 to 6 metres

long with the bag about 4 metres at the broadest point and some-

what conical. The net is made of 7-8 ply 20 counts yarn or 9-10

—

1 Once the fishing is over, boats laden with fish are moored in the open near

the fishing colony and the whole company retires for rest sometimes not even

worrying about the immediate and timely disposal of the fish that might other-

wise get tainted quickly under the tropical conditions. It is even said the middlemen

who generally buy the fish for curing purposes know fully well the psychology of

the fishermen and do not hasten to purchase the fish so that they can purchase the

stuff ultimately at lower rates. I was informed that on one occasion the men rested

too long and the whole catch got so putrified that there was no offer at all from the

middlemen and the lot was thrown back into the river with an almost stoic philoso-

phical attitude saying ‘ What we got from the river we consign back to the river ’!

I had the opportunity to witness one fish drive in the Mahanadi near the village

of Tikhri. There were in all about 25 dongyas, 10 hulis, and about 150 men exclud-

ing children. There was a catch of about 400 maunds (1 md. = 82°28 Ibs.) of fish.

Two weeks previously about 640 maunds were caught in the same locality by the

same group.

2 Some of the hilsa fishing methods in the Brahmaputra and the Barak are

described in a ‘ Note on the Hilsa Fisheries of Assam’ by T. V.R. Pillay and A.N.

Ghosh (1958, JBNH'S 55 (1): 174-177) that was published while this article was in press.

Photographs of the clap net sanglo jal and the dip net firki jal or hafa jal are given.

The latter appears to be similar to the dui-tuni jal of Assam described in the present

article (p. 272) and the hefa jal or hafa jal of East Bengal (see Part II of this paper

— still to be published). The kona jal (p. 257) and the jagat ber jal (p. 257) and

a wide-mouthed cast net known as garua ilihi are also reported to be in use there.

3° My thanks are due to Mr. S. R. Ahamed, Central Inland Fisheries Trainee

(1955-56) from Assam, for the particulars of kami jal,

272 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

ply 40 counts yarn with about !2 to 15 cm. mesh. The mouth of

the frame when fully opened is about 2 to 2.4 metres wide. A

bamboo pole is fixed to the lower frame of the net and is lowered

to about 1.5 to 2 metres of water leaving about 1/3 of the opening

above the water line. The net is held at the prow of a boat by one

man and another person guides it as it drifts with the current. The

disturbance caused by the entry of a fish is sensed by the person

holding the net and the bamboo pole is pulled up closing the mouth

of the net and imprisoning the fish. The net is operated in the

Brahmaputra when the river is in flood.

The chairon jal and funga jal used in the Barak in the Sylhet-

Catchar area are reported to be the same as the shangla jal with

minor local modifications. The funga jal also known as honga jal

is generally used for catching large-sized fishes.

Dui tuni jal (Pl. XIU, fig. 15 a). This is a lift net similar to the

bhahali jal but with the collapsible frame. It consists of a Y-shaped

frame of 2 bamboo poles, one about 6 metres long and the other about

4 metres long. The smaller pole is movably tied with a rope to the

longer one the free end serving as the handle. A short tightening

rope from the middle of the left arm of the frame is tied to the

handle to keep the two arms apart. The tips of the two arms re-

main about 1.5 metres apart. A triangular bag-like netting about

4 metres long made of 7 to 8 ply 20 counts yarn or 9 to 10 ply 40 counts

yarn with 10 to 12 cm. mesh is tied to the frame. From the middle

of the bag a feeler cord is taken to the handle to be held by the

person operating the net. The net is operated from the prow of a

boat (Pl. XIII, fig. 15 a) which drifts with the current. Two other per-

sons help to guide the boat and handle the catches. When the presence

of a fish inside the net is felt through the feeler cord, the tightening

rope is relaxed and the frame collapses trapping the fish inside. The

net is then lifted up and the catch is removed. Some nets do not

have a feeler cord and a portion of the net will be lifted up and held

by the little finger of the left hand.

_ The net is operated in the Brahmaputra when the river is in flood.

Patt onet

Bhahali jal (Pl. XIV, fig. 16).* In principle this is drifting push net

of the lever type. It is a large bag net attached to a Y-shaped frame

supported by a short forked pole at the base and operated from a

boat drifting with the current. The net is generally of cotton of 12

*My thanks are due to Mr. S. R. Ahamed, Central Inland Fisheries Trainee

(1955-56) from Assam, for.the particulars of dui tuni jal.

* My thanks are due to Mr. Surendra Nath Das, Central Inland Fisheries Trainee

(1955-56) from Assam for the particulars of the bhahali jal,

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AIX ALY 1d

FISHING METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION — 273

ply No. 40 counts and of 6 to 9 cm. mesh. The longest pole of the

Y-shaped frame is about 5.5 metres long, the shorter one about 4.5

metres, and the forked basal pole about 1.5 metres. The two large

poles are fixed by a nail or jute rope and the forked pole tied across

gives rigidity to the frame. The mouth of the net is shaped like a

parallelogram with the longest side about 5 metres, the shortest about

1.2 metres, and the equal sides about 3 metres each. One lb. of

No. 40 thread is sufficient to make a net which is used untanned.

The net is operated from a boat by two men of whom one will be

at the helm rowing and directing the boat which drifts with the

current. The second man remains at the prow with the net held

below water in a nearly vertical position as shown in the figure.

The free portion of the frame at the base is held by the right hand

and the left arm of the frame is supported by the left hand which

also takes hold with its little finger of a mesh of the baggy portion of

the net. The quiver caused in the net by the entry of a fish is

transmitted to the little finger and the net is raised’ with

the prow of the boat serving as the pivot.

The net is used in the Brahmaputra from Dubri to Gauhati

from June to October but the peak season is June to August when

the river is in flood. The distance covered by a boat each time

is about a mile. It is then taken back to the starting place and the

process is repeated.

4. Bihar!

The Ganges River flows through Bihar receiving a few large

tributaries like the Sone and the Gandak before it. enters the deltaic

region in Bengal. Most of the hilsa catches are from the main

Ganges and the most important net employed is the sungail.

Clap net

Sungail jal or sungla jal or hilsauri. This is the same as the

shangla jal of West Bengal (PI. I, fig. | b). The net is 9 metres by 4.5

metres with 10 cm. mesh and is operated all the year round. A

boat about 7 metres long with a crew of 2 or 3 persons is used for

fishing with this net. |

Gill net

Dendi jal or dandi jal. This is a simple piece of netting of

2.5 cm. mesh about 2.5 metres long with two bamboo pieces along

the two sides. Two persons each holding one side of the bamboo

——

+T am indebted to Mr. C. P. Varma, Fisheries Development Officer, Bihar, for the

information given here on the hilsa fishing methods.

974. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

vertically in the water move or swim close to the bank in the direction

of the current and any ascending fish that get gilled are removed. The

net is operated from July to October when the river is in spate and

hilsa fish are frequently caught.

Sicamie nied 7

Joha jal. This is a large hempen round haul net of 5 cm.

mesh, 90 to 1200 metres long and 3 to 4 metres broad with a bag

about 4.6 metres deep and about 3 metres wide at the mouth. It is

operated from December to April in the wide and deep stretches of the

river with the help of 7 boats, each 7 to 8 metres long, by about 30 to

40 men.

Divi, mest

Bisari jal. This is a small-meshed (1.3 cm.) dip net about 5 metres

long operated from a boat, presumably similar to the bhahali jal of

Assam, and is used practically all the year round. |

5. Uttar Pradesh'

Among the rivers in the Uttar Pradesh, from the hilsa fishery point

of view, only the Ganges is of importance, the quantity caught in

the Jamuna and the Gogra being comparatively negligible. The re-

gular fishery extends up to Allahabad. The usual method of fishing

is by the clap net known as the kamail jal.

Clap net

Kamail jal. This is the same as the sungail jal of Bihar and the

shangla jal of West Bengal (PI. I, fig. 1 5).

Drag Deets

Maha jal. This is a large drag net operated with the help of

boats in the Ganges. The total length of the net varies from 450 to

650 metres and is composed of pieces measuring 14 metres x4.5 to 6

metres, the mesh of which will be 2.5 to 6 cm. Empty tins and dried

pumpkins are used as floats and baked clay sinkers are attached to

the bottom. 30 to 40 fishermen are required for the operation of the

net. The net is employed all the year round except when the river

is in flood. All kinds of fishes including hilsa are caught.

1] am indebted to Dr. V. G. Jhingran, Research Officer, Central Inland Fisheries

Research Station, Allahabad, and to Dr. D.S. Sarbahi, Deputy Director of Fisheries,

Lucknow, for the information furnished on the hilsa fishing methods in Uttar Pradesh.

Figure 23 is after a sketch kindly sent by Dr. M.P. Motwani, Research Officer,

Central Inland Fisheries Research Station.

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FISHING METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION — 275

Chhanta jal or chhata jal. This is a shore seine with two

rows of pockets along the lower portion of the net used for catching

all kinds of fishes including hilsa. The net is composed of 20 to

22 pieces each measuring 10 metres X 5 metres and is made of cotton

thread. The mesh generally varies from 5 to 6 cm. while during the

rainy season it is 10 cm. 10 to 15 men are required for its opera-

tion. The net is used all the year round. |

Barrier Fishing

Bandal (P|. XV, fig. 17). The bandal method of fishing is employed

in Allahabad and its neighbourhood (Kaushiva 1952). In areas where

the river takes a turn or in places where it bifurcates, bamboo fencing

is constructed in the form of a V with one arm longer and curved

towards the shore side. Hilsa coming up against the current con-

gregate in the angle and they are removed by the help of a scoop

net or Ifft net called ghauch operated from a machan or platform.

When a scoop net is operated from boat it is called ‘gharia ka ghauch’.

(To be continued)

\ j

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Lectotypes of the species and varieties

described by Blatter and Hallberg in

their ‘ Flora of the Indian Desert ’

H. SANTAPAU, S.J., F.N.I.

E. Blatter and F. Hallberg gave an account of their exploration

of the Indian Desert from the neighbourhood of Jodhpur and

Jaisalmer in the Journal, from 1918 onwards; in their papers they

described a number of new species or new varieties. But in general

they mentioned several, at times many, specimens as coming under

the new taxon, without specifically stating which was the type of

their new taxon from among the many specimens cited.

This method of naming new taxa is strongly deprecated by the

International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, ed. 1956; Article 7

of the Code lays down: ‘. .. the application of names of taxa of the

rank of order or below is determined by means of nomenclatural

types. A nomenclatural type (typus) is that constituent element of a

taxon to which the name of the taxon is permanently attached,

whether as an accepted name or as a synonym.’ Under Note 3 of

the same Article 7, it is stated: ‘If no holotype has been indicated

by the author who described a taxon, or when the holotype is lost

or destroyed, a substitute for it may be chosen, unless its name must

already be rejected under this Code. The author who makes this

choice must be followed unless his choice is superseded under the

provisions of Art. 8. The substitute may be either a lectotype or

a neotype. A lectotype always takes precedence over a neotype. A

lectotype is a specimen or other element selected from the original

material to serve as nomenclatural type when the holotype was not

designated at the time of publication or for so long as it is missing.’

The 1956 edition of the Code lays such emphasis on the type, that

under Art. 35 it is stated: ‘Publication on or after 1 January

1958 of the name of a new taxon of recent plants of the rank of

order or below is valid only when the nomenclatural type is

indicated .. .. This means that it is not enough to mention in the

original description that the specimen was collected, e.g. in Khandala,

by Santapau, on the 15 January 1959, and that the specimen is kept in

LECTOTYPES FOR ‘FLORA OF THE INDIAN DESERT’ 554

Blatter Herbarium, Bombay: categorically it must be stated that the

type is e.g. Santapau 12560. If the type is not indicated, publication

of the new taxon, even if it be done in Latin, is not valid. Recom-

mendation 35 A adds: ‘When the nomenclatural type of a new

taxon is a specimen, the place where it is permanently conserved

should be indicated’: this is only a recommendation; the indication of

the precise specimen that constitutes the type is not a recommenda-

tion, but a categorical rule or order. Many of our Indian botanists

do not seem to understand the meaning of this Article 35; this is

why I have gone into some details in the matter.

Whilst going through the Rajasthan specimens of Blatter and

Hallberg, many of which are preserved in Blatter Herbarium, Bombay,

I found most of the sheets on which Blatter and Hallberg based their

new species or varieties. in some cases Blatter left lengthy notes with

the specimen, showing that his original description was based on

that particular specimen. In such cases there is little difficulty about

the election of the lectotype; in most cases, however, they left nothing

but an indication on the specimen that the plant is a new species or

a new variety.

In the following list, I have selected the lectotype in accordance

with the provisions of the International Code, after careful considera-

tion of the descriptions given by the authors and examination of all

the specimens cited in the original description. A few specimens are not

to be found in Blatter Herbarium; their absence cannot be explained

except on the supposition that the specimens may in the course. of

time have been completely damaged and discarded! I have been in-

formed by those who often accompanied Blatter in field expeditions,

that the latter did not pay too much attention to careful pressing and

preservation of specimens at the time of coilection; when preparing

the final description of his plants, he did study them carefully, and

often remounted them after softening them in hot water. It is

possible that some specimens may have been much damaged in the

process of softening.

LECTOTYPES OF THE NEw TAXA

1. Abutilon indicum var. maior Blatt. & MHallb. in Journ.

Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 26: 226, 1918. Only one specimen is

mentioned by the authors, which automatically becomes the holotype:

there is no need of selecting a lectotype. The holotype is Blatt. &

Hallb. 5644. :

2. Abutilon fruticosum var. chrysecarpa Blatt. & Hallb. loc. cit.:

227, 1918. Here again only one specimen was mentioned by the

278 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

authors, and this automatically becomes the holotype: Blatt. & Hallb.

5660.

3. Pavonia arabica var. glutinosa Blatt. & Hallb. loc. cit.: 227,

1918. Four specimens are cited by the authors, Blatt. & Hallb. 5667,

5668, 5669, 5685. Of these, no. 5669 bears on the label the indica-

tion ‘var. noy.’ with the details ‘tota planta cooperta pubescentia

viscosa’. This specimen, Blatt. & Hallb. 5669, collected in Oct.

1917 at Kailana near Jodhpur, ‘is hereby selected as the lectotype of

the variety. .

4. Melhania futteyporensis Munro var. maior (Blatt. & Hallb.)

Santapau, comb. nov. M. tomentosa Stocks var. maior Blatt. & Hallb.

loc: >. cif229228 = 0Ows..

Blatter himself in this Journal (34: 883, 1931) united Melhania

tomentosa Stocks with M. futteyporensis Munro, following Parker in

For. Fl. Punjab 47, 1918. The variety must then be shifted, as it is

being done herein.

Blatter and Hallberg mentioned three specimens as their original

material, Blatt. & Hallb. 7286, 7295, 7296, collected from Barmer

near Jodhpur in November 1917. Blatt. & Hallb. 7286 is hereby

selected as the lectotype of the variety, the specimen being in better

condition than the others and showing details of flowers and fruits.

5. Melhania magnifolia Blatt. & Hallb. loc. cit.: 228, 1918. Of

the three specimens cited by the authors, Blatt. & Hallb. 7279, 7280,

and 7285, the last, i.e. Blatt. & Hallb. 7285 is selected herein as the

lectotype, the specimen being the most complete of the set, and

agreeing better with the original description.

6. Psoralea odorata Blatt. & Hallb. loc. cit.: 238, 1918. Of the

four specimens cited by the authors, Blatt. & Hallb. 7002-7005, I

select 7005 as the lectotype.

7. Tephrosia multiflora Blatt. & Hallb. loc. cit.: 239, 1918. Two

specimens were cited by the authors, Blatt. & Hallb. 6974 and 6975;

of these Blatt. & Hallb. 6974 is hereby selected as the lectotype; the

original sheet bears a lengthy description by the authors, showing

that this was the specimen on which their description was mainly

based.

8. Tephrosia incana var. horizontalis Blatt. & Hallb. loc cit.:

239, 1918.

Two specimens were cited by the authors, Blatt. & Hallb. 6976,

6977; of these 6977 bears a detailed description, showing that this

LECTOTYPES FOR ‘FLORA OF THE INDIAN DESERT’ 279

was the original sheet on which the description of the new variety

was based. I select Blatt. & Hallb. 6977 as the lectotype of the

variety horizontalis.

9. Tephrosia petrosa Blatt. & Hallb. loc. cit.: 239, 1918.

The following specimens were cited in the original description:

Blatt. & Hallb. 6965-6966, 6968-6973. None of the specimens at

present in Blatter Herbarium are in perfect condition, and this is

probably due to the hurried way in which they were pressed in the

first instance; however, Blatt. & Hallb. 6969 is in somewhat better

condition than the rest, and is hereby selected as the lectotype of the

species.

10. Alysicarpus monilifer var. venosa Blatt. & Hallb. loc. cit.: 240,

1918.

Two specimens were cited by the authors, Blatt. & Hallb. 7225,

7226; of these the latter bears a short typed note giving details of the

variety. I select Blatt. & Hallb. 7226 as the lectotype of the variety

venosa.

11. Rhynchosia rhombifolia Blatt. & Hallb. loc. cit.: 242, 1918.

Of the three specimens cited by the authors, Blatt. & Hallb. 6947,

6948, 6949, only one is preserved in Blatter Herb., no. 6948, which

is hereby selected as the lectotype of the species. The sheet in Blatt.

Herb. bears the indication ‘spec. nov. in MHallberg’s hand, and

‘rhombifolia Blatt. & Hallb. in Blatter’s own hand.

12. Rhynchosia arenaria Blatt. & Hallb. loc. cit.: 243, 1918.

Four specimens were cited by the authors, Blatt. & Hallb. 6942,

6943, 6945, 6994; none of these specimens shows anything but leaves;

the fruits described by the authors seem to have disappeared from

the specimens. Blatt. & Hallb. 6942 is hereby selected as the lecto-

type of the species.

13. Anogeissus rotundifolia Blatt. & Hallb. loc. cit.: 523, 1919,

Two specimens were cited by the authors, Blatt. & Hallb. 6594,

6595, of which only 6594 is preserved in Blatt. Herb. and is hereby

selected as the lectotype of the species.

14. Trianthema decandra Linn. var. rubra (Blatt. & Hallb.)

Santapau, comb. nov. Tr. pentandra auct. non Linn. var. rudra

Blatt. & Hallb. loc. cit.: 530, 1919.

The authors cited numerous specimens with the original descrip-

tion; Blatt. & Hallb. 6770-6778, 6782-6787; of these Blatt. & Hallb.

6772 bears an indication in Hallberg’s hand ‘(Var I n)’; this specimen

is hereby selected as the lectotype of the variety.

280 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

15. Trianthema decandra Linn. var. flava (Blatt. & Hallb.)

Santapau, comb. nov. Jr. pentandra auct. non Linn. var. flava Blatt.

& Hallb. loc. cit.: 531, 1919.

Two specimens were cited by the authors, Blatt. & Hallb. 6788,

6789; both specimens seem to have disappeared from Blatter Herb.

The plant is here mentioned to adjust the nomenclature of the same.

16. Pulicaria rajputanae Blatt. & Hallb. loc. cit.: 535, 1919.

The following specimens are cited with the original description:

Blatt. & Hallb. 10039, 10043-10046, 10048-10053. No. 10039 bears

a label in the hand of Blatter with a lengthy and detailed description

by the same author; this sheet, Blatt. & Hallb. 10039, is hereby

selected as the lectotype of the species.

17. Glossocardia setosa Blatt. & Hallb. loc. cit.: 536, 1919.

Several specimens are cited by the authors, but only one, Blatt. &

Hallb. 10083, is preserved in Blatt. Herb., identified by Blatter

himself; this specimen is hereby selected as the lectotype of the species.

18. Convolvulus densiflorus Blatt. & Hallb. loc. cit.: 545, 1919.

Of the three specimens cited by the authors, only Blatt. & Hallb.

3515, is preserved in Blatter Herb. and is herein selected as the

lectotype of the species. The label on the sheet is in Blatter’s hand;

at first the plant was identified as Convolvulus rhyniospermus Hochst.,

which identification was corrected by Blatter himself to ‘densiflorus

spec. nov.’.

19. Anticharis glandulosa Aschers. var. coerulea Blatt. & Hallb.

hom. nud.; cum descriptione hic data a Santapau.

When the original name was published in the Journ. Bombay

Nat. Hist. Soc. 26: 549, 1919, the authors gave no description of

the variety, other than ‘var. coerulea var. nov.’.

Here is the description of the variety:

Accedit ad speciem typicam, a qua tamen differt colore coeruleo

florum. Typus varietatis a Blatt. & Hallb. nullus lectus est; ideo

lectotypus hic a me seligitur Blatt. & Hallb. 10284 lectus in loco

saxoso ad Jaisalmer mense novembri anni 1917 et positus in Blatt.

Herbario. |

This variety approaches the typical species in most details, but

differs particularly by the blue colour of its flowers. Blatter &

Hallberg did not select any type of the variety; a lectotype, Blatt. &

Hallb. 10284, is herein selected; the specimen was collected on rocky

ground near Jaisalmer in November, 1917 and is kept in Blatt. Herb.

The variety flowers and fruits in the month of November.

LECTOTYPES FOR ‘FLORA OF THE INDIAN DESERT’ 281

20. Aerva pseudo-tomentosa Blatt. & Hallb. loc. cit.: 817, 1919.

In Blatter Herb. there is a large number of sheets of the original

material on which this species was based by the authors. The sheets

are all labelled in Blatter’s hand as Aerua rajputanae Blatt. & Hallb.;

the correct name, however, is the one published in 1919. Blatt. &

Hallb. 5962, collected at Jaisalmer in Nov. 1917 is hereby selected as

the lectotype of the species.

21. Euphorbia jodhpurensis Blatt. & Hallb. loc. cit.: 971, 1919.

Only one specimen was cited by the authors in their original

description, which thereby becomes the holotype of the species, Blatt.

& Hallb. 9228.

REFERENCES

Blatter, E. & Hallberg, F. (1918-19): Lanjouw, J. et al. (Edit.) (1956): Inter-

The Flora of the Indian Desert (Jodh- national Code of Botanical Nomen-

pur and Jaisalmer). JBNHS 26: 218- clature adopted by the Eighth Inter-

248, tt. 1-12, 1918; 525-551, tt. 13-25; national Botanical Congress, Paris,

811-818, tt. 26-31, 1919. July, 1954. Utrecht, 1956.

The Flora of the Scrub Jungles of

Madras State

K. A. SHANKARANARAYAN, AND M. V. DABHOLKAR

Institut Francais, Pondicherry

Scrub jungles are open thickets with gnarled trees of small girth

and poor density, usually associated with thorny bushes forming a

distinctive type which is maintained by excessive biotic exploitation.

In Madras State they are generally confined to the plains at the foot of

or sometimes on the gently undulating slopes of hills hardly exceeding

1000 ft. They are common in the districts of Chingleput, North and

South Arcot, Tiruchirapalli, Tirunelveli, and less so in Salem and

Coimbatore districts. 3

The climate is tropical with a mean annual rainfall of 46” (about

53” in tracts near sea-coasts) and the mean annual temperature is 82°F.

Geologically speaking the greater part of these areas is covered

with an archaean rock of the gneiss family. The soils may be classified

into three groups namely the black or regar, red ferruginous, and

arenaceous, which may again be subdivided into clays, loams, and sands,

The most fertile of them are the black earths (especially the loam),

the next best the red kind, and the worst the sands. The last is

generally found towards strips of land along the coasts, where

casuarina and cashew are grown. The soil in the majority of the

scrub jungles is the red ferruginous type.

These scattered scrub jungles which are the result of anthropogenic

ravages support a sparse vegetation. The number of species en-

countered is also very meagre. Where there exists slight protection

the interesting trees met with are: Acacia latronum, Dichrostachys

cinerea, Dolichandrone falcata, Aegle marmelos, Albizzia amara,

Diospyros chloroxylon, Azadirachta indica, and so forth. Other

shrubs which are quite frequent are: Securinega leucopyrus, Randia

dumetorum, Carissa spinarum, Gmelina asiatica, Maba buxifolia,

Zizyphus mauritiana, and Euphorbia antiquorum. Cassia auriculata,

Clausena dentata, Azima_ tetracantha, Cadaba farinosa, Capparis

grandis, Capparis sepiaria, Capparis divaricata are not uncommon.

At certain times of the year the woods are brightened by the hand-

some laburnum-like flowers of Cassia fistula, or the brilliant red

THE FLORA: OF THE SCRUB JUNGLES OF MADRAS STATE _ 283

pods of Prerolobium indicum or the amber-coloured flowers of

Opuntia dillenii.

The notable climbers that may be looked for in these jungles are:

Cissus quadrangularis, Sarcostemma acidum, Asparagus racemosus,

Cocculus hirsutus, Ceropegia juncea, Melothria maderaspatana,

Marsdenia volubilis, Tylophora indica, Ichnocarpus frutescens, and the

parasitic Cassytha filiformis. It will be seen that most of these plants

exhibit xerophytic adaptations.

Grass is very scanty but becomes fairly dense only during the

short moist season, otherwise the bare soil is exposed. Grasses

commonly found are: Aristida hystrix, Aristida funiculata, Gracilea

royleana, Perotis indica, Heteropogon contortus, Bothriochloa pertusa.

Enumerated below are the plants arranged family-wise according

to Bentham and Hooker’s system. The authors have tried their best

to give the latest nomenclature. The herbarium specimens are

preserved in Institut Francais, Pondicherry. The vernacular names

in Tamil are given in brackets after the scientific name.

MENISPERMACEAE

1. Cocculus hirsutus Diels. (Kattukkodi). A common climber in

the jungle.

CAPPARIDACEAE

_ 2. Cadaba_ farinosa Forsk. (Kattugatti). A straggling much-

branched shrub.

3. Capparis divaricata Lam. (Thurattu). A shrub.

4. Capparis grandis Linn. A tree, quite frequent in scrub jungles.

5. Capparis sepiaria Linn. A wiry branching spreading shrub in

shaded areas.

6. Capparis spinosa Linn. A spreading much-branched shrub.

7. Capparis stylosa DC. A small spinous tree. Not uncommon.

8. Capparis zeylanica Linn. (C. horrida Linn. f.) (Adondai). A

shrubby climber.

9. Cleome chelidonii Linn. f. A herb.

10. Cleome felina Linn. f. A herb.

11. Cleome viscosa Linn. An erect herb.

12. Maerua arenaria Hook. A woody climber.

o> mr,

rcs

BIXACEAE

13. Flacourtia indica (Burm. f.) Merr. (Chottaikala). A spiny shrub

quite common, 7

284 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 36 (2)

VIOLACEAE

14. lonidium suffruticosum Ging. A prostrate herb.

CARYOPHYLLACEAE

15. Polycarpaea corymbosa Lam. A herb usually growing in the

crevices of rocks. |

16. Polycarpaea diffusa W. & A. A herb growing in sandy areas.

PORTULACACEAE

17. Portulaca quadrifida Linn. A herbaceous annual.

MALVACEAE

18. Hibiscus micranthus Linn. (Ciramutli). An erect shrubby herb.

19. Pavonia odorata Willd. (Avibattam). An erect herb.

20. Sida schimperiana Hochst. A woody rather prostrate profusely

branching herb.

STERCULIACEAE

21. Waltheria indica Linn. An erect herb.

TILIACEAE

22. Grewia hirsuta Vahl. Quite common small shrub in the

jungles.

23. Grewia orientalis Linn. A shrub common in scrub jungles.

24. Grewia damine Gaertn. Large woody shrub common on hills.

25. Triumfetta bartramia Linn. (T. rhomboida Jacq.). An annual

shrubby herb. Not common.

26. Triumfetta rotundifolia Lamk. A shrubby herb in scrub jungle.

LINACEAE

27. Erythroxylon monogynum Roxb. (Cembulicham). A shrubby

small tree.

28. Hugonia mystax Linn. A large rambling shrub quite common

in the scrub jungle.

RUTACEAE

29. Aegle marmelos Correa. (Aluvigam). A small deciduous tree.

Very occasional.

30. Atalantia monophylla Correa. (Katunaragam). A medium-sized

thorny tree.

31. Atalantia racemosa W. & A. (Kattuelumichai). A middle-sized

tree.

THE FLORA OF THE SCRUB JUNGLES OF MADRAS STATE — 285

32. Clausena dentata (Willd.): R. & S. (C. willdenovii W. & A.).

A large shrub fairly common in jungles.

33. Feronia limonia (Linn.) Swingle. (F. elephantum Correa). A

large tree not frequent.

34. Glycosmis pentaphylla Correa. (G. cochinchinensis Pierre). A

shrub common in the scrub jungle.

35. Limonia acidissima W. & A. (Kurangu). A small spinous tree

very uncommon. .

36. Toddalia asiatica Lamk. (T. aculeata Pers.) (Milakaranai). A

slender common thorny shrub in the jungles.

BURSERACEAE

37. Protium caudatum W. & A. A deciduous tree very common

in the jungle.

38. Commiphora berryi Engl. A small tree quite frequent in scrub

jungles.

MELIACEAE

39. Azadirachta indica Juss. (Melia azadirachta Linn.)

(Veppumaram). Tree occasional in jungle.

40. Chloroxylon swietenia DC. (Burus). A tree quite abundant

in jungles.

OLACACEAE

_ 41. Olax scandens Roxb. (Malliveppan). A thorny rambling shrub

not common in the jungles.

CELASTRACEAE

42. Gymnosporia emarginata Laws. (Kattanci). A thorny shrub

quite frequent in scrub jungles.

43. Salacia macrosperma Wight. A_ diffuse rambling shrub, not

common in the jungles. :

RHAMNACEAE

44, Scutia myrtina Kurz. A straggling thorny shrub. Frequent.

45. Ventilago maderaspatana Gaertn. (Vembadan). A _ climbing

shrub common in hill jungle.

46. Zizyphus mauritiana Lam. (Z. jujuba Lam.). Large shrub or

small tree. |

47. Zizyphus oenoplia Mill. A _ straggling thorny shrub common

in scrub jungle.

48. Zizyphus trinervia Roxb. A small unarmed tree. Occasional.

49. Zizyphus xylopyra Willd. Moderate-sized tree or a large

straggling shrub. Quite frequent,

286 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

VITACEAE

50. Cissus quadrangularis Linn. (Vitis quadrangularis Wall.). A

climbing shrub with fleshy stem. Quite abundant in scrub jungles,

SAPINDACEAE

51. Cardiospermum halicacabum Linn. (Mudakkatram). A climber

in jungles.

52. Dodonaea viscosa Linn. (Virali). Stiff shrub quite common in

the scrub jungle.

ANACARDIACEAE

53. Anacardium occidentale Linn. (Mundiri). <A_ tree. Largely

planted by the Forest Department.

54. Buchanania lanzan Spreng. (B. latifolia Roxb.) (Kattuma). A

medium-sized tree.

55. Rhus mysorensis Heyne. A common small shrub.

PAPILIONACEAE

56. Abrus precatorius Linn. (Adimaduram). A twiner or climbing

shrub. Quite frequent in jungles.

57. Atylosia scarabaeoides Benth. A climber, not common.

58. Crotalaria fulva Roxb. A sbrub.

59. Cylista scariosa Ait. A woody twiner. Common on hill jungles.

60. Dalbergia spinosa Roxb. An erect spiny shrub common in

Tinnevelly and Trichy scrub jungles. |

61. Indigofera aspalathoides Vahl. (Civanarvembu). An_ under-

shrub common on sandy soils. : :

62. Phaseolus radiatus Linn. A _ twiner. —

63. Rhyncosia viscosa DC. A climber quite frequent in the jungles.

64. Stylosanthes mucronata Willd. A woody undershrub quite fre-

quent in scrub jungle near coastal areas.

65. Tephrosia purpurea Pers. (Kattukilinci). A shrubby herb

common in the jungle. r

CAESALPINIACEAE

66. Bauhinia racemosa Lamk. (Athi). A small tree, not infrequent.

67. Cassia auriculata Linn. (Avaram). <A tall shrub with beautiful

yellow flowers. Abundant in jungles. uy

68. Cassia fistula Linn. (Konnai). A middle-sized erect tree

familiarly called the Indian laburnum.

69. Cassia siamea Lamk. A low tree. Artificially regenerated

in scrub jungles by Forest Department. |

THE FLORA OF THE SCRUB JUNGLES OF MADRAS STATE — 287

70. Pterolobium indicum A. Rich. (Pilluthanaku). A very thorny

climbing shrub quite frequent in scrub jungles.

71. Tamarindus indica Linn. (Puli). A tree, rare in scrub jungle.

Escapes felling on account of its annual edible fruit.

MIMOSACEAE

72. Acacia arabica Willd. (Karuvelam). A small thorny tree.

Very common in jungles near villages.

73. Acacia caesia Willd. (Cingai). A woody prickly climber.

74. Acacia latronum Willd. (Anai mullu). A thorny tree quite

frequent in scrub jungles.

75. Acacia leucophloea Willd. (Velvelam). A thorny tree whose

bark is used for extraction of liquor.

76. Acacia planifrons W. & A. (Kudaivel). An umbrella-shaped

thorny tree. Common in scrub jungles of Ramnad District.

- 77. Albizzia amara Boiv. (Turingi). A tree quite frequent in the

jungle.

78. Albizzia lebbek Benth. Tree. Not common.

79. Dichrostachys cinerea W. & A. (Vidutharan). Thorny shrub

quite abundant in scrub jungles.

80. Mimosa pudica Linn. (Thottarccirungi). A spreading shrubby

herb familiarly called the ‘sensitive plant’.

81. Mimosa hamata Willd. A much-branched prickly — shrub.

Common in the jungles.

DROSERACEAE

82. Drosera burmanni Vahl. Herb with leaves arranged in tuft at

the base. The insectivorous plant.

COMBRETACEAE

83. Combretum ovalifolium Roxb. (Odaikkodi). A large scandent

shrub.

MYRTACEAE

84. Eucalyptus sp. A small tree. Planted in the scrub jungle at

Vridhachalam. =

MELASTOMACEAE

85. Memecylon edule Roxb. (Kasan). A large shrub common in

the scrub jungles.

CUCURBITACEAE

86. Corallocarpus epigaeus Hook. A thick-stemmed climber. Not

common in the jungles.

87, Melothria maderaspatana Cogn. A climber,

288 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

CACTACEAE

88. Opuntia dillenii Haw. (Chappatti). Stems growing in broad

clumps often forming dense thickets. i" .

FICOIDEAE (AIZOACEAE)

89. Mollugo disticha Ser. A herb not uncommon.

90. Mollugo nudicaulis Lam. (Parpadgam). Annual herb.

91. Mollugo pentaphylla Linn. Herb quite frequent.

92. Trianthema triquetra Rottl. A perennial herb. ‘Probably an

escape from ruderals.

CORNACEAE . : |

93. Alangium salvifolium Wang. (A. lamarckii Thw.). A. small

deciduous tree. Occasional. ;

RUBIACEAE

94. Borreria hispida K. Sch. An annuai herb.

95. Chomelia asiatica O. Kze. (Webera corymbosa ml 2

evergreen shrub quite frequent in the jungles.

96. Gardenia resinifera Roth. (Kumbai). A small tree. Not

uncommon.

97. Morinda citrifolia Linn. (Nuna). A small tree quite frequent

in jungles. | RA |

98. Morinda tinctoria Roxb. (Mancanarri). A small tree.

99. Pavetta indica Linn. (Pavattan). A large shrub quite occasional

in the jungles. ©

100. Canthium dicoccum (Gaertn.) Merr. (Canthium didymum

Gaertn.). A small tree not common. |

101. Canthium parviflorum Lamk. (Karai). A thorny shrub very

common.

102. Oldenlandia corymbosa Linn. Annual herb, not common.

103. Randia dumetorum Lamk. A small tree quite frequent in scrub

jungles.

104. Randia malabarica Lamk. (Mulpavattai). An erect shrub.

COMPOSITAE

105. Ageratum conyzoides Linn. Annual erect herb. A commonest

weed escaped into the jungle.

106. Vicoa indica DC. (V. auriculata Cass.). An erect herb, not

infrequent.

EBENACEAE

107. Diospyros chloroxylon Roxb. (Vakkanai). A middle-sized tree.

108, Maba buxifolia Pers. A shrub quite frequent in scrub jungles,

THE FLORA OF THE SCRUB JUNGLES OF MADRAS STATE 289

OLEACEAE

109. Jasminum arborescens Roxb. (Nagamalli). A large shrub not

uncommon in jungles.

110. Jasminum auriculatum Vahl. A climbing shrub.

111. Jasminum malabaricum Wight. An erect or subscandent shrub.

SALVADORACEAE

112. Azima tetracantha Lam. (Shanganchedi). A bushy thorny shrub.

Perhaps an escape from ruderals. 3

APOCYNACEAE

113. Carissa congesta Wight. (C. carandas auct. non set (Kala).

Large shrub with paired stout spines.

114. Carissa spinarum Linn. een, A large shrub. Red berries

edible.

115. Ichnocarpus frutescens Br. (Udargodi). An extensive climber.

ASCLEPIADACEAE’

116. Ceropegia bulbosa Roxb. A climber not common.

117. Calotropis gigantea Br. (Arikem). A large shrub quite common

in the scrub jungles.

118. Hemidesmus indicus Br. (Nannari). A twining or prostrate

wiry shrub. Very frequent in jungles. 7

119. Marsdenia volubilis Cooke. (Dregea volubilis Benth.). A large

climbing shrub. 3

120. Pentatropis microphylla W. & A. (Oppili). Climber.

121. Sarcostemma acidum (Roxb.) Voigt. (Koddikkalli), A shrub

with trailing leafless jointed branching stems. Very common on

Acacias.

122. Tylophora indica (Burn. f.) Merr. (7. asthmatica W. & A.). A

climber not uncommon.

LOGANIACEAE

123. Strychnos colubrina Linn. A lofty climber.

BORAGINACEAE

124. Cordia rothii Roem. & Sch. (Cirunaruvali). A small tree

occasional in jungles.

125. Ehretia microphylla Lam. (E. fa IUS Roxb.).. A small shrub

very common in jungle.

290 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

CONVOLVULACEAE

126. Ipomoea sepiaria Koen. A twiner, common in the jungle.

127. Ipomoea staphylina R. & S. (Onankodi). A large straggling

shrub.

128. Rivea hypocrateriformis Chois. (Pothukkirai). A common

climbing shrub.

SOLANACEAE

129. Solanum pubescens Willd. (Sunlai). A common shrub.

SCROPHULARIACEAE

130. Sopubia delphinifolia G. Don. An erect herb. Only in short

moist season.

131. Striga asiatica (Linn.) Q. Kze. (S. lutea Lour.). An erect rigid

slender herb. Not infrequent in jungles.

BIGNONIACEAE

132. Dolichandrone falcata Seem. (Kadalatti). A small tree common

in scrub jungle.

ACANTHACEAE

133. Lepidagathis cristata Willd. A stiff herb, the spreading branches

arising from a perennial underground plant.

134. Stenosiphonium confertum Nees. An erect shrub on the hill

jungles.

135. Barleria buxifolia Linn. An under shrub. Quite occasional.

136. Barleria prionitis Linn. A spinous shrub in shaded rocky tracts.

137. Blepharis boerhaaviaefolia Pers. An undershrub, not common.

VERBENACEAE

138. Gmelina asiatica Linn. A large shrub armed with blunt thorns.

Very common in scrub jungle.

139. Premna tomentosa Willd. A small tree quite frequent in

jungles.

LABIATAE

140. Anisomeles indica O. Kze. (A. ovata Br.). A shrubby herb, an

escape from ruderals.

141. Anisomeles malabarica R. Br. (Peymarutti). A shrubby herb.

142. Dysophylla myosuroides Benth. Herb. Not common.

THE FLORA OF THE SCRUB JUNGLES OF MADRAS STATE 291

143. Geniosporum prostratum Benth. A _ prostrate spreading herb

especially in sandy places.

144. Orthosiphon glabratus Benth. (O. tomentosa var. glabratus

Hook.). An erect herb.

ARISTOLOCHIACEAE

145. Aristolochia indica Linn. (Eswaramooli). A twining shrub.

Very common.

LAURACEAE

146. Cassytha filiformis Linn. A _ leafless parasitic climber very

frequent.

SANTALACEAE

147. Santalum album Linn. (Sandanum). A small tree. Very rare

in scrub jungle.

EUPHORBIACEAE

148. Acalypha alnifolia Kl. A small shrub.

149. Cleistanthus collinus Benth. (Odugan). A small tree frequent

in scrub jungles.

150. Euphorbia antiquorum Linn. (Kalli). A small thorny shrub

or tree. Abundant in jungles.

151. Securinega leucopyrus (Willd.) Muell. (F. leucopyrus Willd.)

(Mappulanti). A large stiff straggling shrub.

152. Jatropha glandulifera Roxb. A shrub common in low scrub

jungle.

URTICACEAE

153. Plecospermum spinosum Trecul. (Achingudi). A large rambling

shrub.

ORCHIDACEAE

154. Eulophia epidendraea Fischer. (E. virens Brown). Terrestrial

orchid with bulbous underground stem. Not common.

DIOSCOREACEAE

155. Dioscorea oppositifolia Linn. (Verrilaivalli). A large climber.

LILIACEAE

156. Asparagus racemosus Willd. A climbing much-branched spiny

shrub common in scrub jungle.

157. Gloriosa superba Linn. A climber with handsome flowers

scarlet and yellow. The root tuber is poisonous.

292 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

ERIOCAULACEAE

158. Eriocaulon sieboldianum Sieb. & Zucc. A low stemless tufted

annual confined only to wet places.

CYPERACEAE

159. Fimbristylis tristachya Thw. An annual herb.

160. Bulbostylis barbata (Rott.) Kunth. (Stenophyllus barbata Rott.).

A slender tufted herb.

GRAMINEAE ,“~

161. Eragrostis pilosa Beauv. Annual grass, conimon.

162. Eragrostis tremula Hochst. Annual, confined to coastal scrub

jungles.

163. Eragrostis willdenoviana Nees. Annual grass not common.

164. Eragrostis bifaria Wight. Very common perennial grass.

165. Heteropogon contortus Beauy. Perennial and occasional.

166. Manisuris granularis L. f. Annual grass not common.

167. Perotis indica O. Ktz. Very common grass in the jungles.

168. Bothriochloa pertusa A. Camus. A perennial grass.

169. Apluda varia Hack. (Mungil pillu). A grass in shade of trees.

170. Aristida funiculata Trin. & Rupr. Annual slender grass very

frequent in scrub jungles. |

171. Aristida hystrix Linn. A perennial grass quite common.

172. Aristida adscensionis Linn. Annual grass not infrequent.

SUMMARY

An account of the flora of the scrub jungles of Madras State is

presented. Enumeration is made of 153 species belonging to 51

families of Dicotyledons and 19 species belonging to six families of the

Monocotyledons.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors are thankful to Prof. P. Legris, Director, Institut

Francais, for giving all facilities and encouragement during the

course of the work. We also wish to express our gratefulness to Mr.

M. Viart for evincing keen interest in this study. We are highly

grateful to Rev. Father H. Santapau, $.J., for critically going through

the typescript and offering constructive suggestions.

REFERENCES

Hooker, J. D. (1897) : Flora of British Ranga Achariar, K. (1921): A hand-

India. Reeve & Co., Kent. book of South Indian Grasses. Govern-

Mayuranathan, P. V. (1929): The ment Press, Madras.

flowering plants of Madras City and its Raizada, M. B. (1958) : Name changes

immediate neighbourhood. Government in common Indian plants. Ind. For.

Press, Madras. - 84: 467-538.

Obituary

Lr.-CoL. E. G. PHYTHIAN-ADAMS

It is with great regret that we have to announce the death of

Lt.-Col. E. G. Phythian-Adams, 0.B.E., F.Z.S., an old member of our

Society. He had been ailing with a weak heart for the past tweive

months, and finally succumbed on 9 February in a hospital in Mysore,

aged 75 years and 6 months.

Lt.-Col. Phythian-Adams came out to India first in 1904 and

joined the South Wales Borderers, from which Regiment he later

transferred to the Madras Regiment. During 1916-17 he was Brigade

Major to the Southern Brigade at Wellington and later rejoined his

Regiment to proceed to Mesopotamia, where he was mentioned in

Despatches. During 1919-20 he was D.A.A.G. to Major-General

Burnett-Stuart during the period of the Moplah Rebellion. He retired

in 1924, following the disbandment of the Madras Regiment, and

settled down in Lovedale, a few miles outside Ootacamund, from

where he subsequently moved to Kalhatty where he had purchased a

home.

On the outbreak of the Second World War, though then over-age,

he volunteered his services again, and in July 1940 was placed in

charge of the Welfare of Indian Soldiers and their families throughout

the whole of the south of India, organising in addition the States and

Districts Soldiers’ Welfare Boards throughout the territory. For his

services in this connection he was awarded the O.B.E.

On his retirement again in 1945, he settled down in Kalhatty, a

few miles from Ootacamund, and was very closely associated with both

the Nilgiri Game Association and the Ex-Servicemen’s Reading

Room. A born naturalist-sportsman, with many fine trophies to his

credit, he aiso interested himself with collecting stamps, butterflies,

birds’ eggs, medals, and coins, though it was as a shikari-sportsman

that he was best known, his trophy room being visited and admired

by many.

Lt.-Col. Phythian-Adams first joined our Society as far back as

1909 and was a member of the Advisory Committee for many years,

and up to the time of his death. He was also a member of the

Madras State Wild Life Board from its inception.

In addition to his many interests and love of sport, he compiled

the following books on regimental history: THE MADRAS INFANTRY

294. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

1748-1943, THE MADRAS SOLDIER 1746-1946, and finally THE MADRAS

REGIMENT 1758-1958, which last he was just able to see published

during his lifetime, as also to be present at Wellington for the 200th

Anniversary of the Madras Regiment. His ‘Jungle Memories’

appeared in serial form in the journal of our Society [Vols. 48 (1) to

50 (3)].

Bric. S. T. APCAR

Reviews

1. AN INTRODUCTION TO BIOLOGY. By A. P. Mathew

and A. Raman. Revised Third Edition (Reprint). Pp. iv+223+x

(21.5X14 cm.). The Educational Book Depot, Trivandrum, 1958.

Price Rs. 4.50.

The aim of this text-book on biology is clearly stated in the

preface to the first edition: to give the student sufficient information

about the animate world around him and acquaint him with the

trends of modern biological thought. It is also hoped that this book

would ‘incidentally whet his curiosity to peep a little more into the

mysteries of the living’.

This book, now in the reprint of the revised third edition, seems

a manifestation of the aims and hopes of this basic preface, published

two and a half years ago.

Dr. A. P. Mathew, professor of Zoology at the University College,

Trivandrum, and Prof. A. Raman, professor of Botany at Government

College, Chittur, have collaborated to produce this comprehensive

and popular text-book of biology, primarily meant and approved for

the University Previous Course at the University of Kerala. In this

reprint the question papers of the University Previous Examination

of September 1957 and March 1958 have been included to aid the

students.

The book is divided into two sections: the first deals with basic

information on botany, including an introductory chapter on living

and non-living objects, and on the differences between plant and

animal life. This botany section also includes a pertinent chapter on

economic botany, describing Indian plants and their useful pro-

ducts—the cereals, millets, pulses, spices, and oil-, sugar-, and rubber-

yielding plants, to mention a few.

The second section, on zoology, includes an introductory chapter,

somewhat redundant in view of that of the botany section. Then

follow nine chapters dealing with cell differentiation, reproduction,

development, and other zoological patterns. A chapter on organic

evolution gives the progressive development of plants and animals from

ancient times up to our modern world today. ;

This book is a valuable contribution to students for several

reasons. First, the information is intelligently arranged, in distinct

analytical chapters which set forth enough but not too much informa-

tion for the neophyte in biology. Second, the book is written in a

296 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

style that is clear and easy to follow. The vocabulary is relatively free

from the ponderous weight of highly technical terms which can so often

prevent a young mind from comprehending the subject matter, or

from pursuing it further. Third, the book is brightened by 155

interesting illustrations, finely drawn with pen and ink.

But most important is the treatment of several facts that indeed

should ‘whet’ the student’s curiosity. For instance; a paragraph

explains why the antelope, the cow, and the deer of the ruminant family

are cud-chewers. They are described as ‘comparatively defenceless

animals, which are surrounded by prey-hunting carnivorous animals’.

It is risky for them to graze in the open for long periods of time.

Their alimentary system is specialized so they can quickly swallow

their food. ‘On reaching a safe spot, this hastily swallowed meal is

brought back leisurely into the mouth in small masses, and chewed

properly and swallowed again.’

And there is an equally good description of a bird’s foot muscie

and the ‘perching mechanism’ that prevents a bird from falling off

his perch or twig when sleeping.

These are only small pieces interspersed in the main factual

presentation. But they indicate a basic liberal approach to teaching

biology: to make the subject matter interesting and humane enough

so that the reader is inspired to inquire further into the nature of

things. The authors seem interested in instilling into their students

an inner desire to learn for themselves; not on offering routine, dry,

and dogmatic material to be learned only by rote.

B.I.1,

2, PORTRAIT OF A WILDERNESS. By Guy Mountfort.

Illustrated by Eric Hosking. Hutchinson, London, 1958. 240 pages;

130 photographs. Price Rs. 30.

This is a book about the Coto Donana, a wild and inaccessible area

in southern Spain which was for 350 years the private hunting preserve

of the Dukes of Medina Sidonia. The area is now a nature sanctuary,

rich in wild life where about one-half of the entire European total of

bird species may be seen, and where as many as a hundred different

species may be counted in a single day. ‘In this wild paradise half

the bird species of Europe have been seen, some in such numbers as

to stagger the most blasé ornithologist. Red Deer and Fallow Deer

still roam the scrub in their hundreds. Droves of Wild Boar plough

the rich earth for roots, and in the springtime the blood-curdling

cries of the courting Lynx still chill one’s spine during the small hours

of the night. Here in this ideal Afro-European climate and

REVIEWS 29]

vegetation the ferocious Ocellated Lizard, the Mongoose, the Polecat,

the Genet, the Wild Cat, and numerous snakes compete for domination

of the undergrowth, while a dozen species of vultures, eagles, and

other raptorial birds contend for the mastery of the skies. The grand

total of bird species recorded by the three expeditions led by Mr. Guy

Mountfort comes to the impressive number of 222. Nor is it just a

matter of numbers of species, as we have read in the quotation above;

examples of concentrations of individual species were a flock of 400

Coots, 75 Blacknecked Grebes, and 3000-4000 Mallards, and a single

flock of Blacktailed Godwits consisting of 1500 birds.

The three expeditions visited the Coto Donana in 1952, 1956, and

1957. <A large number of well-known ornithologists and other eminent

people took part in them—Lord and Lady Alanbroke, Sir Julian

and Lady Huxley, Roger Tory Peterson, Max Nicholson, Francois

Bourliere, James Fisher, and many others—-so that the concentration

of famous people on the ground was relatively almost as great as that

of the nesting birds. The book is superbly illustrated with Eric

Hosking’s photographs which represent as good work as anything

which this great master has ever done. ‘The series of pictures of the

birds of prey are particularly outstanding.

Mr. Mountfort writes a clear and most readable account of the

expeditions and of their work, and when he writes about the birds

he does so with the authority one would expect of the co-author of

the FIELD GUIDE TO THE BIRDS OF BRITAIN AND EUROPE. Although the

book is largely concerned with birds, it is not an ornithological

treatise as its main purpose is to give a popular account of the ex-

peditions; detailed reports for the specialists will be published in the

journals of the British Ornithologists’ Union and the Sociedad Espanola,

de Ornitologia. The aims of the expeditions are set out by the

author: ‘Our principal object was to learn the status of the bird

populations of the Coto. Secondly to examine their ecological re-

lationships. Thirdly to learn what we could about their migratory

movements through the Coto. A number of the rare species, which had

never previously been examined in any detail, were selected for special

behaviour studies and photography, for the camera today is an essential

tool of science. An impression of the dimensions of the photographic.

task may be gained from the fact that we exposed some 6000

negatives and some 50,000 ft. of cine film in colour. Though our work

was chiefly ornithological, opportunity was taken, as time permitted,

also to study the mammals, reptiles, insects, and flora of the region,

as all these obviously influenced the lives of our primary subjects.’

PORTRAIT OF A WILDERNESS is recommended by the Book Society.

L.W.-T,

298 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

3. AN ATLAS OF AIRBORNE POLLEN GRAINS. By H. A.

Hyde and K. F. Adams. Pp. xvi+112 (24.518 cm.) illustrated with

numerous photomicrographs. Macmillan & Co., London, 1958.

PCE 30s:

This is a dream of a book, I mean to say, the sort of book authors

dream about but seldom get. It is printed on art paper throughout,

so that the details of the photomicrographs come out beautifully.

The book is meant for the identification of pollen grains in the fresh

condition. 92 species are described and illustrated, naturally of plants

found in the British Isles.

There is a short introduction dealing with methods of studying

pollen grains in the living condition, on the instruments needed for

examination and photography. Some short notes on the morphology

of pollen grains are also given, a very necessary detail, since on the

proper understanding of this part depends the proper use of the book.

The text of the book is reduced to some notes on the structure of

the individual pollen grains, such as general outline, form, sizes, pores,

furrows, outer and inner surfaces, etc. The illustrations are beautiful;

they show the grains in optical section and in surface view, and being

taken at a standard magnification of 800 give an immediate idea of

the relative sizes of the grains.

When going through the book, I am left with nothing but admira-

tion for the work of the authors, together with some envy, just simple

plain envy; the book is an invitation and a challenge to Indian

botanists, to produce an equally beautiful book on our Indian plants.

The book, or rather the study of pollen, is of great economic

importance: in addition to the botanical side of the question, there

is the fact that pollen is intimately connected with hayfever in humans,

and with honey production by bees. Of the work entailed in the

preparation of this book one may get an idea when one reads that

the authors between 1942 and 1955 trapped and examined over

900,000 pollen grains in about 15 different stations all over the

British Isles. Surely this is no work for faint hearts!

H. SANTAPAU

4. LALBAGH BOTANICAL GARDENS, BANGALORE, INDIA,

1856-1956 CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS. AUGUST 1957. Pp.

124 (18 X 24.5 cm.); profusely illustrated.

On the occasion of the celebrations of the Lalbagh Gardens’ first

centenary, the Mysore Horticultural Society has brought out an

interesting souvenir, of which any society may be proud. The

REVIEWS 299

souvenir takes the form of an historical-descriptive album, profusely

illustrated with half-tone and full-colour blocks.

Dr. M. H. Mari Gowda, the present Superintendent, contributes

a chapter on the history of the Gardens down to the present day;

the official date of ‘birth’ of the Gardens is supposed to be 1856,

when at the suggestion of Dr. Cleghorn of Madras the Gardens were

re-organized. But the Bangalore Gardens had already been in

existence for at least another century, under the Sultans Hyder Ali

and Tippu and others, and splendid work had been done in acclimatizing

fruit trees from central Asia and Persia. After the official re-organiza-

tion in 1856, many more useful and decorative plants have been

introduced into India through the Bangalore Gardens. It is, however,

under John Cameron, 1874-1908, that the Gardens reached their zenith;

Cameron not only introduced the plants, but carried out extensive

field trials for their adaptation and cultivation in this country. The

work is still being carried out under the present Superintendent.

M. D. Sharma, the Keeper of the Herbarium, and Librarian, writes

a lengthy chapter on ‘the Plant Wealth of the Lalbagh’. This forms

a detailed guide to the various sections of the Gardens, and is

illustrated with a number of photographs and maps. This chapter

forms, as it were, the backbone of the booklet under review.

A. H. T. Rao, the Vice-Chairman of the Mysore Horticultural

Society, gives an account of the activities of the Society, which lately

have expanded to the publication of a quarterly journal, Lalbagh,

which aims at making ‘the layman horticulturally-minded’.

There is one point in which the present reviewer feels that more

care should have been spent in the preparation of the Souvenir: this

refers to the spelling of scientific names, many of which are far from

correct. It is to be hoped that such mistakes will be corrected if and

when a complete catalogue of the plants grown in the Gardens is being

prepared for the press. Such a catalogue will be gratefully accepted

by Indian gardeners, who at present do not possess any authoritative

book of reference for the many foreign plants cultivated in this

country.

H. SANTAPAU

5. GLOSSARY OF INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. By

R. N. Chopra, S. L. Nayar, and I. C. Chopra. Pp. xx+330 (25.5x

16.5 cm.). Published by the C.S.I.R., New Delhi, 1956. Price Rs. 8.

This book fills a great need in our country. After the recent

rediscovery of the wonderful virtues of Rauwolfia serpenting Benth.,

300 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

Indian medicinal plants have been in great demand among national

and foreign biochemists. Further, the discovery that cortisone, which

until recently had been prepared only from the bile of oxen, could be

obtained from some species of Dioscorea, enhanced the interest in

our medicinal plants.

This Glossary comes as a great help to the botanist who often may

be asked for materials of all the medicinal plants of a given area.

With the help of this book, it will be easy enough to select all or

nearly all the medicinal plants of any district.

The plan of the book is clearly given in the introduction. “The

plants have been arranged in alphabetical order according to their

scientific names so that there will be no difficulty for readers to find

any particular drug on which information is required. Many of the

commonly used synonyms have been inserted and cross references to

their modern scientific names have been given. Abbreviations have

been used to save space and to compress data into a small handy

voiume; a list of abbreviations used has been included for ready

teference. When a number of plants belonging to the same genus is

discussed, the name of the family to which the plants belong is

supplied with the scientific name of the genus. Important vernacular

names commonly used in different regions of India have been given

and an index to these names has been provided at the end. For

want of space it has not been possible to include all vernacular names.

but the more common and well-known ones are given. The con-

ditions of disease for which the particular plant is used are also briefly

given.

‘A special feature, which will not fail to attract attention, is the

inclusion of brief descriptions of the active principles of plants so

far as they have been worked out. References to the more important

published papers on medicinal plants up to 1953 have been included;

more recent references have been added in some cases during the

course of printing of the book. For a complete bibliography on

Indian medicinal plants the reader is referred to the Review of Work

on Indian Medicinal Plants published by the Indian Council of

Medical Research (1955).

‘Another feature of the Glossary is the inclusion of information

on the distribution of plants in different regions of India.. .’

The Glossary may be said to be the ‘crowning glory’ of that

energetic research worker, Col. Sir R. N. Chopra, who has dedicated

his life to the study of Indian medicinal plants and has published his

results in a very impressive list of books and papers.

The printing and presentation of the book are of the best and do

honour not only to the author but also to the printers, The Catholic

REVIEWS 301

Press, Ranchi, and the publishers, the Publications Division of the

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.

Without any hesitation I recommend the book to any student of

botany or of pharmacology, who is interested in the development of

the natural plant resources of our country.

H. SANTAPAU

6. A HANDBOOK OF SOME INDIAN WEEDS, containing

complete descriptions and short notes on some of the common weeds

indigenous and introduced in South India. By C. Tadulingam and

G. Venkatanarayana. Revised and enlarged by C. Rajasekhara

Mudaliar and J. Sakharam Rao. Pp. xi+488, plates 3 in colour, 180

in line diagrams. Government Press, Madras, 1955. Price Rs. 7.

The second edition of this very useful book was long overdue. In

this new edition the area of survey is extended to the districts of

Malabar, Nilgiris, and S. Kanara. Weeds which recently have been a

great source of trouble have been given due importance; some new

ones have been described and illustrated. A separate chapter on

the recent developments on the chemical eradication of weeds is

added. Particular reference is made to hormone weedicides and their

action in S. India. Hindi names have been added to the list of

vernacular names, so that the book may be of use in parts of India

other than the South. Most of the weeds are illustrated, a few of

them in colour.

This revised edition will be found much more useful than the

first by all students of agriculture and any others interested in Indian

farm weeds.

There are but a few minor points which should be brought to the

attention of the authors. The line illustrations are interesting, but do

not show any scale indicating the size of the plant or its parts. The

nomenclature of many of the plants needs revision. The practice of

suppressing the comma between the name of a plant and that of its

author should be followed, in accordance with the instructions of

Appendix VI of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.

The printing and binding of the book can be considerably improved.

All in all, in spite of these minor defects, the book is a good one,

and will be of value not only to the South, but also to many other

parts of India.

i ee oe ie vo P. V. Bore

302. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

7. FLOWERING PLANTS OF EASTERN INDIA. Vol. L

Monocotyledons. By J. N. Mitra. Pp. xx+388, 21.514 cm., map

of eastern India. The World Press Private Ltd., Calcutta, 1958.

Price Rs. 30.

This book, as the dedication seems to indicate, is primarily meant

for the use of ‘students of Botany of Indian Universities’, and the

author entertains the hope that it will prove useful not only to students

but also to teachers and professional plant taxonomists.

The literature on the botany of eastern India is far from scanty,

but it is found dispersed in many out-of-print books and journals,

which even when available are beyond the pocket of students and

professors; further since the publication of Prain’s BENGAL PLANTS

in 1903, many changes have been introduced in the nomenclature

and systematics of those plants. The author has undertaken a

difficult and responsible task; the present volume deals only with the

Monocotyledons of Bengal and neighbouring regions of India.

This reviewer, however, is of opinion that the book does not quite

come up to the author’s expectations. The author has produced a

new system of classification, on which he has spent many years; the

system is claimed to be not phylogenetic, but rather aims at studying

the close affinities and resemblances that may give some clue to the

phylogeny of the plants studied in the volume. The reviewer has

not found in the book any new or startling point; he does not see in

the new system anything but a slight modification of some of the older

systems. The author should clearly give the main outline of his

system, pointing out how his system differs from previous attempts.

One serious deficiency of the book is that it does not give a

comprehensive bibliography for the area covered in the book. It also

suffers from the absence of an index of vernacular names. In the

actual presentation of genus and species, the author gives the generic

name followed by an appropriate full reference; specific names are

given without any reference. The system followed in giving such

references is somewhat strange; the recommendations of Appendix VI

of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature are far neater

and clearer. The presentation of the book is pleasant, the type clean

and elegant; some appropriate spacing would improve the presenta-

tion of the book.

P. V. BOLE

8. AHEAD LIES THE JUNGLE. By Suresh Vaidya. Pp. 187

(22X14 cm.). 16 black-and-white photographs, Robert Hale Ltd.,

London, 1958. Price 18s.

REVIEWS 303

Books on the Indian jungle and its wild denizens have hitherto

mostly been of the shikar kind, and to the present-day reader such

books have become not only old-fashioned and out-of-date but often

extremely boring. This book by Suresh Vaidya, however, is of quite

a different type—the only shooting done by his heroine, Miss Yila

Koffler, is with the camera.

Suresh Vaidya is an experienced journalist and author who has

spent much of his time away from India, in London, New York, Paris,

and other such places; and yet he appears to be quite at home when

back in the Indian jungle. And although he is not a naturalist, he

has obviously taken much trouble to get correct information about

the fauna and flora of which he writes so interestingly. There is

little that one can criticise from the natural history point of view.

Of particular interest to some readers will be the parts about snakes

and snake-charming. The author evidently has much first-hand

knowledge of this subject and introduces it to his readers in a most

interesting way.

During the seven months’ photographic trip with Miss Yilla

Koffler from September 1954 to March 1955, the author visited many

of the wild life sanctuaries of India, and this is probably the first

book yet produced on India’s wild life purely from the visitor’s and

photographer’s viewpoint as contrasted to the sportsman’s. The reader

is taken to the Gir Forest, Bandipur, Mudumalai, Periyar Lake, and

Kaziranga, as well as to many other interesting parts of India.

EEG.

9. ON INDIAN INSECT TYPES—V. The Morphology and

Life-history of Leptocorsia varicornis Fabr. (Coreidae: Hemiptera)—A

pest of paddy crop in India. By S. Shujaatul Akbar. Aligarh Muslim

University Publications (Zoological Series). Size 15.5 24.8 cm.

ponu lt.) Head and -Phorax. Pp. 1-53, pls: i1-1x, March 1957.

rrice Ws, 5.

Part II. Abdomen, Internal Anatomy, and Life-history. Pp. 1-49,

pls. i-vii, March 1958. Price Rs. 5.

Within the last few years many Indian Universities have adopted

entomology, especially applied entomology, as part of the curriculum

for post-graduate courses in Zoology. However, the paucity of

detailed information in a handy form on the biology of Indian insects

of economic importance prompted Prof. M. B. Mirza of Aligarh

University to plan a series of memoirs on ‘Indian Insect Types’ and

304. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

the following eleven species were selected for monographing:

Haematopinus tuberculatus Burmeister (Buffalo-louse), Pyrilla —

perpusilla Walker (Sugarcane leaf-hopper), Stenobracon deesae

Cameron (Braconid parasite of sugarcane borer), Leptocorsia varicornis

Fabricius (Paddy-bug), Aleurolobus barodensis Maskell (Sugarcane

white-fly), Athalia proxima (Mustard saw-fly), Gonioides dissimilis

(Poultry-louse), Idiocerus species (indian Mango-hopper), Platydera

gossypiella Saunders (Pink-boll-worm), Dacus cucurbitae Coq.

(Fruit-fly), and Utetheisa pulchella Linn. Of the above, memoirs on

the first three pests have already been published in four numbers (two

on Pyrilla), and the one under review represents the fifth in the series

and is in two parts. | é

In a brief introduction to Part I the author discuss the nomencla-

torial status of the species and outlines the scope of the work which

may be summed up as one pertaining to the skeleto-muscular

mechanism of the head and the thorax with emphasis on the study of

the myology to help understanding the working of the various parts

of the body. A detailed survey of the various sutures and sclerites

of these regions and their appendages are included, and the author

uses up-to-date terminology to denote the various sutures, e.g. ‘ecdysial

line’ in place of the older term ‘epicranial suture’. Separate treat-

ment of each region of the head is given and attention is drawn to the

homologies of the different structures, especially the musculature of

I. varicornis with those of other insects already studied in detail.

The morphology of the thorax of L. varicornis is also reported on

in the same fashion.

In Part II, a similar treatment of the morphology of the abdomen

precedes the section on the life-history of the insect. The latter is

more or less an elaboration of the work of H. M. Lefroy [1908, Mem.

Deptt. Agri India, 2, (A)].

Both the parts are profusely illustrated with good line drawings

which will be especially useful to the advanced student. The long

lists of references given also provide a useful guide to the literature

On insect morphology.

From the factual point of view this memoir should fulfil its

purpose of usefulness to post-graduate students and teachers. How-

ever, a chapter on the biology of this insect, especially its seasonal

abundance, natural enemies, control measures, etc., would have added

to its value as being useful to all interested in applied entomology

as well. The publications in this series of memoirs have maintained

a high standard, for which the editor Prof. M. B. Mirza is to be

congratulated,

EGS,

REVIEWS 305

10. KINGDOM OF THE OCTOPUS: THE LIFE-HISTORY OF

THE CEPHALOPODA. By Frank W. Lane. Pp. xx+287 (23X 14.5 cm.).

Coloured frontispiece, 4 coloured and 48 monochrome plates, and

13 diagrams. Jarrolds, London, 1957. Price 30s. net.

Frank W. Lane’s KINGDOM OF THE OCTOPUS is a book about

cephalopods written by a layman for laymen.

In 1875 there appeared Henry Lee’s THE OCTOPUS; OR, THE ‘DEVIL-

FISH’ OF FICTION AND OF FACT. It is with the intention of bringing

within the ken of the ordinary general reader the work done since

then that the book under review has been written. Mr. Lane has put

together from varied and extensive sources a mass of knowledge

about a subject regarding which most of us know almost nothing.

His statements are well documented and the chapter-to-chapter biblio-

graphy at the end of the book extends over thirty-two pages. To

ensure the correctness of his statements he consulted numerous

specialists and sent his manuscript, in whole or in part, to over 100

readers, most of them professional scientists. Even the serious

student, therefore, will find the book a useful stand-by.

One of the few things we do know about these creatures is their

trick of discharging ink when disturbed or in danger. The ex-

perience of D. N. F. Hall suggests the purpose of the discharge. He

tried to catch with his hand a three-inch squid confined in a large

light-coloured wooden tub. When his fingers were about nine inches

away the squid ‘turned dark and seemed to stay still’. Hall made

a grab and seized—a blob of ink; the squid was at the other end of

the tub!

Doubtless, the squid was helped in its exploit by its trick of quick

colour-change. Mr. Lane’s description of the colour-change mecha-

nism of cephalopods is fascinating. This consists mainly of a system

_ of chromatophores or pigment cells, distributed all over the surface

of the body. The chromatophores expand or contract under muscular

control and make possible almost instantaneous colour changes.

Another intriguing topic dealt with is luminiscence. This is at

the same time a somewhat baffling problem, as luminiscence would

appear to conflict with the defensive purpose of the colour-change

mechanism and the ink-discharge battery. |

Mr. Lane tells a pathetic story of the octopus as a mother.

Mephista, as she was affectionately christened, laid forty clusters of

eggs and cradled them lovingly in her arms. From then on the eggs

were her all-absorbing passion. If food was brought near she blew

it away with squirts from her funnel or picked it up with an arm

and dropped it further off. If it was put back she ‘flushed an angry

brick-red’ and, crawling a few paces across the floor of the tank,

- 306 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

hurled the food from her. In the interests of scientific truth it must

be recorded, however, that in the morning only a pari of the food

remained, suggesting that she had no objection to eating in the dark

when no one was looking on! After about ten weeks of this, the

young ones emerged and went their way, but Mephista continued to

nurse the empty husks. Finally, ‘one morning, she was found, still

on guard but no longer alert—one with the shrivelled skins for which

she had vainly given her life’. This story, of course, is not to be

taken as true of all octopuses, and still less of all cephalopods.

In view of a Gleaning in a recent number of this Journal relating

to the rena fish 1 must give, though only in part, the description of

the swarming of Pacific coast squids as seen by a biologist, John S.

Garth, one evening in July 1951 and reported by him to the Allan

Hancock Foundation, Los Angeles:

‘He saw a school of Pacitic coast squids (Loligo opalescens)

milling in compact formation on the surface directly under the

night-light hung over the ship’s side. The squids were mating and

were oblivious to all else. Even when touched with a long-handied

dip-net they were not alarmed. Normally a squid would flash away

long before a net reached it but now the crew scooped them up

and dozens were landed on deck. Several mating pairs were still

interlocked when they were tipped out of the net, and at least one

pair continued their embrace until separated by hand.

‘Garth continued te watch the school as it milled about the ship.

The squids were swimming leisurely in a tight circle with the

ship’s light as the centre. They swam fin foremost but when a

male selected a female he reversed direction and grasped her

round the middle. Often a second male would cut in, and some-

times two rivals grasped a female simultaneously. Then a skirmish

broke out. |

‘In attempting to escape the female would break the surface and

the pursuing males would eject water with a whoosh that was

clearly audible, as well as the stream being visible to the eye. The

successful male would often retire quickly to the depths with his

prize, but in the absence of a rival the mating was completed

quietly on the surface.’

Cephalopods have an economic value as food for human beings

and domestic animals, as manure in the fields, as fish bait, as living

grapnels for raising articles from the depths, as material for research

in neurology, and for the preparation of various articles including

cosmetics and medicines. They are very much appreciated as an

article of diet in Japan, whose known annual catch in 1952 was

646,000 tons as against India’s 3,400. As there are possibilities of

REVIEWS 307

increasing these catches several times over without exhausting the

supply, Mr. Lane suggests this as a solution to the ever-increasing

food problem. If the suggestion is followed care must be taken to

learn cephalopod-cookery from an expert, for not many new initiates

to the diet will have the persistence of Paul Bartsch (1917) who

chewed an inexpertly cooked tentacle ‘for the best part of an afternoon,

and in the end had to stop because his jaws “aching from over-

exertion, refused to operate more’ ’!

Lastly, a word of warning is necessary in view of the impression

created by some writers that these creatures are harmless. There is

a difference from species to species, and a particularly harmful type

must have been encountered by the skin-diver Kirke Dyson-Holland,

the case of whose death is dealt with in The Medical Journal of

Australia 2 (42nd year): 429-31. Several possible defences against

cephalopod attack are suggested but one does not always carry

weapons when one enters the water. The unarmed man, however,

is not necessarily helpless. Few of us can hope to apply the method

of the Gilbert islanders described by Sir Arthur Grimble, who kill

their octopus quarry by biting it between the eyes down to the brain,

but we are assured by the author that, if an octopus is grasped firmly

round the ‘neck’, i.e. the junction between head and mantle. it will

instantly release its hold as this action suffocates it.

The book is illustrated by many beautiful photographs, coloured

and monochrome.

D.E.R.

11. THE BIRDS OF THE PALAEARCTIC FAUNA—

PASSERIFORMES. By Charles Vaurie. Pp. xii+762 (25.5X18.5 cm.).

Hor. & G. Witherby Ltd., London, 1959. Price £5 5s.

Hartert’s epoch-making work DIE VOGEL DER PALAARKTISCHEN

FAUNA was published (in German) between 1903 and 1922, and

followed up by a supplement by Hartert & Steinbacher in 1938.

Only the older generation of ornithologists are in a position to

appreciate the truly monumental character of that work and will

remember the revolutionary impact it made upon the ornithological

trends and thinking of that time. It was the first large-scale pro-

jection of the subspecies concept into bird taxonomy, and a subject

of much spirited (and sometimes even acrimonious) wordy exchanges

and controversy among the more conservative pandits of the day.

But looking back, there is no doubt whatever that much of the

enormous progress in avian systematics during the last 50 years was

308 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

made possible entirely by the universal acceptance of the subspecies

concept and the trinoniial nomenclature which enabled minor varia-

tions to be recorded and interpreted in a meaningful way. Hartert’s

publication, therefore, marked the end of an epoch in scientific

ornithology no less than the beginning of a new and more dynamic

one. And it is the genius of Ernst Hartert and his monumental work

that have since led the way in ornithological thought and practice,

in the Old World as well as the New. But the fillip that the new

system gave to all branches of ornithology, particularly in Europe

and Asia, led to the extension of field work into many areas till

then little known and unexplored, resulting in a better understanding

of geographical variations and in the description of many new forms.

Thus the need of a comprehensive, up-to-date, systematic list of

Palaearctic birds became insistent, and doubly so since Hartert’s

volumes were out of print and had become practically unprocurable.

Moreover, those unfamiliar with the German and Russian languages

were eagerly awaiting a comprehensive work in English that would

enable them to keep abreast of the considerable advances in the

knowledge of Palaearctic birds made in recent years, particularly in

the Asian territories of the U.S.S.R.

Few people would have better facilities and qualifications for

undertaking this stupendous task than Dr. Charles Vaurie of the

American Museum of Natural History, New York. The Rothschild

Collection, on which Hartert’s original work was primarily based—

since then vastly augmented by additional material—was at his elbow.

It was suplemented freely by large-scale borrowings from, and

frequent visits to, all the more important museums of Europe includ-

ing the one in Leningrad. In addition to his, so to say, congenital

aptitude for taxonomical work, and what the late Dr. C. B. Ticehurst

called ‘the eye of faith’, Dr. Vaurie had the benefit of constant

discussion with and advice of such savants as Erwin Stresemann and

Ernst Mayr—all of which lends the impress of added authoritativeness

to his volume.

The present one covers the Order Passeriformes only; the remain-

ing orders are to follow in due course in a companion volume. The

phylogenetic arrangement of families and genera follows the general

lines of Wetmore’s classification which, with minor internal modifi-

cations, has now come to be adopted by large sections of the

ornithological world. Keys, detailed descriptions of plumage = or

morphology, nesting, etc. found in Hartert are omitted (excepting

brief diagnoses) in order to Keep the volume within manageable

bulkiness (even without them it runs to 774 pages!). In addition

to Range, with an indication of Extralimital where called for, a brief

REVIEWS 309

description of the habitat of each species is given and, where possible,

also of the nature of variation between its races, whether clinal or

sharply differentiated in size or coloration, wing-length or pattern, etc.

It is inevitable in a work of this kind that specialists should disagree

with this or that of the author’s opinions and conclusions, and with

his views on individual phylogenetic relationships. ‘These are things

on which no finality is possible, and in the last reckoning must depend

on individual ‘taste and fancy’. But one can have no hesitation at

all in welcoming whole-heartedly this much-needed work, or in con-

gratulating the author upon the competence and thoroughness with

which he has discharged his task. The selected bibliography repre-

sentative. of the various parts of the Palaearctic Region, a gazetteer

giving the description and co-ordinates of all the places mentioned in

the text, separate indexes of English, French, German, and scientific

names are features which should prove of the greatest usefulness and

convenience to users of the volume. Readers would have relished a

general discussion of the Palaearctic Region and a consideration of

its biogeography, particularly from the ornithological angle. But it

may well be that such an introduction has been reserved for the

promised companion volume which, though it will be the second in

time, should, following the Wetmore classification, be the first—

Vol. I—in place. In the meanwhile it is no exaggeration to say that

THE BIRDS OF THE PALAEARCTIC FAUNA will be quite indispensable to

every serious ornithologist whether his work is directly concerned with

this part of the world or not. .

S.A.

12. ABOUT INDIAN BIRDS. By Laeeq Futehally and Salim

Ali. Pp. 87 (18.514 cm.). Illustrated by D. V. Cowen. Blackie &

Sons (India) Ltd., Bombay, 1959. Price Rs. 2.

This little book on the birds of India, intended primarily for a

juvenile public, is written in charmingly unpretentious language. It

is of course meant for use in India, and Mrs. Futehally has therefore

most wisely chosen for her comparisons everyday scenes which are

familiar to her audience. The colour of the Oriole, for instance, is

compared to the flesh of a perfectly ripened Alphonso mango, and

when she talks of town birds she says ‘all these birds which are now

familiar in our towns must have had an original home——a muluk, to

which they still owe allegiance ...’ In this easy way she brings home

to her readers points which she wishes to emphasize. But sometimes

310 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

she wanders further afield for her illustrations, and in this she

follows in the tradition of the famous ‘Eha’ who claimed that he was

‘an amateur philosopher . . . detecting essence beneath semblance

and tracing the same principle running through things the outward

aspect of which is widely different’; and so it should come as no

surprise (even to this reviewer who happens to be Chinese) to be

told that a Sandpiper has affinities with a citizen of the Middle

Kingdom because it uses its bill like a pair of chopsticks!

The book is divided into nine chapters. The first answers the

question, ‘What are Birds?’; the second deals with ‘Song and Court-

ship’, the third with ‘Nesting Habits’, and the fourth with ‘Migration’.

The remaining five chapters consist of short sketches of individual

species, grouped under different habitats. There are 87 pages of text,

but despite its small size, the book contains a wealth of accurate and

useful information. It is to be hoped that it will be widely used in

Indian schools. India has one of the richest avifaunas in the world,

and anyone who succeeds in imprinting in the. minds of her young

folk an appreciation and a love of the wild life which Nature has so

bountifully bestowed. will have done a fine service for his country;

I hope that Mrs. Futehally and Dr. Sdlim Ali will have much

success in this respect.

The sketches which illustrate the book are drawn by Mrs. D. V.

Cowen, and they complement the text very adequately.

L.W.-T.

ADDITIONS TO THE SOCIETY’S LIBRARY

The following books have been added to the Society’s Library since

December, 1957:

Alexander, W. B. BIRDS OF THE OCEAN. A_ Handbook for

Voyagers. Putnam, London, 1955. New and revised edition.

(Purchased)

Ali, Salim. INbDiAw Hitt Brrps. Oxford University Press, London,

1949. (Presented) }

Ali, Salim. THE Bock oF INDIAN BiRDS. Bombay Natural

History Society, Bombay, 1944. Third Edition. (Presented)

Amore, D. L. Powar: The Angling Paradise. Hind Kitabs Ltd.,

Bombay, 1956. (Presented) !

Baird, W. CYCLOPAEDIA OF THE NATURAL SCIENCE. Richard

Griffin and Company, Jondon, 1858. (Purchased)

ADDITIONS TO THE SOCIETY'S LIBRARY 31i

Beer, G. de. EMBRYOS AND ANCESTORS. Clarendon Press, Oxford,

1958. Third edition. (Purchased)

Benton, Allen H. and Warner Jr., William E. PRINCIPLES OF FIELD

BIOLOGY AND EcoLocy. McGraw-Hill Book Co. Inc., New

York, 1958. (Purchased)

Bharucha, F. R. and DeLeeuw, W. C. A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO

PLANT SocioLoGy. Orient Longmans, Bombay, 1957. (Review

copy)

Blond, G. GREAT MIGRATIONS. Hutchinson and Co., Ltd., London,

1958. Translated from the French by Alan Houghton Brodrick.

(Purchased)

Bor, N. L. and Raizada, M. B. SOME BEAUTIFUL INDIAN CLIMBERS

AND SHRUBS. Bombay Natural History Society, Bombay, 1954.

(Presented)

Briggs, Ellis O. SHOTS HEARD ROUND THE WoRLD. Weidenfeld

and Nicholson, London, 1958. (Purchased)

Brink, F. H. Van den. DE SAUGETIERE Europas. Verlag Paul

Parey, Hamburg, 1956. (Purchased)

Burton, Maurice. CURIOSITIES OF ANIMAL LiFE. Ward, Lock and

Co. Ltd., London, 1952. (Purchased)

Burton, Maurice. INFANCY IN ANIMALS. Hutchinson & Co. Ltd.,

London, 1956. (Purchased)

Carrington, Richard. MERMAIDS AND MaAsTopOoNs: A _ book of

Natural and Unnatural History. Chatto & Windus, London,

1957. (Purchased)

Chopra, R. N., Nayar, S. L., and Chopra I. C. GLOSSARY OF

INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. Council of Scientific & Industrial

Research, New Delhi, 1956. (Review copy)

Cott, Hugh B. ADAPTIVE COLORATION IN ANIMALS. With an

introduction by Julian S. Huxley. Methuen & Co. Ltd., London,

1957. (Purchased)

Cowen, D. V. FLOWERING TREES AND SHRUBS IN INDIA. Thacker

& Co., Bombay, 1950. (Presented)

Daglish, E. F. Tue Pret-Keeper’s Manuart. J. M. Dent & Sons

Ltd., London, 1958. (Review copy)

Danois, E. le. FISHES OF THE WoRLD. George G. Harrap & Co.

Ltd., London, 1957. (Purchased)

Darling, F. Fraser. PELICAN IN THE WILDERNESS. George Allen

& Unwin Ltd., London, 1956. (Purchased)

Darlington, C. D. and Mather, K. THE ELEMENTS OF GENETICS.

George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, 1952. (Purchased)

JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

Darwin, C. THE VARIATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS UNDER

DomEsTICATION, Vol. II. John Murray, London, 1899. Second

edition. (Presented)

Douglas, J. S.Hyproponics: The Bengal System. Oxford

University Press, London, 1951. (Presented)

Elton, C. S. THE ECOLOGY OF INVASIONS BY ANIMALS AND PLANTS.

Methuen & Co. Ltd., London, 1958. (Purchased)

Fisher, C. THE PAN Book oF Docs. Pan Books Ltd., London,

1958. (Purchased)

Fisher, G. D. THE TEACHER’S BOOK OF NATURE STUDY. W. & R.

Chambers Ltd., Edinburgh, 1958. (Purchased)

Frisch, Karl von. THE DANCING BEES: An Account of the Life

and Senses of the Honey Bee. Methuen & Co. Ltd., London,

1954. (Purchased)

Geddie, W. (ed.). CHAMBER’S ‘TWENTIETH CENTURY DICTIONARY.

W. & R. Chambers Ltd., London, 1956. (Purchased)

Gilliard, E. T. Livinc BIRDS OF THE WoRLD. Hamish Hamilton,

London, 1958. (Purchased)

Gray, Annie P. Birp Hysrips: A Check-List with Bibliography.

Commonwealth Agricultural Bureau, Farnham Royal, 1958.

(Review copy)

Grindal, E. W. EVERYDAY GARDENING IN INDIA. D. B. Tarapore-

vala Sons & Co. Ltd., Bombay. (Presented)

Grove, A. J. and Newell, G. E. AnimaL BioLocy. University

Tutorial Press Ltd., London, 1957. Fifth edition. (Presented)

Heim, Roger. LES CHAMPIGNONS D’EuROPE. Vol I and Vol. II.

N. Boubee & Co., Paris, 1957. (Presented)

Hornell, James. INDIAN Mottuscs. Bombay Natural History

Society, Bombay, 1952. (Presented)

Hunter, W. A. THE ROMANCE OF FISH LiFE. A. & C. Black

Ltd., London, 1931. (Purchased)

Huxley, J. S. OFFICIAL GUIDE TO THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF

LonpoNn. Office of the Zoological Society of London, London,

1937. (Presented)

Hyde, H. A. and Adams, K. F. AN ATLAS OF AIRBORNE POLLEN

GRAINS. Macmillan & Co. Ltd., London, 1958. (Review copy)

_ Jameson W. ‘THE WANDERING ALBATROSS. Rupert Hart-Davis,

London, 1958. (Purchased)

John, St. Major, Lovet, J., and Smith, E. EASTERN PERSIA: An

Account of the Journeys of the Persian Boundary etc. Vol I.

Macmillan & Co., London, 1876. (Presented)

ADDITIONS TO THE SOCIETY’S LIBRARY 313

Johns, C. A. BriTISH BIRDS IN THEIR HAUNTS. Society for

Promoting Knowledge, London, 1920. Fifteenth edition.

(Presented)

Jones, T. R. CASSELL’S Book OF Birps. Vol. Il. Cassell, Petter

and Galpin, London. (Presented)

Kohler, Wolfgang. THE MENTALITY OF APES. Penguin Books Ltd.,

Harmondsworth, 1957. (Purchased)

Kuenen, D. J., Lorenz, K., Tinbergen, N., Schiller, P. H., Vexkull,

J. V. INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOUR: The Development of a Modern

Concept. Methuen & Co. Ltd., London, 1957. (Purchased)

Lapage, Geoffrey. ANIMALS Parasitic IN MAN. Penguin Books

Ltd., Harmondsworth, 1957. (Purchased)

Loke, Wan Tho. A Company oF BirDs. Michael Joseph, London,

1959. (Purchased)

Lorenz, K. Z., KiNG Sotomon’s Rinc: New Light on Animal

Ways. Methuen & Co. Ltd., London, 1957. (Purchased)

Macdonald, A. St. J. CIRCUMVENTING THE MAHSEER AND OTHER

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Macro, Eric. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE ARABIAN PENINSULA.

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Mathew, A. P. and Raman, A. AN INTRODUCTION TO BIOLOGY.

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McInerny, D. and Gerard, G. Att ABoutT TROPICAL FISH. George

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Michelet, J. THE BirDs. T. Nelson & Sons, London, 1868.

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Nadkarni, A. K. NADKARNI’S INDIAN MATERIA Mepica. Vol. I

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Oldroyd, H. COLLECTING, PRESERVING AND STUDYING INSECTS.

Hutchinson & Co. Ltd., London, 1958. (Review copy)

314

JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

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Prestwich, A. A. I NAME THIS PARROT. Prestwich, London, 1958.

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University Tutorial Press Ltd., London, 1957. (Review copy)

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Rounsefell, G. A. and Everhart, W. H. FISHERY SCIENCE: Its

Methods and Applications. John Wiley & Sons Ltd., New York,

1953. (Review copy)

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London, 1957. (Purchased)

Santapau, H. THE FLORA OF PURANDHAR or An Enumeration of

all the Phanerogamic Plants discovered in Purandhar during

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Schiller, C. H. (ed.). INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOUR: The Development

of a Modern Concept. Methuen & Co. Ltd., London, 1957.

(Purchased)

Scott, Peter and Boyd, Hugh. WILDFOWL OF THE BRITISH ISLES.

Country Life Ltd., London, 1957. (Review copy)

Seward, Georgene H. SEX AND THE SOCIAL ORDER. Penguin Books

Ltd., Harmondsworth, 1954. (Purchased)

Singh, Col. Keseri. THE TIGER OF RAJASTHAN. Robert Haleford.

London, 1959. (Review copy)

Skutch, Alexander F. Lire HISTORIES OF CENTRAL AMERICAN

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Snow, D. A Stupy oF BLAcKBIRDS. George Allen & Unwin Ltd.,

London, 1958. (Purchased)

Speakman, Fred J. Tur YouNG NATURALIST’S YEAR. G. Bell &

Sons Ltd., London, 1958. (Review copy)

Tenet, Rose. THE PAN Book oF Cats. Pan Book Ltd., London,

1958. (Purchased)

Tinbergen, N. SoctaAL BEHAVIOUR IN ANIMALS: With special

ADDITIONS TO THE SOCIETY’S LIBRARY 315

reference to Vertebrates. Methuen & Co. Ltd., London, 1956.

(Purchased)

Uvarov, E. B. and Chapman, D. R. A DICTIONARY OF SCIENCE.

Penguin Books Ltd., Harmondsworth, 1958. (Purchased)

Vaidya, Suresh. AHEAD LIES THE JUNGLE. Robert Hale Ltd.,

London, 1958. (Purchased)

Vaurie, Charles. THE BIRDS OF THE PALAEARCTIC FAUNA. H. F.

& G. Witherby Ltd., London 1959. (Review copy)

Vesey-Fitzgerald, B. BirDs, TREES AND FLOWERS. Odhams Press,

London, 1947. (Presented)

Walker, Ernest P. THE MoNKEY Boox. Macmillan Co., New York,

1954. (Review copy)

Weinman, Major Aubrey N. A ZOOLOGICAL GUIDE TO THE

ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS OF CEYLON. Zoological Garden, Ceylon,

1957. (Review copy)

Welch, Paul S. LimnoLocy. McGraw-Hill Book Co. Inc., New

~ York, 1952. Second edition. (Purchased)

Westoll, T. S. (ed.). STupIES ON FOSSIL VERTEBRATES. The

Athlone Press, London, 1958. (Review copy)

Witherby, Harry F. Bird HUNTING ON THE WHITE NILE: A

Naturalist’s Experiences in the Soudan. The Office of ‘Know-

ledge’, London, 1902. (Presented)

Journals:

Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society.

Vols. 43 to 54. (Presented)

Vols. 39 to 52. (Presented)

Vols. 47 to 51. (Presented)

Vols. 46 to 51. (Presented)

FIELD AND STREAM. Henry Hold Co. Inc., New York.

Issues for the years 1947 to 1958. (Presented)

NATIONAL PARK MAGAZINE. The National Parks Association,

Washington. Issues for the years 1942 to 1956. (Presented)

THE CoNpor. Berkeley.

Wools. 50, 52. 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59. (Presented)

THE HIMALAYAN JOURNAL. Vol. 14. Himalayan Club, Calcutta,

1947. (Presented)

Miscellaneous Notes

1. A TIGER’S UNORTHODOX METHOD OF

COMMENCING ITS MEAL

I have examined over a score of tiger kills and in all of them the

tiger’s method of feeding has been from the hind quarters. But in a

recent case I observed that the tiger had begun with one foreleg and

the neck of a bullock, leaving the body intact together with the

hindlegs and the other foreleg. It had severed the head and eaten

the neck, carried off the head with horns under a tree, then come

back and dragged the carcase near the head, covering up the whole

lot with grass. Everything augured well for the return of the tiger

to its kill. A machan was therefore constructed with great caution

and the vigil taken up for three consecutive nights. But the tiger

failed to show up, although it had evidently come near the machan

tree, grown suspicious, and withdrawn. But what actually struck me

as unusual was this tiger’s method of commencing his meal from the

fore-quarters. This habit is quite normal with panthers, but to my

knowledge peculiar in the case of a tiger. May I know whether you

have come across or heard of a similar instance? I am perfectly

sure this was not the work of a leopard. Both the drag marks and

the footprints clearly disclosed this. Other indications that the animal

concerned was a tiger are: the bait was a big bullock weighing about

300 lb.; it was tied by the foreleg with an ‘unbreakable’ rope, but

the rope had been broken and the leg’ severed; the carcase had

been dragged about 60 yards into thick and high grass, and well

concealed; the hoof and leg were not eaten, but were found lying

some distance from the carcase in the dragged area; the stomach

and entrails had not been pulled out of the kill.

15 PERUMAL KoIL STREET.

FORT, COIMBATORE, B. SUBHIAH PILLAI

May 26, 1958. |

[According to Dunbar Brander, WILD ANIMALS IN CENTRAL INDIA,

a tiger normally eats its kill commencing between the buttocks, often

dragging out the stomach and intestines. On the other hand, in

most cases a leopard commences at the fore-quarters, tearing out the

inside and eating the heart, liver, lungs. and flesh on the ribs. The

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 317

kills of the two animals can usually be distinguished by this, though

a large forest leopard will sometimes commence to eat behind, between

the buttocks, just as a tiger does—and presumably also the converse.

However, the exceptions in either case seem to be rare.—EDs.]

2. THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE INDIAN LYNX

Is the Indian Lynx (Caracal caracal) disappearing from our forests?

Would your readers kindly enlighten me through your journal when and

where this animal has been seen during the last 3-4 years? This

-animal was been seen by me in Hazaribagh National Park in Bihar

in December 1957 and by Shri K. S. Sankhala, Divisional Forest

Officer, Jaipur, in Sariska Game Sanctuary in Rajasthan on 31 October

1958. Two immature cubs were found in the Sariska Sanctuary. The

cubs could not be kept alive and their carcasses were sent to the

Zoological Survey of India for identification and preservation.

Judging from the manner in which these cubs were abandoned by

the ‘parents it looks to me that the natural food of this animal is fast

disappearing and therefore the mother not being capable of rearing

the cubs abandoned them. They do not seem to have the habit of

tigers and panthers of eating their cubs if food supply is difficult.

JAIPUR,

RAJASTHAN, N. N. SEN, LF.S..

April 2, 1959. Chief Conservator of Forests.

3. THE VOICE OF THE CHEETAH OR HUNTING

LEOPARD (ACINONYX JUBATUS ERXLEBEN)

At pages 25 and 26 of his most interesting and informative Report

on the Royal National Parks of Kenya 1957, the Director, Mr. Mervyn

Cowie, informs us as to the variety of vocal noises the cheetah can

make:

‘They purr when contented. The purr sounds like rattling a few

stones in a tin and can be heard quite far away. The most noticeable

_ sound, however, is a whistle or squeak when they are calling to each

other. It sounds more like the whistle of a bird than any mammal,

and unless one knows the sound well, it is difficult to believe that

such a shrill sound could possibly be made by a Cheetah.’

In all the literature regarding the cheetah, and in the upwards of

280 books on shikar in India and the East, there is not, to the best of

my belief, any mention of the vocal sounds made by the cheetah.

318 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

The cheetah has been very scarce in the wild state in India for

many years. At the close of the Mahratta Wars (1818) they were

frequently found in packs. There is record of a cavalry officer having

in one day speared six off one horse.

Personally, I have never seen a cheetah in the wild state. The

puupose of this note is to afford to those having knowledge of the

_ animal an opportunity of contributing to the Society’s Journal such

information as they possess of the voice sounds made by the cheetah

in India.

c/o LLoyps BANK LTD.,

39, PICCADILLY, W. 1, R. W. BURTON,

January 29, 1959. Lieut.-Col., 1.4., (Retd.).

4. INCREASE OF SWAMP DEER (CERVUS DUVAUCELI

CUV.) IN THE KAZIRANGA SANCTUARY, ASSAM

Since World War II the Kaziranga Wild Life Sanctuary has been

one of the few remaining strongholds in Assam for this handsome

animal. Today it may well be found that this sanctuary alone con-

tains these deer in significant numbers. The Manas Sanctuary used

to hold a fair number, but recent information is not available at the

time of writing.

By their choice of habitat, swamp deer present an easy target for

the poacher and, for the sportsman, a trophy which is superior to the

sambar of Assam. In Kaziranga, swamp deer are found near the edge

of bheels and open ‘maidans’ which are invariably surrounded by

large areas of thatch and ‘elephant’ grass, to which they will usually

retire at the scent of danger. Unlike the sambar, they do not appear

to frequent the patches of forest characteristic of the sanctuary’s

interior. It may be presumed, therefore, that their preference for

comparatively open country, coupled with their value as a trophy, has

led to an alarming decline, until last year, of their population in

Kaziranga.

Previously, it was unusual to see swamp deer in groups of more

than three or four during the cold weather, but while on a visit on

7th March 1959 I saw a herd of fourteen (and was told that thirty

had been reported the day before). My surprise may be well imagined.

It is possible that these figures may not have been exceeded within

the past twenty years and, if so, they represent a credit to the

vigilance and efficiency of the sanctuary’s staff. The herd which

the writer had the pleasure of seeing was in charge of a ‘master’

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 319

stag and did not display undue alarm at our approach—a_ strong

indication that poachers are not operating in this particular area. It

is to be hoped that such encouraging signs may continue unchecked,

for it is but seldom these days that wild life is ‘permitted’ to breed

without man’s hindrance.

SycoTTa T.E.,

KHARIKATIA P.O., J. H. BURNETT

ASSAM,

March 9, 1959.

5. SOME SORRY NOTES ON WILD LIFE IN

NW. MADHYA PRADESH

(Plate, photo 1)

In mid-December 1958, I was invited to a week’s shoot in one of

the old Rajputana States (now in northern Madhya Pradesh) and, as

I had not been into that country before, I gladly accepted.

Before, in, and after we moved into camp we met the Sub-

Divisional Officer, the Collector of the District, and the District

Superintendent of Police, and in the course of our several conversa-

tions were jointly and generally informed that shooting from cars and

jeeps was permissible and in fact the only manner in which shikar

was practised. Our protest against this form of ‘sport’ was politely

turned aside as impracticable and idealistic. More than one official

claimed to have recently shot the Great Indian Bustard.

Our camp was outside a village surrounded by cultivation, and a

mile away was a shallow ravine 50 to 200 yards wide and covered

with thorny scrub interspersed with the dhak (Butea monosperma).

This was said to hold tiger, and with the assistance of our host, the

local landlord, three beats were arranged, one necessitating the

employment of almost a hundred beaters. There were several tiger

in the 5-mile length of the ravine but the beats were all made in an

amateurish and haphazard manner and the animals never showed

themselves. Chital were twice said to have broken back but I did

not see any animals at all. Beats were arranged in forested areas!

further away with similar results, though chital, sambar, and nilgai

were seen. The beaters always included several persons armed with

muzzle-loading guns. The Indian Arms Act has recently come into

operation in this area and some of these guns were not yet covered

by any form of licence.

320 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

All tigers are termed cattle-lifters or man-eaters and receive no

protection at all, and Government officers travelling in the districts

carried loaded weapons and shot at all they saw, both by day and

night.

In this area, the slaughter of cattle is prohibited and there were

fewer goats and sheep than in any other place in India that I could

remember. The shortage of meat was acute and formed a problem

to which I had not had my attention so forcibly drawn before. Our

host was a Jain landlord, and the food which he very kindly sent to

camp was entirely vegetarian. The few partridge which we shot were

not enough to prevent everybody from becoming meat-hungry.

Attached to our camp was an enthusiastic shikari who had done

a fair amount of poaching when the shooting was controlled by the

Ruler of the State, and he now shot deer and antelope at night

whenever a jeep or other suitable conveyance was available.

On the first night we drove out in a jeep for about 10 miles and

the local shikaris immediately produced spotlights, operated on the

car battery, with which they searched the fields and forests in an

expert manner. With the greatest difficulty, shooting was restrained

and in the course of the drive we saw several small parties of nilgai

and chital. They were distinctly alarmed by the noise of the car,

but once the light was on them they could be approached within

easy shooting distance. After we failed to shoot anything in the beats,

the local enthusiasts took over the meat supply problem. They

preferred to use our host’s tractor rather than the jeep, for once the

eyes were sighted, the animals could be approached in a straight line,

there being less need to go round nullahs and other obstacles! The

party left after supper and were back in two hours with a chital stag

and doe (Plate, photo 1). Only two shots were fired, and another

doe got away wounded!

We were in one of the few parts of the country where tiger and deer

still existed in some numbers. But the tigers in the forest have been

shot out or driven into the scrub-covered ravines where a jeep cannot

reach them and which do not afford enough cover to the deer. The

tigers have, therefore, to pick up cattle from the adjoining villages,

while the deer that have survived the shooting are in the forests

separated by miles of cultivation. Though relatively safe from the

tigers, they come into the fields at night and are indiscriminately shot

wherever they can be seen from jeeps or tractors. My experience is

restricted to a relatively small area, but it did appear that this

anomalous distribution of tigers and deer was widespread.

Unless the Indian Board for Wild Life is able to carry out more

actively the work which it has undertaken, both tiger and deer will

JourRN. BomBay Nat. Hist. Soc.

Photo 1. The tractor and the meat.

Photo 2. Swamp Deer in Kanha Wildlife Sanctuary.

Photos: Humayun Abdulali

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES SpA

be completely gone in a few years. All officers no doubt have in

their files cyclostyled copies of the resolutions passed at the first

meeting of the Board held in 1951, stating that wild animals should

not be shot at night from cars and listing the Great Indian Bustard

as one of the birds which is in urgent need of protection through-

out the country.

Every year we hold a Wild Life Week, presumably to draw the

attention of the public to the resolutions of the Board, but seven years

after the setting up of the Board we have departmental heads of

districts—persons directly associated with the administration of the

law and the carrying out of the Board’s resolutions so ardently endorsed

by the President, the Prime Minister, the Chief Ministers of States—

not only ignorant of the wild life preservation laws but utterly callous

and indifferent to their enforcement when their attention is drawn

to. them.

The need of opening up more land for cultivation is admittedly

making things difficult for wild life preservation, but there can be no

doubt that if an intelligent and practical approach is made we can

solve the problem. Last year 120,000 deer were shot by licence

holders in the State of California alone, but the report states that

this was not enough and the number left over for the following year

will necessitate more deer being shot to prevent there being more

animals than the country can support. No attempts at the census of

wild animals, other than the lion in the Gir, have been attempted in

India, but though we have many areas ecologically as good as those

in California I wonder if the total number of deer left over the whole

of India is anywhere near the number shot there annually.

BomBAY NATURAL HIstTory SOCIETY,

91, WALKESHWAR ROAD, HUMAYUN ABDULALI

BoMBAY 6, eee

March 10, 1959.

6. FURTHER WILD LIF& NOTES FROM MADHYA PRADESH

(Plate, photo 2)

After I had sent in the note on wild life in north-western Madhya

Pradesh, I had the good fortune of being able to join a party of

Americans shooting big game and collecting natural history material

at Supkhar, 2250 ft., Balaghat District, Maikal Range, eastern Madhya

Pradesh. | |

‘From Nagpur I was driven to Supkhar about 180 miles away by

322. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

the Managing Director of one of the leading shikar agencies in the

country. The Society had on earlier occasions drawn attention tc

various irregularities committed by his clients, and I was assured by

the Director that every care was now taken that no laws were broken.

Panther, according to the law, could not be shot at night from or

within 100 yards of the motor vehicle in which the sportsman

travelled. To comply with the law, I was told that his clients were

taken out in jeeps at night, but when the animal was sighted the

shikari was dropped on the road, with an assistant who manipulated.

the spotlight worked on the car’s battery. The jeep was then driven

off for a hundred yards, a length of wire to feed the torch being un-

rolled along the road. We did not go into details as to whether the

jeep reversed 100 yards into darkness if the panther was on the road,

or how corners were manipulated!

When we reached camp, my hosts, who had got in about 10 days

earlier, had already shot their quota of 3 tiger and 3 panther. Mr.

and Mrs. M., being newcomers to India, were naturally guided

entirely by the advice of the officials of the Company, and one panther

at least was shot in an after-dinner drive. I was a week in camp and,

though I looked carefully, I was unable to find any trace of the wire

mentioned nor obtain any suggestion of this having been used when

the panther was shot. During my presence in camp, several attempts

were made to shoot bear at night and, though none was encountered,

a pig was shot without any 100-yard length of wire.

The Supkhar Block was closed for deer, and except for a few

cheetal, a pair of four-horned antelope, and a single barking deer I

saw no large mammals, though the country held magnificent stands of

sal forest interspersed with large maidans ideal for deer and other

herbivora. I also saw no sign of tiger or panther.

During my stay (9th to 15th March 1959), we visited the Kanha

Sanctuary which is only about 30 miles north of Supkhar and in the

same range of hills. This is an area of about 100 sq. miles at an

elevation of 2000 ft. surrounded by a range of hills. Entry by road

is possible from two directions. It is well controlled at least on one

side where there are two barriers and many formalities to be gone

through. On the far side, exit was less formal. In one afternoon I

saw several hundred each of cheetal and swamp deer (Photo 2, plate)

a herd of blackbuck, several sambar. one solitary and a party of

about ten gaur, red junglefowl, peafowl, painted partridge, and quail

of several species.

The Kanha forests are apparently being fully worked for timber

and, if in spite of this they can hold such quantities of wild life without

any obvious disadvantage to the trees, 1 can only stress the necessity

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 323

of giving this place greater publicity and persuading other States to

try and create similar conditions in their own forests. I have visited

the sanctuaries at Manas, Sona Roopa, Kaziranga (Assam, 1950),

Bandipur (Mysore, 1952), Dandeli (N. Kanara, 1948 and 1951), but

have no hesitation in saying that none of them held a fraction of the

wealth of animal life visible at Kanha. I drove back to Supkhar

after an early supper and the eyes of cheetal in the maidans glittered

like the lights of a large city seen from an elevation at night. Outside

Kanha we drove some 50 miles to Supkhar but failed to see anything,

except an occasional fox or jackal. As compared with Kanha, the

surrounding areas, including the Supkhar Block where I pottered

about for a week, appeared to have been completely shot out.

A recent press note (Nafen, 15th April 1959) stated that after tea,

jute, and textiles, tourism was India’s fourth biggest foreign exchange

earner and that the number of tourists had gone up from 23,000 in

1953 to 100,000 in 1958.

The visiting shikari or safari tourist as an individual no doubt

spends a larger amount of money in the country than the average

sight-seer, but he can only be a small fraction of the whole number. To

satisfy the visitors elaborate arrangements are made to ensure that

the full quota of animals permissible is shot within the short period for

which the block is held, while the average shikari seldom shoots his

limit. The pressure on the game population is already excessive and

it may be questioned whether in the long run it is a wise policy to

‘sell’ the remains of our wild life under the temptation of earning

a few more dollars.

BomMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY,

91, WALKESHWAR ROAD, HUMAYUN ABDULALI

BOMBAY 6,

May 28, 1959

oh A VISIT TO SOME INDIAN WILD LIFE SANCTUARIES

I have just completed a twelve-week tour of India with my wife,

during which we endeavoured to see and photograph the wild life of

the country. In the African and North American continents I have

visited the Kruger, Serengeti, and Amboseli Parks, and the Yellow-

stone, Glacier, Waterton, Banff, and Jasper Parks. As a member of

the Fauna Preservation Society of London and the Audubon Societies

of U.S.A. and Canada, as well as of the Bombay Natural History

Society, I thought that the following notes might be of interest.

324 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

RAJASTHAN

Keoladeo Breeding Waterbird Sanctuary, Bharatpur

This is a first-class bird sanctuary and we also photographed

here Nilgai and Blackbuck. There was an unusual amount of water

everywhere which made this difficult. The Maharajah lent us boats

and his head shikari to overcome this problem. These were a great

help, for without them we should have achieved nothing. Proper

boats suitably controlled to prevent undue disturbance of the breeding

birds should be made part of the regular service of the sanctuary.

One of the Sarus Crane nests near the roadside had been robbed,

allegedly by soldiers from a near-by detachment. The local inhabitants

do not molest the birds or animals.

The Range Officer in charge was extremely helpful and went to

great pains to make our visit a success. I had written to him

beforehand. |

The Rest House accommodation is very good, but we had to bring

our own cook, food, car, and driver, as at that time these were not

provided by the Forest Department.

KASHMIR

The authorities did their best to help us, but owing to the fact

that the Game Warden had been changed several times during 1958

the recently appointed holder of the office had to rely upon written

reports from subordinates. At the same time he was holding down

another job of Soil Conservation, and arranging shoots for V.I.Ps.

sent up from Delhi. All this made it difficult to arrange a satisfactory

programme in advance of our arrival. And when we finally came

to visit certain places, we found little or no wild life.

There is much disturbance of game by nomadic herdsmen and

shepherds. We found a large herd of goats in the upper part of

Desu Sanctuary the day we were there. The forest guards are afraid

io take steps against these people because they are beaten up if they

do. During the week prior to our visit some cattle had been con-

fiscated in the rakh, and during the night the herdsman and his friends

returned and reclaimed them by force. We saw their blankets being

handed over to the District Forest Officer as confiscated property.

We also heard a fantastic report of a member of Parliament actually

obtaining a permit from the authorities to shoot a Kashmir Stag

within the Dachigam Sanctuary. We were glad to hear that he missed

it with all three shots, but find it hard to believe that this could have

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 325

been permitted to happen in a reserve for a rare animal which is

supposed to be receiving full protection.

- The only area in Kashmir which is of any real value from the

point of view of wild life conservation is the combined Lower and

Upper Dachigam areas. But certain restrictions must be removed if

it is to be of any value to the visiting tourist. The rest house at

Draphama should be made available to visitors in the same way as

has been done at Bharatpur. Also the huts at Gratnar and Sangergulu

Should be repaired and equipped for visitors. Then the whole

area should be created into a National Park. At present the

argument against such a step is that Dachigam is the catchment area

for the Srinagar water supply. But this is not a valid excuse as the

area is freely entered by grass cutters, road makers, manure collectors,

and others, whom we saw and for whom there are no sanitary

arrangements. Any pollution by visitors could be prevented by the

provision of adequate sanitary facilities and limitation of the number

of visitors by permit.

MYSORE

Bandipur Sanctuary |

We saw Bison, Spotted Deer, and Sambar in this sanctuary and

photographed them with some difficulty. It was difficult to persuade

the Sanctuary staff there that an elephant ride at 6.30 a.m. or a noisy

lorry ride at 5.30 p.m. was useless from the point of view of photo-

graphy. After pressing our case we finally photographed bison in

good light quite late in the morning. Quieter running lorries or small

jeeps to replace the present trucks would be an improvement. And it

should be possible for visitors to use their own cars on the Sanctuary

roads after payment of a suitable fee, and if necessary accompanied

by a member of the staff. 7

We stayed in both the Forest and P.W.D. rest houses. The

beds are very hard in both of them, being of the solid wooden type

with only a thin mattress. We were informed that preference for

elephant rides was given to those staying in the Forest House.

The schedule of charges for cameras states clearly that the fee is

so much ‘per day’. But the official collecting the money appeared to

be under the impression that a fee should be levied ‘per trip’, i.e. for

evening as well as for morning trips.

MADRAS

Mudumalai Sanctuary

The administration of this sanctuary strikes one as being much

more efficient than that of Bandipur. The elephant camp, the washing

326 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

and feeding of elephants and the timber extraction by elephants are good

subjects for photography and could be developed as a tourist attrac-

-tion.. The Spotted Deer are not so wild as at Bandipur. A new rest

house is being built and a “Tree-Tops’ observation platform by a

water hole. The union of this sanctuary with Bandipur to form one

National Park would be a good thing if the individual states concerned

‘could come to such an agreement.

KERALA

Periyar Sanctuary

This is one of the best sanctuaries which we saw during our visit.

We used the Peermade Game Association launch for three days under

the direction of Mr. Wood. We were fortunate in having good

Opportunities for photographing elephants and bison near the water

which greatly enhances the picture. There is first-class hotel accom-

modation at the Aranya Nivas Hotel.

On the third morning we climbed a hill to the right of the dam

and photographed some sambar which we had spotted from the launch.

While we were doing this we heard a tiger in pursuit of his prey in

the forest on the other side of the dam. We then returned to the

launch and looked for elephants in another bay before returning to

the dam on our way back to the hotel. As we came in sight of the

hill we were horrified to see two figures carrying rifles who were

climbing up the hill from the dam. We verified this with binoculars.

This confirmed our suspicions, which had been raised by shots heard

at night, that regular poaching is going on within the sanctuary.

‘We were also reliably informed that solitary tusker elephants,

which used to be seen quite frequently, are now no longer found in

‘the sanctuary. The assumption is that they have been poached. We

were further told that there is a constant traffic of honey-hunters,

fishermen, and others in all parts of the sanctuary. For this reason

‘it-would appear desirable that the new Game Warden, when he is

appointed, should reside in the Sanctuary and not at Peermade. Only

frequent and vigorous patrolling can restore the situation.

ASSAM

Kaziranga Sanctuary

This sanctuary ranks equally with Periyar in being one of the

best we have seen. We saw and photographed Rhinoceros, Buffalo,

Swamp Deer, and Hog Deer. But there are certain criticisms worth

mentioning. The first is that very few tourists see the very attractive

Baguri area, and there is no illustrated booklet from which they can

obtain information about different parts of the sanctuary. We heard

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 327

that such a booklet has been written for Kaziranga, but for some

inexplicable reason its publication has been delayed for three years.

The second criticism is that entry of cattle and buffaloes into the

Mohpara and Laodubi area is permitted. This does not actually

disturb the rhino much, because we saw them grazing undisturbed near

the cattle. But there is a two-fold danger from this policy: firstly

the introduction of disease by the domestic animals, and secondly they

represent the thin edge of the wedge of advancing ‘civilization’ and

reduction of the grazing potential for wild animals. Although there

are now only a few hundred cattle and buffaloes restricted to a

certain area, yet as time goes on more and more cattle and buffaloes.

may be permitted to enter the sanctuary and their grazing zone may

become increased until finally the sanctuary is taken over by the

herdsmen. This has happened to the Serengeti National Park in East

Africa during the past year as a result of such a policy being followed

by the Government: in this case it was entry of the Masai cattle

and herdsmen from other areas which upset the balance, as there had

always been a few indigenous Masai and their cattle within the

Serengeti.

The third criticism is the low standard of catering at the Tourist

Lodge. When we protested at having chicken for lunch and dinner

every day, we were given local fish cooked to biscuit hardness—which

was worse. I complained to the Senior Conservator of Forests from

Shillong, and he assured me that a new caterer with adequate facilities

would be working by April. I hope this is true.

With regard to the collecting of view fees and camera fees we had

the same trouble as at Bandipur—namely that the official in charge'

appeared to think that these fees were to be levied ‘per trip’ instead.

When I pointed out that it was clearly stated on the back of our view

permit that these fees were daily charges, he duly amended the bill.

CONCLUSION

Generally speaking, wild life is more difficult to find and to

photograph in India than it is in Africa or North America. This is

partly due to the habits as well as habitat of the animals. |

Valiant efforts are being made by a few people to preserve the

wild life of India. They will only succeed if the national conscience

can be awakened by making the ‘National Parks’ idea catch on as it

has done in America and Africa.

There is practically no suitable illustrated literature about the wild

life sanctuaries of India. A notable exception is the very good

booklet about the bird sanctuary at Bharatpur. I had great difficulty

In obtaining information about the places I wanted to visit before I

328 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

arranged my tour. I should not have known of the existence of some

of them if it had not been for the information provided by friends.

This is in sharp contrast to Africa and America where such informa-

tion is readily available. It should be made possible to obtain

illustrated booklets about every wild life sanctuary from all Government

Tourist Offices in India and abroad.

The wild life of India, although much reduced from its former

abundance, is still very considerable. But it is almost unknown out-

side India because it is much more difficult to see and photograph

than that of Africa and North America. The wild life of Africa is

known all over the world because it has been made accessible. The

North American wild life, although less varied and numerous than

that of India, has been much better developed as a tourist attraction

so that anybody can see it easily.

There is, however, a bright future for the wild life of India if

‘national parks could be created and developed in suitable areas. If

this is done, India will have as much to show as the other countries,

and their parks could become a great tourist attraction throughout

the world.

PuRITY DAIRY BUILDING,

LETHBRIDGE, T. H. BASSETT

ALBERTA, CANADA,

January 29, 1959.

Commenting on the above note, Mr. E. P. Gee, a member of the

Society’s Advisory Committee, writes:

‘It is most interesting to obtain the impressions of a visitor to

India’s wild life sanctuaries, as it is from such a person that we can

notice our imperfections and rectify any defects that might exist in

the administration or provision of amenities for tourists. And when

the foreign visitor has had considerable experience of wild life places

in other parts of the world, as Dr. Bassett has had, his remarks are

of all the greater significance.

Ghana Bird Sanctuary, Rajasthan: There is no doubt

‘that this is a good and accessible place for foreign visitors with a

bent for ornithology. The provision of more amenities at the Rest

House, as Dr. Bassett notes, would be a big improvement—in fact it

has probably already been done by now.

Kashmir: I fully endorse all Dr. Bassett’s remarks regarding

- Kashmir and its great potentialities—especially the advantages to

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 329

nature and wild life preservation if Upper and Lower Dachigam

Sanctuaries could be made a national park.

Bandipur Sanctuary, Mysore: When I myself last

visited Bandipur in 1955 I experienced the same difficulties there as

Dr. Bassett found. It is to be hoped that such a fine place wil!

receive the full attention of the State Government, so that it will be

visited and appreciated by a greater number of visitors both from

India and from abroad.

Mudumalai Sanctuary, Madras: I noticed great im-

provements in Mudumalai in 1955 (as compared with 1954), and it

is gratifying to note that it is still further improving.

Periyar Sanctuary, Kerala. This beautiful wild life reserve

needs better protection as Dr. Bassett points out. It is such an ideal

place for visitors, that it would be nothing short of a national calamity

if it were to be spoiled by poachers.

Kaziranga Sanctuary, Assam: I endorse Dr. Bassett’s

remarks about the lack of a suitably illustrated guide booklet for this

place. Such a booklet was, in fact, written as well as approved of by

the authorities at the end of 1955. But no action has been taken to

get it published, although funds are said to have been available for

this purpose. Several other improvements at Kaziranga are long

overdue, and it is difficult to understand the delay in having these put

into effect, for Kaziranga is one of the showplaces of India’s wild life.

General: It is a fact that in India there is a noticeable dearth

of illustrated literature for tourists and visitors who want to see the

wild life sanctuaries, of this country. There are some exceptions,

such as the Ghana Bird Sanctuary of Rajasthan which has an:

illustrated booklet, and in Kerala State the Peermade Game Associa-

tion have brought out an illustrated guide booklet which includes

Periyar Sanctuary. Since Dr. Bassett’s visit to India, Madhya Pradesh

has brought out small illustrated folders for Kanha and Shivpuri, and

Uttar Pradesh also has a folder for the Corbett National Park. What

is now wanted is (i) a standard type of illustrated guide booklet for

each individual sanctuary of India, with maps and all other relevant

information, and (ii) a comprehensive illustrated guide book to include

all the major wild life sanctuaries of India. It is to be hoped that

the appropriate authorities will take action in this urgent matter.’

EDs.

330 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

8. NOTES ON THE SPINY BABBLER, ACANTHOPTILA

NIPALENSIS (HODGSON), IN THE NEPAL VALLEY

The Spiny Babbler had for many years been considered a rare

bird. It was collected by Hodgson in the 1830s. He described it

as solitary. In recent years it has been collected by Dr. Ripley at

Rekcha in W. Nepal (JBNHS 49: 394), and in some numbers by Dr.

Fleming, mostly at Pokhara and Tansen, central Nepal [JBNHS 51:

941-943; Fieldiana, Zoology, 41 (1)]._ Both these collections were made

in winter, and the birds were described as being in flocks.

My observations are confined to the Nepal Valley, and the hills

surrounding it. Here, once the bird’s song and habitat are known,

it is found to be an extremely common bird, and it is curious that it

should have been overlooked for so long. I had lived for several

years in Kathmandu before I realised how very common it was,

although I had seen the odd bird from the time we first arrived here

in 1947. The reason, I think, lies in its habitat. This is the

secondary scrub which covers large areas of the hills round the valley,

where the primary jungle has been cut down. This scrub (mostly on

the north and east faces of the hills, the south and west faces being

mostly grass with scattered bushes) is dense, hot, and shadeless, the

bushes being only about 5 ft. high. It is uncomfortable to work in

during the hot weather, and birds cannot be seen in the thick cover.

Until the calls and songs are known it is impossible to judge the

status of any species. Ornithologists with limited time at. their dis-

posal naturally prefer the wonderful forest areas with their great

variety of species. During my first years here, every spare minute

was spent in these forests. The scrub largely consists of Gaultheria,

Symplocos, Myrsine, Osbeckia, Camellia, Phyllanthus, etc. Trees,

such as Schima wallichii, Castanopsis indica, and Quercus lanuginosa

are common, but as they are constantly cut for firewood and grazed

by goats and buffaloes they seldom attain more than bush height.

Sometimes a few Chir pines (Pinus roxburghii) have been allowed to

grow into trees. Near villages the scrub is thin with open patches,

where Pyrus and Berberis grow in scattered bushes. Away from

cultivation it is so thick that one can with difficulty force one’s way

through it. The Spiny Babbler is found in all the different types of

scrub, but is commonest away from cultivation. It is abundant on

the Sankhu Ridge to the east of the valley at 6500 ft., and on Tokah

Hill between 5000 and 6000 ft. On the Kakani Ridge, we ‘ft, i

have not seen it, so perhaps 6500 is its upper limit. — |

I have found the Spiny Babbler to be, as described by Hodgson, a

solitary bird. From March to May they are in pairs. The males sit

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 33h

on some prominent bush, never on top, but on one side, usually in

full view, whence they sing from morning till night. They are parti-

cularly noisy after rain, and in the middle of the day. They sing less

in the early morning, when the dawn chorus, dominated by such birds

as the Orangeheaded Ground Thrush and the Blueheaded Rock

Thrush, is in full swing.

The singing birds can easily be approached to within 25 ft. or so.

If disturbed they slip out of sight, but at this season if the watcher

waits quietly for a few minutes, the bird will reappear and start to

sing again from the same spot or very near it. The males have a

great variety of notes, but the tone, a peculiar harsh yet ringing

whistle, is always the same. It is not at all like a typical Turdoides

call, nor does it have the beautiful pure whistle of so many Garrulax

species. The call most often heard starts with a few fine whistles

and then continues up the scale: :

ie ter-etc.:’

fer ter tee

“ice _ It also has, in the breeding season only,

a very distinctive and peculiar call down the scale:

tee tee ker eee A

chee

ker chee.”

This is sometimes preceded by a

running trill, There are many other combinations of whistled notes. As

soon as one bird starts to call, it is answered by another and another,

usually about 200 yards apart. They can be heard answering each other

for long distances, and the total number of birds must be very great.

Day after day I would find a given pair in the same place, often in the

same bush. | 3

The sexes are not distinguishable in the field, and where in the

following notes I speak of the female it is merely on presumption

from behaviour. During March and April, the singing male is usually

accompanied by a female, low in the scrub. She spends a good deal

of time preening herself, uttering low churring cries, but it is usually

very difficult to see her, and only by the calls can she be located. I

have never heard her sing, but in addition to the churrs, she has a

loud call: wick-er-wick-er-wick-er. Jf she leaves the bush where the

male is singing, he will stop and follow her, and the two will some-

times burst out in a wild crescendo of screaming calls when they do

sound very like the typical Jungle Babbler of the plains. I have

seen the male pick up a leaf and offer it to the female, but she did

not take it. While they are moving together through the bushes, she

frequently picks up dead pine needles and leaves, and then carries

332. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

them for a short distance before dropping them; the male occasionally

does the same. I was never able to see them actually building.

Occasionally they would fly, just skimming the bushes, sometimes for

a considerable distance, but in an awkward top-heavy manner. I have

seen a pair sitting close beside each other in a bush preening

themselves and occasionally preening each other, uttering low churring

notes and raising the feathers of the head into a crest. I have also

often seen the female drooping wings and tail and begging for food

like a young bird. The male would then become very excited, but

I never saw him attempt to feed her, nor ee I seen them actually

mating.

Later, at the end of April and May I have seen only singing males.

The females may have been incubating, but I never found a nest.

In June, July, and August, the males continue to sing, but now from

deep within a bush. They sing in short bursts, and if approached

become instantly silent but remain in the same area, for if the watcher

moves away the song is presently heard again from the same place. The

call down the scale is not now often heard. They are silent for long

periods but when one sings it still stimulates others to reply, sometimes

from a considerable distance.

A singing male, shot on the 26th July, had the breeding organs

slightly enlarged and tail feathers very worn and frayed. Another

shot on August 4th was in beautiful fresh plumage; the testes were not

at all enlarged, but nevertheless he was singing with great zest. I did

not wish to disturb the breeding birds, so did not shoot any ae me

spring.

In September the birds are still in full song, copa tl antag

intervals in the monsoon showers. In October they are occasionally

heard, and from November to February not at all.

During the winter they are impossible to locate in the thick scrub

and would certainly be regarded as very rare birds. In thinner scrub;

in areas where I had found them to be common in summer, they can

still be seen, especially in the evenings. They now keep almost

entirely to the ground, searching for food amongst low bushes, but

occasionally appearing in the open, to peck at a patch of dried cow-

dung, or turn over dead leaves. They may then be in small flocks,

but I have never actually seen more than two birds together.

_ My only note from outside the valley is from my husband, who

found a bird singing in a bush in typical scrub country, just under

6000 ft. in the Trisuli valley, near the village of Grang, May 26.

BRITISH EMBASSY,

KATHMANDU, NEPAL, DESIREE PROUD

January 31, 1959. . | | : oy

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 333

9. A NEW WHITE-THROATED RACE OF THE BABBLER

DUMETIA HYPERYTHRA

Stuart Baker in the Fauna (Vol. I, p: 228) accepted two species

in the genus Dumetia:

D. hyperythra Franklin, 1831, P.Z.S.: 118, (Ganges near Benares),

with chin and throat rufous, and

D. albogularis Blyth, 1847, J.A.S.B. 16: 453, ‘southern India’,

restricted to Mysore by Baker, 1921, Handlist: 24, with chin and

throat white.

In the white-throated group he included Harington’s race abuensis

(1915, JBNHS 23: 429) from Mt. Abu, which differed from albogularis

in having the whole crown chestnut and the underparts much darker.

This form was stated as occurring from Mt. Abu and Deesa, down to

Mahableshwar.

Whistler examined this question at length [Eastern Ghats Report

(JBNHS 35: 743-5)], and rightly opined that the evidence for

hyperythra and albogularis both occurring in the same area was un-

satisfactory. He therefore reduced the latter to a race of hyperythra.

He synonymised abuensis with albogularis as being inseparable, thus

expanding the latter’s distribution to ‘a strip of country down western

India from Mt. Abu and Deesa extending through Baroda, Western

Khandesh (Dhulia, Nandurbar, Khondabhari Ghat), Nasik and the

whole range of the Sahyadris (Khandala & Mahableshwar) with their

adjoining districts, to the south of the Peninsula’. He drew attention

to Fairbanks’s statement that it (the white-throated form) is very

definitely a bird of the Ghats which did not extend into the Deccan

tableland. In south Konkan and Kanara it was scarce though

apparently commoner in Mysore where, in the valley of the Kistna,

it occurred directly opposite the southernmost limit of the typical race

(hyperythra). South of this albogularis was again widely, though not

uniformly, distributed in the rest of the Peninsula and Ceylon.

(Later the birds from Ceylon were separated as D. h. phillipsi by

Whistler, as having a heavier bill.)

Whistler also changed the type locality of alboguiaris from

‘Mysore’ in the Fauna to “Taipoor Pass and near Jaulna’. Curiously

the original reference quoted by him (1847, J.A.S.B. 16: 453) does

not mention these places. Blyth there writes of the white-throated

form of Dumetia hyperythra: ‘I find that T. hyperythra of Jerdon

inhabiting India and Ceylon differs from true hyperythra which TJ

obtained from the Midnapore jungles in having the chin and throat

white . . . . Should it be considered separable as a Species from

its representative in Southern India, the latter may stand as M. (?)

334 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

albogularis nobis.’ The name albogularis therefore obviously applied

to the south Indian form which was restricted to Mysore by Stuart

Baker in the Handlist and Fauna. This removes a considerable source

of ambiguity and confusion, particularly if the geographical variations

listed in this note are accepted.

In subsequent years the position as interpreted by Whistler stood.

But I recently had occasion to handle a few specimens and was

struck by the very pronounced rufous cap which separated birds from

the north-western parts of its range from others in peninsular India.

The feathers of the forehead are longer and a brighter chestnut, in

which the pale shafts show up as distinct streaks. Mr. Salim Ali who

obtained several specimens in his Guiarat Survey agrees with me that

abuensis of Harington is a perfectly good race which extends along

the foothills and coastal plains as far south as Bombay city.

In the course of the same investigation I noticed that some birds

from Khandala c. 2000 ft., Western Ghats, were markedly different from

others, and was fortunately able to supplement the series with several

additional specimens from that area. These differ from both abuensis

and albogularis in the following characters:

1. The upper parts are suffused with owe and lack ‘the rufous'

tinge of the other two races.

2. The feathers on the forehead form a cap smaller than that in

abuensis and which is a dark brown rather than chestnut. The pale

-shafts to these feathers are also less prominent than in abuensis.

3. As a series the rufous underparts are duller than in abuensis

and albogularis. | |

4. The upper mandible is dark horny or blackish as against

yellow, which latter, incidentally, has been given as one of the

characters of the genus.

5. The legs, feet, and claws have a greenish tinge ; as against

yellow.

Differences 4 and 5 were not noted in the field; in made-up skins

the colour of the bill and legs enables one readily to pick out

specimens of the new form from a mixed lot. The colour of the bill

and feet should, I believe, be possible to tell in the field. Its

measurements do not differ from those of the other races.

On 20th May 1959, Br. Novarro obtained a juvenile with a half

grown tail at Khandala. The colours of the bill, legs and feet agree

with those of the adults, but there is no trace of any cap on the

forehead.

On the above differences I have no hesitation in describing a new

race.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 335

Dumetia hyperythra navarroi subsp. nov.

- Type: A male collected by Br. Navarro at Khandala c. 2000 ft.,

Western Ghats, Poona District, Bombay State, on 22-5-1958. B.N.H.S.

Coll. No. 20120.

Named in honour of Br. A. Navarro, S.J., of St. Xavier’s High

School, Bombay, who procured the specimens at Khandala, and who

has in other ways helped the Society with ornithological and other

material over the last 30 years.

Four more from Khandala, two from Kihim (Alibag Taluka, Kolaba

District), and one from Padhga (Bhiwandi Taluka, Thana District),

have all the characters on which this race is described.

Distribution: Four specimens from Bombay and Salsette Islands

are nearer abuensis. The two specimens from Kihim, which is on

the mainland about 6 miles south across Bombay harbour, are

definitely navarroi. Of two collected around Bhiwandi, which is on

the mainland 20 miles north of Bombay, only one has all the charac-

ters, while the other may pass as abuensis except for the colour of

the bill and legs. The distribution in the Konkan, as also around

Khandala, needs to be worked out and it could form the basis of an

interesting ecological study.

While handling the Dumetias in the Bombay collection it was

apparent that there were several variations in the forms without the

white throat, i.c. hyperythra. The scarcity of fresh material deters

one from attempting to separate any geographical forms, but they will

no doubt repay further taxonomical study.

BomMBAY NATURAL History SOCIETY,

91, WALKESHWAR ROAD, _ HUMAYUN ABDULALI

BoMBAY 6,

May 20, 1959.

10. ON THE VALIDITY OF HARPACTES ERYTHROCEPHALUS

HODGSONI (GOULD) [AVES: TROGONIDAE]

ae (With a text-figure)

The Redheaded Trogon was first described as Trogon erythro-

cephalus by Gould (1834) from specimen (s) obtained in Rangoon,

Burma. The Himalayan bird from Nepal was later separated by

him (1838) as Trogon (Harpactes) hodgsoni. The indiscriminate use

336 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

of these two names in the literature has led to a great deal of confusion

in the nomenclature. The following are some examples:

(a) hodgsoni used for the Indian and erythrocephalus for the

Burmese birds (Gould, 1838, 1865, 1869); 3

(b) hodgsoni used for the Burmese bird without any reference to

erythrocephalus (Blanford, 1870; Blyth, 1875);

former being used for both the Indian and the Burmese birds (Oates,

1883; Hume, 1890; Ogilvie-Grant, 1892; Blanford, 1898; Baker, 1927:

Peters; 1945);

TABLE I

Measurements in mm., of specimens of Harpactes erythrocephalus (Gould)

aco or: a are

Locality | Sex Wing | Tail | Bill Wing Bil Index?

Kumaon uf | g : 15324 ee OO | 21 13.7

! |

g | 153, 154, | 182, 195-, | 21,91 20 Sela gee

155.5

Nepal

@ | 151, 152.5, | 180, 183, | 20, 20:5) 9f- 1a, egrets ot

| 153, 154 188-,190 | 21 13.7

a | 2 eZ ‘ : . Ri eT a ee, AEP Re a

$149, 149, 150,176, 176, 178,|21, 21.5, 21.5, 13.9, 14, 14.4,

eee 151, 154 190, 190 23, 22 14.7, 14.8

Q@ | 150, 151 182, 185 3 )202185 | 13.2, 14.4

3 145, 145, 147,/179, 179, 180,) 21, 21, 22, | 14, 14.5, 14.6,

147, 148, 150,|181, 182,.182,|. 22, 22, 22a), vidoe = anges

Assam 151

Q 143,146, 146,| 172, 173-, | 19,20, 20, 4)\18.sfa ema a

146, 149 175,200; 25.5501 14.3, 14.4

150.5, 151, |187, 191, 1924 22, 22°5, assets wales

& 151.5 : 182 ey) ! 14.5

Upper Burma ..

, | 2 | 146, 148 189, 189 23, ==. . Gaede

Lower Burma .. | a 143, 145, 146177, 186, 201 | 2ie2ieo2 | 14.5; 14:8) 505

| | | |

Seeder J 144, 145 180, 182 22,225 | 1522-1 Se

- Tenasserim ..| 9 | 44g — 182, 187 21, ater

, | | |

7 Wing-Bill Index = peu x 100

Wing

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 357

(d) erythrocephalus and hodgsoni treated synonymously, the

latter, in spite of its later date, being used for both the Indian and the

Burmese birds (Hume & Oates, 1875; Jerdon, 1877; Hume & Davison,

1878); — |

(e) hodgsoni used for both the Indian and the Burmese birds,

even accepting the Nepal and Sikkim birds as different from the

Burmese (Horsfield & Moore, 1858);

(f) hodgsoni used for Indian birds alone, without any reference

to erythrocephalus (Hume, 1875).

The main point at issue is the taxonomic status of the Indian bird.

A critical comparison of material from Kumaon, Nepal, Sikkim,

Assam, and Burma at once reveals that the Himalayan bird is indeed

different from the southern Burmese bird in being much larger, in

having a smaller wing-bill index (Table 1), and a shade deeper colora-

tion. The Assam-Upper Burma populations are, as may be expected,

intermediate between the Himalayan and the southern Burmese

populations (Fig. 1). It seems necessary, therefore, to resuscitate

156 156

155 155

154 154

WING

22 23

lSshik See

Fig. 1. Lengths of wing and bill in specimens of Harpactes erythrocephalus

from India and Burma

@ Kumaon-Sikkim. @Assam-Upper Burma. © Lower & Peninsular Burma

338 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL AIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

Gould’s name hodgsoni for the Himalayan bird which should now be

known as Harpactes erythrocephalus hodgsoni (Gould). Its’ type

locality may be restricted to Hitaura, Chisapani Garhi Province, Nepal.

My grateful thanks are due to the authorities of the American

Museum of Natural History, New York, for extending me all facilities

to work on their material on which the above observations are based.

C/O ZOOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA,

INDIAN MUSEUM,

CaLcuTtTa 13,

April 8, 1959.

BISWAMOY BISWAS

REFERENCES

Baker, E.C.S. (1927): The Fauna of

British India, Birds (2nd ed.) 4 : 318-319,

London.

Blanford, W. T. (1870) : List of birds

obtained in the Irrawadi valley around

Ava, Thayet Myo, and Bassein.

6: 465.

— — — (1898) : The Fauna of British

India, Birds (list ed.) 3: 200-201,

London.

Blyth, E. (1875) : Catalogue of mam-

mals and birdsof Burma. J. Asiat. Soc.

Beng. 44 (extra no.) : 82.

Gould, J. (1834) : Characters of three

new species of Trogon in the collection

of the Society. Proc. zool. Soc. Lond.

(Qye25:

— —— (1838) : A monograph of the

Trogonidae, or family of trogons (lst

ed.), pl. 34. London.

— — — (1865) : The birds of Asia 1:

pl. 69, London.

— — — (1869) : A monograph of the

Trogonidae, or family of trogons (2nd

ed.), pl. 42. London.

Horsfield, T. & Moore, F. (1858) :

Ibis, (2) .

A catalogue of the birds in the Museum

of the Hon. East India Company 2:

713. London.

Hume, A.O. (1875): Nests and eggs

of Indian birds: Rough drafts, 99,

Calcutta.

— — — (1890) : The nests and eggs

of Indian birds (2nd ed., Ed. by

E. W. Oates) 2 : 339-340. London.

—— — & Davison, W. (1878): A.

revised list of the birds of Tenasserim,

Str. Feath. 6 : 66.

—— — & Oates, E. W. (1875): A

first list of birds of Upper Pegu. Str.

Feath. 3: 47.

Jerdon, T. C. (1877): The birds of

India 1: 202. Calcutta.

Oates, E. W. (1883) : A handbook to

the birds of British Burmah 2: 99.

London.

Ogilvie-Grant, W.R. (1892) : Catalogue

of birds in the British Museum 17 :

488. London.

Peters, J. L. (1945): Check-list of

birds of the world 5 : 163, Cambridge,

Mass.

11. EDIBLE-NEST SWIFTLETS IN BURMA

I was glad to read Mr. Sdlim Ali’s contribution of notes on the

above by the late Mr. S. F. Hopwood in your Journal Vol. 54, No. 4.

Although suggestions for some form of control had been made

pre-war, nest collection until 1951-52 was an annual affair, the right

to collect being sold by tender—nothing else was done.

During December 1956, I happened to be touring in the Tavoy

Forest Division with U Kwet Kaw, A.T.M., Conservator of Forests,

Maritime Circle, to revise the working plan and we hit upon the

formation of a “Working Circle’.

This is quite a novelty in this part

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 339

of the world as working circles are formed of forests to ‘work’ ~the

timber, firewood, grass, bark, etc. I give below extracts from the

revised divisional working plan for the period 1951-52 to 1964-65

embodying certain pre-war data and those collected largely at the

instance of U Kwet Kaw:

“HGNETTHAIK WORKING CIRCLE

(Henetthaik is the Burmese for edible birds’ nests)

‘General Constitution of the Working Circle

‘This working circle is constituted to protect. the swift (Collocalia

francica) and to collect edible birds’ nests of commerce on a sustained

yield basis. Another species (Collocalia innominata) is also found nest-

ing in the caves along with the former. Jnnominata produces black

nests of little commercial value. The islands on which these swifts

nest are listed below:

Area in

acres

(5)

Group

(4)

Situation

(3)

Names of islands or

rocks

(2) |

Serial

(1)

TAVOY DISTRICT

Hnget-thaik-kyun Reserve Block II

1- 3 Kyauk-bu-taung (Bird’s ) i

nest Rock) consisting of |

three unnamed islands or

rocks (2.05 acres, 4.20

acres, and 2.90 acres

respectively).

Hnget-thaik-taung (Cra-} Lying to the east of |

dle Rocks) consisting of | Maungmagan islands (Mid-

g |

four unnamed islands or

rocks (15.24 acres, 12.80

acres, 28.16 acres, and

9.60 acres, respectively).

Hnget-thaik-kyun(140.80

acres).

dle Moscos) between long.

97°50’ and 55’ and lat.

14°15’ and 5’ of Survey

of India Map, Sheet No.

95F/16. |

Lying between Atet)

Bok (North island) and)

Auk Bok (South island)

of Launglon Bok (South)

Moscos_ islands) between |

Moscos

Group

long. 97°50’ and 55’ and.

lat. 13°55’ and 50’

Survey of India Map, Sheet

No. 95 G/13.

Total

{

| 205.75

215.15

LS ST,

340

JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

Names of islands or

rocks

(2)

Situation

(3)

12-14

15-18

19-22

23&24

MERGUI DISTRICT

Hnget-thaik-kyun :

Mali Kaing Hngetthaik |)

(North Rocks) (5.12 acres). |,

Peinne kyun or Paine

(Great Canister) Island

(889.60 acres).

Mali Don or Mali

Taunggyi (Hngetthaik

Birds-nests Islands) j(inclu-

ding two rocks) (23.34

Reserve Block I

Lying to the west of

Tavoy islands (Mali)

between long. 98° 10’ and

20’ and lat. 12° 50’ and

13° 0’ of Survey of India

Sheet Map, No. 95 L/1

and 5.

acres).

The Ye-E group Hnget-

thaik taung (Marble

Islands) consisting of six

unnamed islands or rocks

(332.80 acres, 2.50 acres,

2.50 acres, ~ 63.80 - acres,

15.36 acres, and 30.70

acres respectively).

Turrets Islands consist-

ing of Pulo Beba, Pulo

Salangin (hnget - thaik

kyun), and Pulo Prewang

(6.50 acres, 16.80 acres

and. 9.72 acres . respec-

tively).

Panthun kyun (Pickwick

Group) consisting of four

unnamed islands or rocks

(15.40 acres, 5.12 acres,

12.80 acres, and 10.24

acres respectively).

Pulo Tica (Nine-pins)

consisting of four unnamed

islands or rocks (10.80

acrés, 3.20 acres, 1.05

acres and 38.40 acres’

respectively).

Kawnga island (Acreage

not available).

Lying to the east of

Domel Island between long.

98°-15’ and 20’ lat. 11°-35’

and 30’ of Survey of

India Map, Sheet No. 96

1/6 and I/5.

Lying off the coast about

3 miles from ‘‘ Salangin ”’| |

between long. 98°-25’ and|.

of | |

Survey of India Map, |

lat. 10°-35’ and 30’

Sheet No. 96 J/6.

Lying to the west of|'

Sellore Island and north of

Parker Island between

long. 98°-15’ and 20’ and

lat. 12°-5’ and 0’ of Survey

of India Map, Sheet No.

96 L/8.

Lying to the west of

Lampi Island between long.

98°-0’ and 5’ and Jat.

10°-50’ and 45’ of Survey

yy India Map, Sheet No. 96

Lying to the west of

St. Mathew’s Island about

'30 miles west of Kaw-

name of

thaung. (The

shown on

islands. not

Survey of India one inch

to a mile map.)

| Area in

Group

acres

(4) (5)

Mali 917.76

Group

\ Mergui

( Group | 577.69

Total ..| 1495.45

Grand

Total

se} 1741.20

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 341

‘Nest Collection

‘The swifts visit the caves on the islands in the middle of the cold

season and make their nests which are the edible birds’ nests prized

by epicures. On the Mali group the first collection of nests is made

‘in the first week of March. The second and third collections are

‘made at approximately 25-day intervals. Towards the middle of May

the birds are allowed to lay their eggs in the nests made for the fourth

‘time. It takes about 14 months for the eggs to hatch and the young

birds to be able to migrate with their parents to avoid the heavy

monsoon weather. Nests are collected finally for the fourth time in

the first week of July. On the Mergui and Moscos groups of islands,

the season is said to start two to three weeks earlier.

‘The islands frequented by swifts are sparsely covered by valueless

scrub which, however, provides resting places for falcons. According,

to nest collectors tree cover provides falcons with shelters in which they

lie in wait and prey upon swifts. The Ye-E group of islands which

was almost bare 30 years ago and gave record outturn of nests is now

fully under tree growth and is rarely visited by the nest-making swifts.

‘As a result of over-collection, the number of swifts is dwindling.

‘The following shows the weight of nests collected as furnished by

the monopolist, and the monopoly fee received from him:

Year Viss* K Year Viss K

1927-28 361 No record 1941--42

to No record

1928-29 578 1944-45

1929-30 84 1945-46 No record 3,150

1930-31 85 1946-47 125 5,400

1931-32 No record | 1947-48 482 8,150

1932-33 188 ‘ 6,458 average 1948-49 299 12,750

1933-34 199 for 10 years 1949-50 231 30,050

1934-35 Da | 1950-51 319 31,800

1935-36 206 1951-52 250

1936-37 281 | 1952-53 240 1,41,000

1937-38 45 J 1953-54 175

1938-39 285 No record 1954-55 170

1939-40 1461 A 1955-56 338 1,05,000

1940-41 281 A 1956-57 se

‘Protective Measures

‘While on humanitarian grounds complete protection to the birds

would be desirable, such protection for the scattered positions of the

islands would be both difficult and very expensive on account of the

trade demand for the nests. The problem therefore resolves itself to

arranging the nature and degree of protection deemed necessary to

*1 Viss = ca. 33 |b.

JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

342

a a SS SE, TE LEED ELOISE EE

Bee * TeyOL, puerH

4 se TROL

Ol InsII|] ai ae Fede

(e = SOSSOW] — ounr U10Z

*sjsou Ajlyenb piiy) Ajurepy O¢ ~ — eA Ajne Uip qwinojy

endef oo ee

co * [ezOL,

ST Indo = = a

fh ae SODSO|| — YoIeJA, INT

Ov a | = TRA Tidy 4192 PUL

cSI * TROL |

0Z INSIO| — = -

Ol ~-- SODSOJ[ YoIey 3ST

“Sou Ajyenb ysay AyUTeyy CTI a ag —_ 1eW [dy 1s] as puosss

9L Te30.L

Ol IndIOW — a es

9 — SOODSOJ] — Areniqoy YI

*sysou Ayi]enb puodas Ajurepy 09 — — ITeW yore, Uy¢ ISU

(L) (9) (s) (p) Peer ee i eee (€) (Z) (1)

syIewMlsy (sstA) BS ee eS aeq UOND9T[OD -

JUSIOM spuvys! Jo dnoip

[0q 0} payoder oJ9M SUOT}DIT[OD sy} “OCH, SULTING

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 343

prevent these birds from being exterminated by ruthless exploitation

while at the same time seeing that the State gets its due revenue, in

increasing amounts if possible, from the trade.

‘Measures proposed to be adopted are:

(i) the employment of an armed patrol consisting of forest

subordinates and boatmen,

(ii) the persistent and repeated killing or cutting back of tree

growth on the nest islands of C. francica,

(iii) the departmental shooting of falcons and offering of rewards

to villagers,

(iv) the enforcement of a close season for two months, say during

May and June when the birds will be allowed to make nests and lay

their eggs without molestation,

(v) the rotational collection of nests. The Game Warden

suggested pre-war, the following programme of open and close coupes:

Year Open Close

(1) (2) (3)

First ..| Mergui group, Moscos group,| Mali group Tayoktwin and

and Mali group except Tayoktwin| Nattwin only.

and Nattwin.

Second ..| Mergui group, Moscos group,| Mali group except Tayoktwin

and Mali group—Tayoktwin and| and Nattwin.

Nattwin only.

Third ..| Whole of Mali group. Mergui and Moscos groups.

Prescriptions

‘The following prescriptions are laid down:

(i) An armed patrol of forest subordinates and boatmen will

be formed as soon as possible, their principal duties will be to enforce

game laws, detect poachers, fell or kill as many trees as possible on

nesting islands, and to shoot falcons. They will also assist the

monopolist and supervise his work.

(ii) To encourage the shooting of falcons, suitable rewards will

be given to villagers.

(iii) As a start a close season of two months—May and June—

is prescribed. Studies of the birds’ habits will reveal whether the

period of this close season is adequate or not.

344. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

(iv) The programme of rotational collection requires further

knowledge and will be considered after sufficient investigations have

been made by gazetted officers.

(v) The right to collect birds’ nests will be sold by tender for

a period of 3 or 6 years so that the monopolist can:

(a) assure himself of a reasonable security of tenure,

(b) improve the nesting caves by arranging to fell trees and

shooting falcons,

I may add that the prescriptions of the Working Plan are carried

out to the extent funds and security conditions permit.

Nest collection was also done pre-war on a very small scale in the

old Bassein Forest Division. To quote from the Working Plan for

the period 1929-30 to 1938-39: ‘The present lease for edible birds’

nests expires on the 30th of June 1931. The revenue from this source

has fallen off in recent years and persistent collection appears to be

reducing the number of birds. When the present lease expires, the

collection of nests should be closed down for five years in order to

give the birds a chance of breeding. When a lease is again given out

the confinement of nest collection to the period from November to

January should be considered.’ No fresh lease appeared to have been

issued since 1931.

Nos. 25-26, RANDERIA BUILDING,

PHAYRE STREET, T. CHEIN HOE,

RANGOON, Chief Conservator of Forests, Burma.

July 3, 1958.

12. REMARKS ON THE SUBSPECIES OF THE GRASS

OWL, FYXTOVEAPENSIS

Recently I was able to study the material of this species in the

British Museum (Natural History). This has _ necessitated some

changes in my earlier conclusions (Amadon & Jewett, 1946, Auk:

551-558) as to the Asiatic and Australian subspecies. As in the

earlier revision I still believe it is best to unite the grass owls of these

areas with the African ones to which the older name capensis pertains.

- The African forms are not treated here except to state that they are

distinct racially from the others.

Tyto capensis longimembris (Jerdon)

This race is found in suitable areas in India, Burma, and northern

Indochina. Those from Indochina, judging from the two or three

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 345

specimens examined, are somewhat buffier than is usual, and hence

are intermediate toward the following race.

Tyto capensis chinensis Hartert

Synonyms: JT. c. albifrons Caldwell & Caldwell, and T. c. mellt

Yen. |

_ This race is found in southeastern China (Fukien, Kwangtung,

and Kwangsi). It is the size of longimembris but is typically entirely

tawny buff ventrally. Occasional examples of Jlongimembris and

chinensis may be rather similar but most specimens are readily

separable.

Tyto capensis pithecops (Swinhoe)

In the earlier revision I tentatively placed Formosan birds with

longimembris of India, despite the intervention of the range of

chinensis. The only specimen examined was inseparable. After

examining four Formosan skins in the British Museum and one

recently collected for the American Museum by Myles Walsh IIi, I

question the locality of the specimen examined earlier and believe

that a Formosan race should be recognized. Formosan birds on the

average are bufher and more richly coloured than longimembris though

less uniformly so, as a rule, than chinensis. From either of these

races, pithecops may be told by its larger size and more robust pro-

portions. Measurements of wing in millimetres follow. Presumably

the larger birds are females, but too few specimens are sexed to

permit segregation.

Formosa: 344, 352, 353, 360, 363 (354.4).

India and Burma: 18 specimens, 318-347 (330.2).

Tyto capensis amaurnota (Cabanis)

The Philippine race, like pithecops, is of larger size and with a

more robust bill than /ongimembris. It lacks the buffiness of

pithecops, however, and is exceedingly close to longimembris in colour

and pattern. Slight average differences in the size and distinctness of

the tail bars are set forth in the earlier review.

Tyto capensis papuensis Hartert

This race inhabits the New Guinea grasslands. It is a well-marked

form. The back is a clearer darker gray than in any of the other

non-African races, and the dorsal markings are narrow white shaft

streaks, not spots. The last character it shares with some specimens

of longimembris. In size papuensis approaches or equals pithecops

and amauronota. The wing lengths of four recently collected, well-

prepared specimens in London are: co, 347, 348: 9, 356, 357.

346 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

Tyto capensis walleri (Diggles)

Synonyms: JT. c. oustaleti (Hartlaub) of Fiji, and T. c. georgiae

Mathews, of Victoria, Australia.

Range: Northern and eastern Australia. The racial allocation

of birds from Celebes and the near-by island of Kalidupa (one known

from each) is in doubt, but they are best assigned to walleri.

The species formerly occurred in New Caledonia and on Fiji but

has not been found in either area in many years. To be sure, the

hot tall grasslands it inhabits are often shunned by collectors.

I have examined one specimen from New Caledonia in New York

and another in London and also a specimen from Fiji in London.

So far as I can determine from such meagre and, in this case, ancient

material it is best to place the New Caledonia and Fiji birds under

walleri. Even Australian specimens are by no means common in

collections. I saw only one in London; the Mathews Collection in

New York has four or five.

The race walleri is exceedingly similar to longimembris of India;

in fact, if their ranges were continuous there could be no thought of

separating them. It is possible that comparison of really adequate

material might reveal further differences. Perhaps the species has

spread comparatively recently from India to Australia and may still

be recorded from some of the intervening areas, for example Sumatra.

The recent astonishing discovery in Africa of another tytonid Phodilus

shows how much is still to be learned about some of the more elusive

owls.

On present appearances walleri differs from longimembris only by

having, on the average, more dorsal and ventral spotting, and perhaps

by averaging a little buffier.

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY,

NEw YORK, DEAN AMADON

February 7, 1959.

13. LOCAL MOVEMENTS OF RESIDENT WATERBIRDS

Very little accurate data exist on the local movements of resident

Indian birds within the country. We do not know for instance what

happens to waterbirds like storks, herons, and egrets during years of

scanty rainfall or drought in their nesting areas: whether these birds

skip an unfavourable season altogether, or find alternative breeding

areas elsewhere, and what distances they travel in the search. Neither

do we know on what pattern the dispersal of the young takes place

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 347

after a successful nesting season, how widely they disperse, and

whether they return to their natal jheels to breed in due course.

In an attempt to answer some of these questions I have for several

years past been doing a limited amount of ringing of nestlings, parti-

cularly painted storks, openbilled storks, and white ibises, with a

few egrets, grey herons, darters, and cormorants. ‘The work so far

has been done only in the Keoladeo Ghana Breeding Waterbird

Sanctuary of Bharatpur, with the assistance, whenever obtainable, of

ornithological friends visiting the Ghana during my annual visits.

While the total number of birds thus ringed perhaps hardly exceeds

500 to 600, four of the recoveries, all of openbilled storks (Anastomus

oscitans), are of special interest, the last coming from over 500 miles

away. 3

It is hoped to intensify the ringing work in Bharatpur com-

mensurately with the vast opportunities the Keoladeo Sanctuary offers.

Ringed by Date and Place of Distance and

No. | Date recovery direction flown

6516 | 23-9-56 |SA, Mr. & Mrs. Peter 25-11-’56 Sandila,Har-|c. 180 miles E. of

Jackson, Mrs. U.| doi Dist., U.P. Bharatpur

Ganguli |

6204 | 26-9-57 SA Jan. °58, Gorakhpur,|c. 350 miles E. of

UWP: Bharatpur

6508 | 23-9-56 SA, Mr. & Mrs. Peter|c. Feb. 7°58 Deori,| ca. 380 miles E. of

| Jackson, Mrs. U.| U.P. Bharatpur

Ganguli

6481 | 23-9-57 SA 31-1-59 Darbhanga} c. 510 miles E. of

(Bihar) Bharatpur

It will be noted that in all cases the dispersal has been eastward.

33, PALI HILL, ;

BANDRA, SALIM ALI

Bomsay 20,

May 29, 1959.

14. DROWNING OF AQUATIC BIRDS

In the Journal for August 1958 (55: 353) Mr. Humayun Abdulali

and the Editors comment on various instances of the deliberate drown-

ing of aquatic birds (ducks, coots) by raptorial species. This act

required in the several instances ‘some time,’ “four minutes,’ and ‘a

couple of minutes’. While in each case the victimized bird was seen

348 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

to be dead at the end of the attack, it may be questioned whether

death was in fact due to drowning. The seizure of a bird in the

strong grasp of a predator would have a strangling effect quite apart

from immersion, so that respiratory movements might be impossible

in any event. In addition it is possible that one or more of the sharp ©

talons would pierce vital organs or vessels, producing shock and

haemorrhage. aN

Aquatic birds, as well as mammals such as seals and whales, are

adapted for holding their breath longer than their terrestrial relatives.

The physiology of these diving forms has been investigated rather

extensively, and it has been found that some of them. have anatomical

adaptations for storing an excess of oxygenated blood. It would there-

fore be conceivably more difficult to drown a coot than a sparrow.

In shooting birds for museum specimens I have followed the practice

of killing wounded birds by compressing their bodies between the

axillae (‘armpits’) with thumb and forefinger; within seconds a sparrow

gasps a few times and dies. Finding an oiled Razorbilled Auk on the -

New Jersey coast many years ago, I attempted to dispatch it the same

way. It regarded me with no apparent concern while the muscles of

my forearm slowly gave out. (I was obliged to knock its head on a

stone.)

It may. be as well to leave the question unanswered, for I do not

recommend the unsavoury experiment of determining the drowning time

of various birds merely to satisfy our curiosity. |

P.O. Box 1038,

JOHANNESBURG, C. BROOKE WORTH

SOUTH AFRICA,

Féebruary.16; 1959:

[Allowing that, on account of its special physiological adaptation

a healthy diving bird, or one that has not been vitally wounded, may

take a longer time to drown than a non-diver, it is possible that under

the influence of fright and in the stranglehold of a predator, possibly

with some of its vital organs pierced, the time necessary for drowning

would be shorter. In any case, the eagle’s manoeuvre of holding

its quarry submerged, whether intentional or not and whether learnt

by experience or not, would, certainly help to hasten the victim’s

end.—EDs.]

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 349

15. A FLYING ACCIDENT TO A SWIFT

Salim Ali, my husband Loke Wan Tho, and I were looking at a

bungalow in Fraser’s Hill (a holiday resort in Malaya) at about dusk

on 20th November 1958. There were swarms of swiftlets (Collocalia)

flying about and feeding themselves, and we remarked that they

looked very like locusts or falling leaves. Suddenly, at 7.40 p.m.

when almost dark, I saw out of the corner of my eye an object falling

on to the road about 15 feet from the house. I walked to the spot

and found a dead swiftlet which was still warm when I picked it up.

The only conclusion I can draw from this extraordinary incident was

that the bird had collided with another swift and thus met its death.

The sky was quite open except for the swifts flying about, and there

were no trees or wires above the spot where the bird had fallen. The

skin of the swift (Collocalia esculenta) is now with Mr. Sdlim Ali in

the Bombay Natural History Society’s collection.

‘MALLAIG,’

‘GALLOP ROAD, CHRISTINA LOKE

SINGAPORE,

June 15, 1959.

[Collisions among birds in flight are rare, but not unknown. In

swifts, which are exceptionally dextrous fliers, the cases must be rarer

still. The incident reminds us of a very extraordinary collision, albeit

man-made, that took place on a Bombay cricket field a few years ago

while a match in progress was at a critical stage for the batting side.

The ‘hope’ of the side was facing the bowling of the opposing ‘hope’.

The ball left the bowler’s hand and the batsman stepped out to

swipe. Both players and spectators were however left agape with.

wonder since the ball never reached the other end! What had

happened was that a sparrow flying across the pitch was luckless

enough to reach just the wrong spot at just the wrong time and fell

dead, the impact diverting the ball off its course. It was an happen-

ing that one would have to live a million years to see repeated, yet

all that the bewildered batsman could think of at the time was

calculated malice on the part of his opponents !—EDs.] |

16. A PYTHON’S MEAL

Two days ago a python was killed here. It measured 11 feet. It

had swallowed a fully grown male chinkara with. 94 inches horns. It

is interesting to note that this was the fourth python killed here which

had swallowed a chinkara but never such a full-grown animal.

350 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

I am sending this information to find out if you have other similar

records. I was told by a local villager that some years ago he had

seen a python coiled round a fully grown panther cub.

HINGOLGADH CASTLE,

JASDAN, KATHIAWAD,

September 25, 1958.

RAJA OF JASDAN

[In a previous issue (51: 945) the same writer has described a

python capturing and coiling itself round a chinkara doe.

In Volume 54 (p. 196) appears a note by U Tun Yin with photo-

graph of a python in Burma that had swallowed a small thamin

(Cervus eldii) shortly before. But of the many other notes published

in the Journal on the food of the python perhaps the most remarkable

is that by Major Arundel Begbie (17: 1021) who cut out of a snake

18 ft. long a well-grown leopard measuring 4 ft. 2 in. from nose to

rump. The tail was too decomposed to be accurately measured. The

panther had been swallowed head first with its forearms stretched

out in front.—EDs.]

17. VOCAL SOUNDS FROM SNAKES

Note 16 in Volume 55 reporting vocal sounds from a python (P.

molurus) and a dhaman (Ptyas mucosus) reminded me at once of an

occasion in 1930 in Wad Medani in the Sudan when I seized with a

pair of metal forceps a young lined house snake, Boodon lineatus. It

squeaked once, quite definitely, the noise being suggestive of some-

thing between the squeak of a mouse and that of a press-the-button

toy animal.

Some years back, I seem to remember correspondence, in The

Field I believe, about booming or bell-like noises from puff-adders,

Bitis arietans. In the Sudan, in southern Kordofan and elsewhere

there is, or was, folk belief of snakes making noises to lure animals

as prey, but few except the simple took this as other than fairy tale.

ADEN PROTECTORATE HEALTH SERVICE

HEADQUARTERS, N. L. CORKILL

KHORMAKSAR, ADEN, | a Ea

March 13, 1959. ‘

. ; MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 351

' A NOTE ON HYDRACHNA SP. PARASITIC ON RANATRA

FILIFORMIS AND RANATRA ELONGATA

18.

It is well known that the larvae of Hydrachna prefer insect hosts,

for parasitisation. In course of examination of the nymphs and adults

of different species of Laccotrephes, Ranatra, and Spherodema, it was

observed that only the nymphs and adults of Ranatra were parasitised

by the larvae of Hydrachna sp. A number of these mites have been

reported as parasites on Nepa from Britain and the preference exhibited

for Ranatra sp. is indeed striking.

About 6 to 18 red, oval masses were found attached to the various

regions of the body of the nymphs and adults. The regions most

commonly infested by these parasites were the base of the thorax

and abdomen, the former being more heavily parasitised. The

larvae, soon after attaching to the host, changed into oval masses. In

the course of two to three weeks the adult mites dropped off to the

bottom of the pond and led a free life.

Table showing No. of parasites and their place of attachment

on individual hosts

No. of immature Stages on

Place of attachment R. filiformis R. elongata

head o Zz P38 G2 22D

thorax oe 2; 2; 2, 3, Sh l 14, 6, 2, 4, 4, >; 2

legs gee 5: 4, 1 4, 6, 3 4

abdomen = ee | AY. De

DEPT. OF ZOOLOGY,

LoYOLA COLLEGE, T. K. RAGHUNATHA RAO

Mapras 31,

October 15, 1958.

19. ON THE OCCURRENCE OF NEBALIA LONGICORNIS

IN INDIAN WATERS

( With a plate)

From the Indian waters the only record of a Phyllocarid is that

of Prof. W. M. Tattersall (1906) who recorded Nebalia bipes from

Ceylon. The present collection, I am informed, was very rich and

consisted of a huge swarm of hundreds of specimens found in shallow

water at Krusadai Islands. The locality was of a swampy nature with

clayey bottom and mangrove-like growth of green algae. The pre-

352 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL GIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

sence of the animal was noticed due to the slight ‘boiling’ of the

water surface.

Species of Nebalia have been recorded from all over the world.

Thiele (1904) assigned all the species recorded from the northern

Seas to N. bipes and those from the southern Seas to N. longicornis.

Based on the character of the rostrum, eyes, and the antennular

peduncle, he recognised several subspecies. According to Calman

(1917) and Cannon (1931) some of the characters on which the sub-

species were created are unimportant and variable, and a detailed

study of the various species is necessary for establishing their validity.

In view of the dearth of information on the genus, a detailed descrip-

tion of the present specimens is included. I am deeply indebted to

Shri Sivaprasad of S.N. College, Quilon, for the two specimens, and

tc Dr. C. C. John of the University of Kerala for help in their study.

Nebalia longicornis G. M. Thomson

Carapace about twice as long as broad, anteroinferior parts pro-

duced forwards. Rostrum rather broad, about a third of the length

of the carapace, 0.8 mm. long and 0.3 mm. broad. Posterior border

of abdominal segments serrated on the dorsal and ventral sides.

Caudal rami flattened, as long as the last two abdominal segments

combined, with an outer row of spines and inner row of long setae;

distal border with three long spiny setae, one of them longer than

the ramus. Cornea of the eye occupying slightly more than half the

length, sensory tubercle not discernible. Antennule with four seg-

mented peduncle, first segment stout, with a lower distal process,

second segment large, with a long dorsal seta, fourth segment

short, with one stout spine and row of five to six stout setae. Mobile

scale with its upper border thickly setose, flagellum stout, ) eight

segmented; distal segments with a pair of olfactory setae. Antennal

peduncle four segmented, segments one and two with an upper distal

spine, segments three and four coalesced, with three pairs of stout

spines and a distal row of long setae; flagellum nine segmented, first

segment a composite one, each segment with an upper distal spine.

Mandible slender, incisor much reduced, molar strongly toothed, palp

three segmented, third segment with an inner row of long pectinate

setae and a short apical row of barbed spines. Maxillule with two

endites, first small, with a row of pectinate setae, second endite with

various types of setae as shown in the figure; palp long and indis-

tinctly segmented, with long setae. Maxilla with four endites, fourth

very small and with long setae, endopod two segmented, with a row

Journ. BomsBay Nat. Hist. Soc.

ff \\

K\S If

\\\ NS \W

12 9

Nebalia longicornis G. M. Thomson.

1. Entire animal; 2. antennule; 3. same, fourth segment enlarged; 4. antenna;

5. eye; 6. mandible; 7. maxillule; 8. maxilla; 9. first thoracic limb; 10. first

pleopod; 11. second pleopod ; 12. fifth pleopod.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 303

of setae, basal segment with two and distal segment with four long

setae; exopod two-thirds as long as endopod, with long setae, epipod

absent. Thoracic limbs with coxa and basis indistinctly separated,

latter continued as the endopodite; endopodite indistinctly segmented;

exopodite lamellar, distal border obliquely subtruncate and _pro-

minently bilobed, with five setae; epipod bilobed, proximal lobe

rounded behind, distal lobe apically acuminate and with a stout

proximal seta. First four pleopods subsimilar, protopodite with an

inner and an outer distal seta, exopod of first pleopod with an outer

row of spines and inner row of setae, distal border with four stout

spines; endopod with setae on outer and inner borders, apex with

a long spine. Appendix interna apically trilobed and with three

subapical teeth. Exopod of pleopods two to four with five pairs of

stout spines instead of a row as in the first. Pleopods five and six

uniramous and very short, with two apical and two outer spines

and several setae. Length 4.9 mm. excluding the caudal furca.

The present specimens closely resemble N. bipes as described by

Claus (1889) but the nature of the fourth segment of the antennular

peduncle is exactly like that of N. longicornis megallanica Thiele

(1904). The fourth segment of the antennular peduncle has a strong

spine and five to six stout setae, but the sensory tubercle on the ocular

peduncle is insignificant or even absent. According to Calman (1917)

and Cannon (1931), of the several characters on which Thiele created

the subspecies, that of the antennular peduncle alone is reliable and

hence the present specimens could be assigned only to N. longicornis

megallanica Thiele. The ratio of the length to breadth of the rostrum

in the present specimens is 2.67:1 which is almost the same as given

for N. bipes by Tattersall (1906) and for N. longicornis by Calman

(1917) and Cannon (1931). Evidently the character of the rostrum is

very variable.

REFERENCES

Calman, W. T. (1917): Brit. Antarct. Thiele, J. (1904): Wiss. Ergebn Tiefsee

*““ Terra Nova” Exped. II: 137-162. Exped. ‘‘ Valdivia ’’.

Cannon, C. (1931): ‘‘ Discovery ” Rep. Thomson, G. M. (1879) : Ann. Mag. Nat.

III : 199-222. Hist. (5), IV : 418-419,

Tattersall, W. M. (1906) : Ceylon Pearl

Oyst. Fish. Rep. IV: 157-188.

MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY,

TRIVANDRUM,

N. KRISHNA PILLAI

March 17, 1959.

354. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

20. ON SOME LONGICORN BEETLES OF DHARWAR

(MYSORE)

Except for stray records of a few species of this region made by

Beeson and Bhatia (1939) in their account “On the biology of

Cerambycids’, there is no complete list of species of this economically

important group. Hence a detailed survey of the Cerambycids was

undertaken during 1953-55, mostly in Dharwar and _ neighbouring

centres like Kyarkop, Mugad, and Navalur.

I am grateful to Dr. M. Puttarudriah, Government Entomologist,

Mysore State, for his unfailing interest and also for going through

the manuscript and offering helpful suggestions and criticism.

Family CERAMBYCIDAE

Subfamily CERAMBYCINAE

Cantharocnemis downesi Pasc. |

Collected near a tamarind tree. It is also known from North

Kanara Division. Rare.

Diorthus cinereus Fab.

Collected under light soon after rains in the summer season.

Beeson and Bhatia (1939) have also recorded it from Dharwar.

Hypoeschrus indicus Gahan

Beetle obtained on Acacia arabica. Gahan (1906) has recorded

it from Belgaum. Rare.

Neocerambyx paris Wied.

Noticed on a decorative pine tree in a garden in September. It

is also reported from Bangalore, Coimbatore (Fletcher, 1914), and

Mysore. Common.

Pachydissus parvicollis Gahan

Collected in the winter season. Rare.

Pachyloceros corallinus Hope

Beetle collected during rainy season. Gahan (1906) has reported

it from Bombay, Nilgiri Hills, and south India.

Stromatium barbatum Fab.

Obtained from an old teak log in August. Heavy damage is

reported to have been caused by this beetle to the teak forests in the

district of Dharwar.

Usman and Puttarudriah (1955) report the beetle as ‘Common on

forest timber and furniture throughout Mysore State’.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES . SP)

Xylotrecheus semi Lap. et Gory

Beetles collected from Salmalia malabarica round about Dharwar

in March.

Beeson and Bhatia (1939) have also recorded it from Kirwatti.

Dandeli, Nagargali, and Belgaum division. Gahan (1906) records it

from Bhutan, Calcutta, and Deccan.

Xystocera globosa Oliv.

Encountered in the guava orchards around Dharwar. Fairly

common between May to September. It is recorded also from

Dandeli, Nagargali, and Belgaum regions. Usman and Puttarudriah

(1955) have reported it from Mysore.

Zonopterus consanguineus Ritsema.

The only beetle was found on Pongamia glabra in late October.

Subfamily LAMINAE

Apomecyna pertigera Thoms.

Beetles fairly common on cucurbits from June to September; and

failure of cucurbit crop by these species was observed in the Dharwar

region. Fletcher (1914) records it from Coimbatore.

A. saltator Fab.

Was also obtained on cucurbits. Rare.

Batocera rubus Linn.

Common on Mangifera indica at and around Dharwar from April

to September.

Celosterna spinator Fab.

Beetle collected in a garden in October. Rare.

Beeson and Bhatia (1939) and Usman and Puttarudriah (1955)

have recorded it from Bangalore.

Coptops aedificator Fab.

Collected on Acacia arabica in May; seems rare in the Dharwar

area.

Beeson and Bhatia (1939) have also reported from Kirwatti,

Nagargali, and Belgaum Division.

Dihammus spp.

Collected under light in September. Rare.

Machrochenus tessellatus Guer.

Collected during the rainy season.

356 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2) -

Monochamus nivosus White

Beetle common in the Dharwar area during April to October; the

larva tunnels into the stem of Calotropis gigantea.

Olenocamptus bilobus Fab.

Found on Ficus glomeratus.

Beeson and Bhatia (1939) have recorded from east Kanara and

Belgaum Division.

Pharsalia proxima Gahan

Beetle observed on Mangifera indica in November. Rare.

Tetraglenes spp.

Collected on a climber. Rare.

Subfamily PRIONINAE

Acanthophorus rugiceps Gahan

Obtained on Mangifera indica and Melia azadirachta in early

June. Gahan (1906) reports it from Bombay.

A. serraticornis Oliv.

Collected on Mangifera indica and Salmalia malabarica in August.

Recently it was collected on coconut palm in the South Kanara

District. Patel (1951) reports that the beetles caused damage to un-

armoured lead-coated telephone cables and this appears to be

incidental. Fairly common in rainy season.

Dorysthenes rostratus Fab.

Collected from shrubs in October. Rare.

Macrotoma crenata Fab.

Collected on Salmalia malabarica. Rare.

M. plagiata Waterh.

Collected in rainy season.

M. spinosa Fab.

Collected often in casuarina plantations between June and August.

Usman and Puttarudriah (1955) have recorded this species from

Bangalore. | |

Prionomma atratum Gmelin.

' This common species was obtained on Ficus glomeratus. It

usually comes to light from June to September. Beeson and Bhatia

(1939) have recorded from Belgaum, Nagargali, Kirwatti, and east

Kanara.

(CENTRAL MARINE FISHERIES RESEARCH UNIT,

MANGALORE, M. H. DHULKHED

March 5, 1959.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

357

REFERENCES

Beeson, C. F. C. & Bhatia, B. M.

(1939) : On the biology of Cerambycidae

(Coleoptera) Indian Forest Records (New

Series) V (1), 1939.

Fletcher, T. B. (1914): Some South

Indian insects. Government Press,

Madras.

Gahan, C. J. (1906): The fauna of

British India including Ceylon & Burma.

Patel, G. A. (1951): A lead cable

borer. Science and Culture: 16 : 571

(June, 1951).

Usman, S. & Puttarudriah, M. (1955 :)

A list of the insects of Mysore including

the Mites. Department of Agriculture,

Mysore State Entomology Series—

Bulletin No. 16, Government Press,

Bangalore.

Coleoptera — Vol. 1 (Cerambycidae).

Taylor & Francis, London.

21. A NEW BUTTERFLY FROM ASSAM

(With a text-figure)

Isma bonota sp. nov.

Three females and one male of the species we are about to des-

cribe have been collected by Norman in the thick forest bordering

the Naga foothills in Sibsagar District of upper Assam. ‘These were

caught respectively on 29-vii-’54, 17-x-’54, 15-vil-’56 (co), and 29-11-58.

The first two females were shown in 1955 to the late Brig. W. H.

Evans who expressed the opinion that they would turn out to be an

undescribed species of Isma. The subsequent collection of a maie

and another female has confirmed this opinion. Specimens from the

type series have been lodged in the British Museum (Natural History)

and further specimens have been set aside for the Zoological Survey

of India.

Description

Antennae long, lower part of club whitened. Apiculus moderately

hooked. Palpi third segment short, protruding.

o& Upperside: Fore wing. Ground colour dark brown. An

oval brand over the basal third or vein 1, raised and covered with

scales and hard to see. Two spots in cell, the lower one larger and

much elongated. Two small subapical spots. A tiny spot in space 4;

a larger oblong spot in space 3, interior to the spot in 4; a very large

spot in space 2, quadrate but with the inner side wedge shaped at the

bottom, the tip of the wedge extending to the inner edge of the cell

spots; a quadrate spot in space 1, its outer edge in line with the inner

edge of the spot in 2. All the spots are white. The fore wing is

indistinguishable from that of [. bononia bononia Hewitson.

Hind wing. Discal spots in spaces 2-6; those in spaces 2 and 3

much elongated, that in 4 a right angled oblong, the spot in 5 small

and in 6 minute. ;

Underside: Ground colour brown with ochreous scaling. No tuft

358 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

underfore. All the spots show through from above as they are

hyaline.

Q Upperside: Fore wing. Similar to the male except that there

is no brand, and the large spot in space 2 is oblong with a concave inner

edge. (In one specimen the outer edge is also concave.)

Hind wing. Spots only in spaces 2-5, i.e. 4 spots instead of the 5

in the male. (In one specimen the spot in space 4 is vestigial.)

Length of fore wing from base to apex 15 mm., but 18 mm. in

one large female. |

Cilia hindwing, grey to pale yellow.

Genitalia: Uncus and the inside of the left clasp as figured below.

Uncus and inside of left clasp of [sma bonota sp. nov.

From the key in Evans’s ‘Catalogue of the Hesperiidae of Europe,

Asia and Australia’ (1949) and from inspection of the specimens in

the British Museum it is found that the only species of /sma with

these general characters is bononia bononia Hewitson from S. Burma,

Malaya, etc., but bononia has only three discal spots upperhind in

the male and two in the female. The clasp and uncus of the speci-

men we are describing also differ from those of bononia.

It is a pleasure to acknowledge our gratitude to the authorities of

the British Museum (Natural History) who have allowed us to examine

the specimens in their care.

SELENG T.E.,

SELENG Hat P.O., KEITH CANTLIE

Upper ASSAM, T. NORMAN

March 15, 1959.

22. BUTTERFLIES OF BOMBAY AND SALSETTE—FURTHER

ADDITIONS

Mr. Basil W. Wirth of 21 Colaba Chambers, Bombay 5, sends us

a list of butterflies obtained by him in Bombay and Salsette of which

we find the following not recorded by A. E. G. Best in his recent notes

(JBNHS 50: 331-9 and 53: 282-4):

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 359

NYMPHALIDAE

Neptis jumbah Moore: The Chestnut-streaked Sailer.

Taken at Tulsi Lake on 5 June 1958. Rare.

Neptis nandina Moore: The Clear Sailer.

Taken at Colaba in 1956. Rare.

LYCAENIDAE

Amblypodia centaurus (Fabricius): The Centaur Oakblue.

Quite common at Tulsi Lake. These butterflies seem to have a

favourite tree around which they fly very rapidly, suddenly settling.

When disturbed they dart off, returning in about ten minutes to

settle again.

Tajuria cippus (Fabricius): The Peacock Royal.

Rare. One specimen taken at Elephanta in 1956.

Rapala melampus (Cramer): The Indian Red Flash.

Fairly common seasonally (November). Rare at other times.

PIERIDAE

Appias wardi (Moore): The Lesser Albatross.

A very rare butterfly in Bombay. One taken in Colaba in March

1956 and since then another not seen either in the city or suburbs.

However, seen on the Ghats.

HESPERIIDAE

Matapa aria (Moore): The Common Redeye.

One caught 19-9-1958 at Colaba. Another seen 21-9-1958.

BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY,

91, WALKESHWAR RoOaD, EDITORS

BOMBAY 6,

June 1, 1959.

23. ASPHONDYLIA SP. A NEW RECORD OF A

CECIDOMYID ON SESBANIA SPECIOSA FLOWERS IN

MADRAS STATE

(With a text-figure)

Sesbania speciosa is a very important and popular green manure

crop grown very extensively throughout the State for manuring paddy

crop. This crop which was once considered to be free from insect

pests is of late subjected to some important insect pests which do

360 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

substantial damage at some growth phase of the crop and they are

Hyposidra successaria Wik., Empoasca sp., and Azygophleps scalaris.

The author during the course of his investigations on this crop noted

for the first time the occurrence of a gall fly Asphondylia sp. causing

great havoc to normal flower formation and which ultimately resulted.

in the lower output of seeds. The newly hatched orange coloured

maggot of this fly makes a tunnel inside the flower bud as a

result of which a gali-like swelling accompanied by twisting of the

terminal portions of the petal occurs. The full-grown maggot is

creamy white in colour and measures about 3 mm. in length with

inconspicuous semicircular head region (fig. 5). The maggot pupates:

inside a flimsy whitish silken cocoon inside the terminal twisted

portion of the petals. The pupa is oval and light brown in colour

and measures 2 mm. in length (fig. 6). The adult fly is very active

and emerges by means of a semicircular hole in the pupal case. The

abdomen and thorax are orange coloured with dirty greyish wings

(fig. 7). As the damage to flower buds is sometimes very heavy it has

3 4.

(1) Normal flowers, (2) Flowers affected by the gall fly,

(3) Flower showing the location of fly maggot, (4) Flower showing

the position of pupa, (5) Fly maggot, (6) Fly pupa, (7) Adult fly.

Pee renee sesso oo ee

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 361

to be reckoned as a major pest, and timely remedial measures have

to be undertaken by using insecticides like DDT or BHC. Further

studies are in progress on this pest.

The author is deeply indebted to the Government Entomologist for

affording all facilities during the course of this preliminary investiga-

tion.

ENTOMOLOGY SECTION,

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, S. VENUGOPAL, M.Sc.

COIMBATORE,

April 13, 1959.

24. SOME PRELIMINARY NOTES ON THE INSECT LIFE IN

SAMBHAR LAKE

The Sambhar Lake, the largest inland water lake in India and

situated somewhat east of the Aravalli Range (20° 58’ N. and 75°

5X’ E.), is about 35 kilometres long, 10 kilometres wide. It has an

average depth of 0.61 metres during the rains. At the height of the

rainy season, the lake covers an area of nearly 2300 square

kilometres. It drains an extensive area, totalling nearly 56,300 square

kilometres, and is fed by four main streams, viz. Rupnagar, Kharian,

Menda, and Khandel. ‘The bottom mud is soft, black, and has a

pronounced odour of hydrogen sulphide gas. The water contains in

solution chloride, sulphate, carbonate, and bicarbonate of sodium and

only traces of calcium carbonate in colloidal form in suspended mud.

It differs from sea water in lacking magnesium sulphate, potassium

chloride, and magnesium chloride. ‘There is considerable fluctuation

in the salinity of water during the year; the salinity may vary within

wide limits, from 0.93% to over 16.0% (vide Table I below).

TABLE J]

Showing the minimum and maximum concentration of various compounds

a eae water 4 tie oni ue Lake, Gudha

ae |

e | Halogen | «7... |CO oe Na, | NO., |

| pH content satiny HCO, PE S0;, com NEG ee

% ; mg/L ™S/ % TAM te

| |

Minimum ..| 7.4 O52 le 093-4 34.9.4) 13. ; 2.41 | 0.66 | 0.89] 0.6

Maximum ..| 9.5 : 7.10 | 16.40 | 135.4 | 45.0| 6.6 | 3.94 | 146] 9.1

I have been studying the insect life of the lake for the past several

years and have made large collections and observations on their habits

362 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

and ecology. The insect life of the lake falls under two broad

categories, viz. the true lake forms and the shore inhabitants. Among

the true lake species we have the aquatic Heteroptera like Cydnus ater

TABLE II

Seasonal distribution of various insects with reference to salinity

in different months

Name of species

OLIGOHALINE SPECIES

Cybister tripunctatus

asiaticus

Eretes stiticus

Hyphoporus severini

Cydnus ater

Cydnus pilosus

Sphaerodema rusticum ..

Hydrometra greeni

Sigara jeistanensis

Sigara substriata

Enithares indica

Anisops sardea

Micronecta proba

EURYHALINE SPECIES

Berosus indicus

Ephydra macellaria

Eristalis sp.

Chironomus indent

Polypodium sp.

Salinity

July-Aug. | Sept.-Oct. | Nov.-Dec.| Jan.-Feb. | March-Ap.

0.0-0.96% |2.81-4.61%| 7.2-8.6% | 9.9-10.4% | 11.1-16.4%.

Dist., Cydnus pilosus H.S., Sphacrodema rusticum Fabr., Hydrometra

ereeni Kirk., Enithers indica Fabr., Sigara jeistanensis Dist., Sigara

gsubstriata Dist., Anisops sardea HS., and Micronecta proba Dist,

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 363

‘These species are oligohaline and thus occur in the lake only during

the rains, viz. from July to November. Of the four species of

Coleoptera so far collected by me, Cybister tripunctatus asiaticus Reg.,

Eretes stiticus Linn., and Hyphoporus severini Reg. are also oligohaline

and occur only up to October. Eretes stiticus is a widely distributed

species, known from Africa, tropical and subtropical Asia, Australia,

and the Pacific coast of America. The beetle Berosus (Enophlurus)

indicus is euryhaline and is known from the Indo-Australian and

Ethiopian regions. The Diptera include the euryhaline Ephydra

macellaria Eggers, Eristalis sp., Chironomus sp., and Polypodium sp.

In addition to these true aquatic forms found in the lake proper,

we also find a large number of shore insects, which move seasonally

from the shore into the nearly dry lake bed. As the water of the

lake evaporates during summer, these species move with the receding

edge of the water to the centre of the lake, and with the onset of the

rains and the filling up of the lake again move back to the periphery.

They are all hygrophile forms and include Opatroides punctulatus

Bould., Coniocleonus sp., Pycnodactylus sp., Cicindela catena Fabr.,

Menochilus 6-maculatus Fabr., Isoloxantha fuscipennis Blair, Grapto-

stethus dixoni Dist., Ectomocoris cordiger Stal., Labidura riparia P.,

Gryllotalpa africana Bean., and Chrotogonus trachepterus Blach.

The oligohaline species, being unable to tolerate high salinity,

naturally occur in the lake only during the rains, when the salinity

is relatively low. After October, with the cessation of the rains, the

Salinity increases with the evaporation of water, and most of the

oligohaline forms disappear as adults and larvae from the water.

There is then a succession of the euryhaline forms. The occurrence

of different insects at salinities ranging from 0.96% to 16.4% in the

lake shows that insects are capable of inhabiting highly saline waters.

Mere salinity does not seem to be an insurmountable barrier to their

distribution.

The work is still in progress. The author thanks the authorities

of the British Museum for identification of material. He is also

indebted to Prof. Dr. D. K. Mathur and Prof. Dr. D. V. Bal for

useful suggestions.

RajJ RISHI COLLEGE, INDER CHAND BAID

ALWAR,

September 29, 1958.

364 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

25. ROSE VARIANT OF POLYGALA ERIOPTERA

I was interested in reading the note ‘A Red or Rose variant of

Polygala erioptera DC. by Phatak and Oza recently published in the

Journal [55 (3): 593—December 1958]. The authors claim that the

rose-coloured flowers of Polygala erioptera are recorded by them for

the first time. I would refer the reader to ‘Flora of the Indian

Desert’ [JBNHS 26 (1): 223—1918] where Blatter and Hallberg write ©

as follows: |

‘Polygala—223 P. erioptera DC.

Note.—Cooke (F.B.P. Part I, 60) says flowers of this species are

yellow. Our species have pale rose-coloured flowers with the tip of

the keel petals and the crest darker. There is little doubt that our

specimens belong to the same species as Cooke’s and we have con-

sequently placed them under P. erioptera, though provisionally.’

This shows that Blatter had seen this variant as early as 1918 and

it is but fair that this fact should be brought to the notice of readers.

P.M.B. GUJARAT COLLEGE,

INDORE, R. M. PATEL

March 6, 1959.

26. SALMALIA MALABARICA AND S. INSIGNIS IN BOMBAY

These two trees are common in Bombay State; the first is typical

of the Konkan plains, and of Bombay streets and gardens; the second

is typical of the Western Ghats. When the trees are in leaf, it: is

practically impossible to tell one from the other, except perhaps on

account of their geographical distribution; but, when in flower, the

trees can be very easily distinguished.

In general the flowers of Salmalia malabarica are smaller than

those of the other species, and they come out towards the end of

February and March; the number of stamens is about 60-75 in number.

Salmalia insignis comes into full bloom towards the end of December

and January, the stamens being 400-500; both flowers and fruits are

much larger than in the Konkan species. |

On the 14th of February this year I noted several trees of both

species on the slopes of the Ghats, about half way between Khandala

and Khopoli, the meeting place of the two species; both trees were

completely leafless and had an occasional flower, but with this strik-

ing difference: Salmalia insignis was mostly in fruit, with but an

JouRN. BomMBay Nat. Hist. Soc.

Triumfetta pentandra A. Rich.

(1) Twig with leaves and flowers, (2) Part of Inflorescence, (3) Cup-shaped

(y's & Flower, (5) Sepal, (6) Petal, (7) Ovary, style, and stigma, (8) Fruit,

eed,

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 365

occasional flower that obviously had been lagging behind the rest of

the flowers on the tree; Salmalia malabarica was mostly in bud, the

buds being generally small and far from ready to open, with an

c -asional flower that had clearly raced and outstripped the others in

opening out. When the two trees grow side by side, this difference is

very remarkable.

Incidentally both trees are now leafless, but from far away may

seem to be clothed with plenty of leaves: both are much affected by

the parasite, Dendrophthoe falcata Etting. (Loranthus longiflorus

Desr. of Cooke’s FLORA), and in many instances the leaves of the

parasite are massed on the host, in large pendulous clumps.

ST. XAVIER’S COLLEGE,

BOMBAY, H. SANTAPAU, S.J., F.N.I.

February 15, 1959.

27. THE OCCURRENCE OF TRIUMFETTA PENTANDRA

A. RICH. IN BOMBAY STATE

(With a plate)

A suberect herb much branched from the base; stem cylindrical,

woody, covered with dense, stellate and bulbous-based simple hairs.

Leaves simple, alternate, stipulate, palmately nerved, aromatic. Lower

leaves large; petiole 4-5.5 cm. long, angular, covered with stellate

hairs; lamina ovate, rhomboid or somewhat round, 4-6 by 4-6 cm.,

usually 3-lobed, serrate, stellately hairy on both surfaces, densely so

beneath; cup-shaped glands produced by few basal teeth of the lamina.

Upper leaves become more narrow, short lanceolate; the younger

leaves subsessile, narrow. .

Flowers small, in extra-axillary umbellate clusters; pedicels 2-3 mm.

long, covered with dense stellate hairs. Sepals 5 free, 1.5-1.7 mm.

long, linear, cucullate with conical tip, hairy outside. Petals 5, free,

0.75-0.85 mm. long alternating with the petals. Stamens 5, free,

slightly longer than the petals; anthers basifixed, quadrilocular.

Ovary superior, covered with smooth hairs, 2-celled; one ovule in

each cell; style very short; stigma bifid. Fruit oblong, ellipsoid, 3 mm.

long, covered with hooked or straight spines; usually one seed is

developed at maturity. Seed smooth, pale brown. .

The plant is not mentioned in Cooke’s FLORA. From the key

given for the genus Triumfetta in Cooke’s FLORA, the above-mentioned

species shows some affinity towards T. bartramia Linn. (T. rhom-

boidea Jacq.). However, it differs in the following points: (1)

366 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SICIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

Inflorescence extra-axillary umbellate clusters, (2) Stamens number only

5, (3) Fruit one or rarely two-seeded, (4) Leaves strongly aromatic

like camphor.

I was shown this plant for the first time by Prof. P. B. Vaidya,

Ahmednagar College. The plant grows quite well in waste places

along the Mutha Left Bank Canal in Fergusson College campus. It

is very difficult to locate the plant as from a distance it shows much

resemblance with Malvastrum tricuspidatum Gray, and stunted Hyptis

suaveolens Poit. The author has tried to locate the species in similar

habitat in Poona Corporation campus and near about but failed to

procure even a single specimen as yet.

The author is thankful to Dr. S. K. Mukerji for confirming the

species.

Flowers: September to November. Fruits: October to December.

Locality: Poona: Fergusson College campus along Mutha Left

Bank Canal, Vartak 14241-43.

General Distribution: Northwestern India; Bihar; east Coast in

Guntur; Tinnevelly; Abyssinia; Senegal.

MAHARASTRA ASSOCIATION FOR THE

CULTIVATION OF SCIENCE, V. D. VARTAK

LAW COLLEGE BUILDINGS,

Poona-4,

December 22, 1958.

[T. pentandra A. Rich. has already been mentioned by Blatter

among the plants of Bombay; this is, therefore, not a new record; the

Editors, however, welcome the detailed description of the plant, which

is not listed in Cooke’s FLORA OF THE PRESIDENCY OF BOMBAY. See

Blatter’s Revision in the Journal 34: 890, 1931.]

28. A REMARKABLE CASE OF TWINING OF A BRANCH

IN PINUS CANARIENSIS C. SMITH

(With a photo)

Pinus canariensis C. Smith, popularly known as the Canary Islands

Pine, is native of the Canary Islands situated at about latitude 29° N.

and longitude 15° W. In its native home it grows on dry and exposed

slopes at altitudes ranging between 3700-6600 ft. (1).

This pine was imported from the Canary Islands and planted both

in Sim’s Park, Coonoor, and in the Government Botanic Gardens,

Ootacamund, about the year 1919. During the forty years these trees:

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 367

have been growing in their adopted home, they have become fully

adapted to the ecological conditions of the Nilgiri Hills. For ex-

ample, the physiognomy of these trees has not undergone any change.

Their crown is loose irregular with excurrent columnar trunk.

Branches are sparse and irregular; and branchlets are ascending,

clothed with abundant spur-shoots each with three needles, yellow

when young.

In one of the two trees growing on a slope in the Government

Botanic Gardens, Ootacamund, it has been observed that a branch

arising from the foot of the main columnar stem has twined round

the main shaft of the stem like a liane (see photograph).

The direction of the twining is counter-clockwise, characteristic of

the Northern Hemisphere (2). Such a character or indeed any kind of

twining is unknown amongst the conifers. Therefore, this observation

is of special interest. The liana-like twining branch is normal in

all respects. |

DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY,

ANNAMALAI UNIVERSITY, T. C. N. SINGH

ANNAMALAINAGAR,

March 25, 1959,

368 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

REFERENCES

(1) Dallimore, W. & Jackson, A. B. ful Plants and Plant Wonders: 92.

(1931): A Hand-Book of Coniferae: D. Appleton-Century Company Inc.,

377. Edward Arnold & Co., London. New York and London.

(2) Hyatt Verrill, A. (1939) : Wonder-

29. QCCURRENCE OF CURCUMA INODORA BLATT. AT

PAVAGADH (GUJARAT)

Curcuma is one of the most difficult of our Indian plant genera.

Plants of this genus are found all over India. In course of time

we shall have to revise the genus Curcuma for the general flora of

India. In view of this, and in response to Rev. Father H. Santapau’s

appeal (JBNAS, 1957) for more information, these observations on

C. inodora, a new species described by Blatter in 1930, may be of

interest. For a full description of the plant see Santapau, H. (1952):

‘On a common species of Curcuma of Bombay and Salsette Islands’

JBNHS 51: 135-139.

This is a monsoon herb about 50 cm. high, sprouting up in

Pavagadh after the first few rains some time about July and August.

Usually the leaves and spikes come out at the same time, or leaves

come out before the flowering. The position of the spike in relation

to the leaves is at first lateral. Later on in the season this lateral

spike decays and gives way to a central one. The size of the spike

is 8-10 cm. long and 5-7 cm. in diameter with a peduncle 4-6 cm.

long; colour of the flowers: corolla purplish with a yellow streak on

the lip, bracts green with a purplish to rosy tinge. The underground

system is-composed of long fibrous roots spreading up to 18-20 cm.

from the rhizome, tubers 3X2 cm., elliptic or globose at the end

of the root fibres, the inside of the tubers is white. A few decayed

tubers have also been noted at the end of these roots.

During the last two years, these plants have been observed and

collected at the beginning, middle, and end of the monsoon from

about the same spot on Pavagadh Hill, 29 miles NE. of Baroda.

The plants are noted in rocky places near Machi at about 461 metres

(1500 ft.), a small plateau surrounded by dense forest. The identifica-

tion of the plant has been checked and confirmed in Blatter

Herbarium. This species seems to be recorded from here for the

first time.

We wish to record our gratitude to Rev. Father H. Santapau, s.J.,

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 369

St. Xavier’s College, Bombay, for helping with the identification of

the plant and going through the MS. of this note.

DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY,

M.S. UNIVERSITY OF BARODA, V. G. PHATAK, p.sc.

BARODA, G. M. OZA, M.sc.

January 13, 1959.

30. NEW RECORD OF MARISCUS PANICEUS VAHL AND

CYPERUS LEUCOCEPHALUS RETZ. FROM GUJARAT

Mariscus paniceus Vahl is a slender, stolon-bearing perennial

sedge which flowers in the months of August and September. The

stem is 25-30 cm. high. ‘This plant is found under the shade of forest

trees or rocks. Cooke’ mentions its occurrence in the Konkan.

Saxton and Sedgwick” have not reported it from any place in north

Gujarat but Sedgwick’ records it from the Ghats and Carnatic Mallad

Tracts in his Revision of the Cyperaceae of Bombay Presidency.

Blatter* mentions six species of the genus Mariscus as occurring in the

different parts of Bombay Presidency but none of them is reported

from Kutch, Kathiawar, Khandesh, or Gujarat. Even in the more

recent publications on the flora of Gujarat’ in general and that of

Pavagadh Hills® in particular, the presence of this pliant anywhere in

the area is not recorded.

During one of our recent excursions to the Pavagadh Hills

(865 metres above mean sea-level), Panchmahal District, we came

across a few plants of Mariscus paniceus Vahl, growing under the

shade of forest trees at Machi (400 metres above mean sea-level), a

place in the central region of the hill. This plant is confined to a

very small area, on the way leading to the point of emergence of the

river Vishwamitri and is not to be found either at the foot of the hill

or anywhere above Machi. This plant was also collected from a

similar type of habitat from Chhota Udepur (145 metres above mean

sea-level), Baroda District, and Devgadh Baria (215 metres above

mean sea-level), Panchmahal District.

The other plant, Cyperus leucocephalus Retz., has also not been

reported earlier from the Gujarat region. It resembles the genus

Kyllinga in habit and is generally found in ‘open spaces in the forest

in heavy rainfall belt on the crest of the southern ghats.’* This plant

was collected from both Chhota Udepur and Devgadh Baria during

the early and mid-monsoon periods.

370 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SICIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

The distribution of both the plants, according to Blatter*, is res-

tricted to the forest areas of the Bombay Presidency such as Konkan,

S.M. Country, Western Ghats, and North Kanara. Now that these

plants have been observed as normal components of the deciduous

forests of Gujarat, the forest flora of Gujarat should be more

thoroughly explored so that the old works on the flora of Gujarat may

be supplemented to make them as comprehensive as our present-day

information would permit. Work in this direction is under progress

and the results will be published in due course of time.

We are indeed thankful to Shri M. B. Raizada, Forest Research

Institute, Dehra Dun, for the identification of the plants and for

making useful suggestions in the preparation of this note.

DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY,

M.S. UNIVERSITY, A. R. CHAVAN

BARODA, S. D. SABNIS

February 5, 1959.

REFERENCES

1. Cooke, T. (1908) : ‘Cyperaceae’ in Flora of Bombay Presidency. JBNHS

Fl, Bombay Presy. 2 : 851-906. 38: 6-18. |

2. Saxton, W. T. & Sedgwick L. J. 5. Kapadia, G. A. (1950) : Plant-life of

(1918): Rec. Bot. Surv. India 6(7):; Mahagujerat. Journ. Gujerat Res. Soc.

304-309. 11-12 : 191-225.

3. Sedgwick, L. J. (1918) : Revision of 6. Phatak, V. G. & Joshi, B. B.

the Cyperaceae of Bombay Presidency. (1955): Flora of Pavagadh Hills, Eas-

JBNHS 25 : 682-700, and 26: 192-209. tern Gujerat. Journ. M.S. Univ. Baroda

4. Blatter, E. (1935): Revision of the 4: 73-85.

31. KHAYA SENEGALENSIS A. JUSS—-A NEW PLANT

RECORD FROM PONDICHERRY, SOUTH INDIA

(With a text-figure)

A few plant specimens in flowers and fruits were sent to me for

identification by Mr. P. S. Thejomurthy from the Botanical Gardens,

Pondicherry.

On investigation the plant turned out to be Khaya senegalensis

A. Juss. (Meliaceae), which has been confirmed by the Director,

Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris. Since this plant is not

described in any of the common Indian floras, it is a new record for

south India or possibly even for India. The specimen is preserved

in the Herbarium, Institut Francais, Pondicherry. |

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES S74

1. Branch and inflorescence. 2. Woody capsule. 3. Capsule split open

showing seeds. 4. Winged seed.

OCCURRENCE

A few lofty trees occur in a row at the entrance of the Botanical

Garden here leading towards the office of the Director of Agriculture.

A native of West Africa, this plant presumably was introduced in

the Botanical Gardens about seventy years back.

The following is the description of the species under consideration.

A large tree with fissured bark sometimes ash-coloured, other times

brown, an effect perhaps edaphic. On cutting the bark there can be

seen rose-coloured wood with a light rose-coloured liquid oozing.

Leaves compound (35 cm. average when mature), alternate, generally

grouped together at the extremities of the branches. Leaflets opposite to

alternate, elliptic or ovate-elliptic, obtusely shortly acuminate, glabrous,

pale above and below, slightly shiny above. Lateral pairs of nerves

10-12 conspicuous in mature leaves.

372. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

Inflorescence a panicle with numerous small white flowers (about

0.5 mm.) arising from the axils of the leaves. Calyx consists of 4 sepals,

green in colour. Petals 4 imbricate white. The staminal tube is

white tinged with yellow having 8-10 teeth. Sessile anthers 8-10,

disposed at the junction of two teeth of the tube. Disc conspicuous,

red or orange in colour. Ovary emerges from disc, glabrous, 4

lobed. Style short; stigma disc-shaped. The latter emerges out of

the staminal tube when the flowers open.

Fruit a woody capsule about 6 cm. diarneter, breaking open by

A valves. Seeds brown, flat, winged, about 10-12 in each loculus,

attached to the central column, and resting on the border of the valves.

Each seed is about 4 cm. broad including the narrow wing all round.

Flowers—May to June. Fruit—July to September.

GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION

Abundant in the Savannah forests of Senegal, Haute Volta, North

Guinea, Sudan, Nigeria, Uganda, and Ubangi Cheri. Locally in

French the tree is calied Cailcedrat or Senegal mahogany.

ECOLOGY OF THE ORIGINAL NATURAL HABITAT OF

KHAYA SENEGALENSIS

The original home of Khaya senegalensis is a strip of belt between

south of Sahelo-Sudan and north of Sudano-Guinea and is situated

between 10°-20° latitude. The climate of this tract is continental

except at the extreme west where it gives place to the maritime climate.

Aubreville (1949) gives the following climatic data:

Temperature: The mean annual temperature ranges between

26°-31.5° C. The mean monthly minimum temperature fluctuates

between 24°-28.2° C., while the méan monthly maximum temperature

is about 30.5°-36.5° C. The latter is generally obtained in April-May.

Vapour Pressure: The mean annual vapour pressure is

9.7-16 mm. Whereas the mean monthly minimum vapour pressure

is 3.5-8.5 mm., that of mean monthly maximum is 18-22 mm.

Rainfall: The total annual rainfall in this particular tract

ranges between 900-1500 mm. The rainy season is very short with

two or three months of heavy rain, the maximum being in August. It

remains dry for six to eight months.

The meteorological data for Pondicherry are not available. There-

fore, the climatic data of the nearest station, viz. Cuddalore, are taken

as representative of Pondicherry:

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 373

Temperature: The mean annual temperature is about

29.7° C. While the mean monthly minimum temperature is 23.4° C.,

the mean monthly maximum is 32.4° C., the latter being in May.

The Vapour Pressure and the Relative Humidity are 20.25 mm.

and 67% respectively.

Rainfall. The mean annual rainfall is about 1383.3 mm. The

heaviest rains are in the months of October-November brought about

by North-east Monsoon. It remains practically dry for six to seven

months.

On comparison it is seen that the original habitat of this plant and

Pondicherry possess more or less similar amount of rainfall and dry

period. It is, therefore, not surprising that Khaya senegalensis has

thrived well here.

Khaya senegalensis inhabits places with deep wet soils especially

alluvium or red loam or laterite on the slopes of forests very near

streams and water courses.

This plant is said to be economically very important from the

forestry point of view. It has a remarkable capacity for facile re-

generation both naturally and artificially and its timber is considered

good like the ‘Mahogany’. The physical and mechanical properties

of the timber are discussed by Normand and Sallenave (1958).

It is suggested that where (in south India or India) such climatic

conditions as described above prevail, Khaya senegalensis may, with

advantage, be introduced. There is one snag reported about this

plant from Africa and that is the susceptibility of the buds of young

trees to insect borers which result in stunted growth. However, this

phenomenon is not observed on the trees here, perhaps because of the

absence of these borers.

The author wishes to thank Mr. P. Legris for providing all facilities

to work. Profound gratefulness is expressed to Mr. M. Viart for his

valuable suggestions in the preparation of this paper. To the Director,

Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, I am highly indebted for

confirming the identity of the plant. Thanks are due to Mr.

Thejomurthy for kindly placing the material at my disposal.

INSTITUT FRANCAIS,

PONDICHERRY, K. A. SHANKARNARAYAN

April 29, 1959.

i "4

374. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (2)

REFERENCES

Aubreville, A. (1949): Climats Forets

et Desertification de l’Afrique Societe

d’Editions, Paris.

——w— (1950) : Flore Forestiere

Soudano-Guineenne. Societe d’Edi-

tions, Paris.

Hooker, J. D.(1897): The Flora of

British India Vol. I-VII. Reeve & Co.

London.

Hutchinson, G. & Dalziel, J. M. (1927):

Flora of West Tropical Africa. The

White-Friars Press Ltd., London.

Normand, D. & Salleneve, P. (1958):

‘Caracteristique et Proprietes des

Acajous (Swietenia et Khaya). Bois et

Foret des Tropiques 59 : 43-52.

Perrottet, M. (1867): ‘ Catalogue des

plantes du Jardin Botanique’.

Government Press, Pondicherry.

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY V. M. PHILIP AT THE DIOCESAN PRESS ;

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CONTENTS

Seep Dispersat. By Charles McCann ve ie ee Mae 165

OBSERVATIONS ON THE MATING AND OVIPOSITION OF TWO LAND PULMONATES,

Achatina fulica BowpicH AND Macrochlamys indica GoDWIN-AUSTEN. By

Krishna Chandra Ghose a 42 ate ae My 183 ;

CRITICAL NOTES ON THE ORCHIDACEAE OF BOMBAY STATE. 1. THE GENUS a

Habenaria Willd. By H. Santapau and Z. Kapadia. . ¥ .. 188

New MARINE NEMATODES OF THE SUPERFAMILY ENOPLOIDEA FROM THE ARABIAN

SEA. By Richard W. Timm oe p: Sadan .. 204

WiLp Life FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY. By H. J. Kitchener. . a pany at

OBSERVATIONS ON THE TAXONOMIC CHARACTERS OF Triops orientalis (TIWARI), — : q

WITH A NOTE ON ITS BrotoGy. By A. A. Karande and N. B.Inamdar .. 215 :

A PRELIMINARY TAGGING EXPERIMENT ON THE MULLET, Mugil cephalus LINNAEUS,

IN CHILKA LAKE. By V. G. Jhingran and J. C. Patro e ay. |

SOME MEDICINAL WEEDS IN AND AROUND PONDICHERRY. my R. K. ree M. V. _

Dabholkar, and P. S. Tejomurthy a , -. 235 a.

FISHING METHODS FOR THE INDIAN SHAD [Hilsa ilisha (HAMILTON) ] IN THE INDIAN “S

REGION. Part I. By S. Jones a ae Me «. 250° |

LECTOTYPES OF THE SPECIES AND VARIETIES DESCRIBED BY BLATTER AND HALLBERG :

IN THEIR ‘ FLORA OF THE INDIAN DESERT’. By H. Santapau .. Bese ha

THE FLORA OF THE SCRUB JUNGLES OF MADRAS STATE. By K. A. Shankaranarayan

and M. V. Dabholkar ie Lg fs + ~s eee

OBITUARY .. a3 y es <x Er «293

REVIEWS .. en * .§ fx ae | ee 2)

ADDITIONS TO THE SOCIETY’S LIBRARY 5H! 5 “ .. 310 ; le '

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES ag sola ae ig ae 316 2 “a

Journal of the

Bombay Natural History Society

Vol. 56, No. 3

Editors

sALIM ALI & H. SANTAPAU, s.J.

DECEMBER 1959

Rs. 15

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3. All scientific names to be printed in italics should be under-

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always begin with a small letter even if they refer to a person or a

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or Dimeria blatteri.

4. Trinomials referring to subspecies should only be used where

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Roepke, W. (1949): .The Genus Nyctemera Hiibner. Trans. ent.

Soc. Lond. 100 (2): 47-70.

Prater, S. H. (1948): The Book of Indian Animals, Bombay.

Titles of papers should not be underlined.

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the author’s name and year of publication, thus: (Roepke, 1949).

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EDITORS,

91, Walkeshwar Road, Journal of the Bombay Natural

Bombay 6 History Society.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME 56, NO. 3

PAGE

THE NON-VIOLENT SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF BIRDS. By J. B. S. Haldane. AES G25)

THE VEGETATION OF KODAIKANAL Grassy SLOPES. By K. M. Matthew, s.J. .. 387

FIsHING METHODS FOR THE INDIAN SHAD [ Hilsa ilisha (HAMILTON)]| IN THE INDIAN

REGION. Part IJ. By S. Jones. (With three text-figures and seven plates).. 423

WILLIAM JACK, THE BOTANIST (1795-1822). By D. Chatterjee is .. 449

OBSERVATIONS ON FINN’S BAYA (Ploceus megarhynchus HUME) REDISCOVERED

IN THE KUMAON TERAI, 1959. By Salim Ali and John Hurrell Crook.

(With two plates and five text-fizures) a - a ag AS

\ Aue GREAT INDIAN RHINOCEROS (R. unicornis) IN NEPAL. REPORT OF A FACT-

FINDING SURVEY, APRIL-MaAy 1959. By E. P. Gee. (With three plates and

three maps) oh Be ies a ay .. 484

BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY OF ORIENTAL TERMITES (ISOPTERA). No. 4. THE Dry-

Woop TERMITE, Coptotermes heimi (WASM.) IN INDIA. By M. L. Roonwal.

(With three plates) ate 49 a7 cA es ott

A STUDY OF THE VEGETATION OF AJIT SAGAR BUNDH, RAJASTHAN. By N. C.

Nair and K.C. Kannodia. (With a sketch map) .. oe ». 324

ON THE PARAKEET Psittacula Intermedia (ROTHSCHILD) [Aves : PSITTACIDAE].

_ By Biswamoy Biswas a ae cf: e bi S58

SOME NEW IsopoD PARASITES ON FisHES. By D. V. Bal and U.N. Joshi. (With

two plates) a ea ie ae ie Ps 2308

AN ORNITHOLOGIST REVISITS WEST NEPAL, Wee 21-25, 1959). By Robert L.

Fleming a es ni Bs es tO

ALBINISM AND PARTIAL ALBINISM IN TIGERS. By E.P. Gee. (With a plate) .. 581

A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE FLORA OF VISNAGAR, N. GUJARAT, AND ITS ENVIRONS,

By S. G. Bharati .. at i se Ste .. 588

REVIEWS :

1. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (H. Santapau) a erg col |

2. Bird Watching as a Hobby (S.A.)_.. or a: .. 614

3. Poultry Keeping in India (S.A.) a ma ee =. 614

4. A Guide to Freshwater Invertebrate Animals (Dr. Kewalramani) =. O10

5. Fishery Science, its Methods and Applications (E. G. Silas) oiet G7

6. Diversions of a Diplomat in Ceylon (H.A.) A of OLD

7. The Tiger of Rajasthan (B. Basu) .. - A .. 620

8. Collecting, Preserving and Studying Insects (B. J. Tufty) .. un AGP

9. Keralattile Pakshikal (N.G.P.) o2 Ef ae se OD2

SAD Ni

par re ON ‘MAY 3

eu ‘.

bel a

“Ge

il CONTENTS OF VOLUME 56, NO. 3—(contd.)

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES :

1, Musk shrews feeding on Leeches. By P. J. Sanjeeva Raj (p. 624). 2. Pre-

sent status of the Two-horned Rhinoceros, Didermocerus sumatrensis (Fischer) in

the Shwe-U-Daung Reserve, Burma. By Editors (p. 625). 3. The Shou or ‘ Sikkim

Stag’. By F. Ludlow (p. 626). 4. A trusting Crow. By P. Rabindra Nath (p. 628).

5. Spiny Babblers in Kathmandu Valley. By R. L. Fleming (p. 628). 6. Communal

nest-feeding in Babblers. By Lt.-Col. R. S. P. Bates (p. 630). 7. Two dead Swallows

ina nest. By M. K. Himmatsinhji (p. 631). 8. The different calls of the Grey Par-

tridge, Francolinus pondicerianus (Gmelin). By M. K. Himmatsinhji (p. 632). 9,

The occurrence of the Whitenecked Stork [Ciconia episcopa (Boddaert)] in the Kashmir

Valley. By V. C. Ambedkar (p. 633). 10. Large clutch of Nakta eggs. By R. S.

Dharmakumarsinhji (p. 634). 11. Additions to the birds of Kutch. By Salim Ali

(p. 635). 12. Additions to the birds of Tambaram (Chingleput District, S. India).

By P. J. Sanjeeva Raj (p. 636). 13. Some birds of Chingleput District, Madras. By

Rev. E. O. Shaw (p. 637). 14. Birds eating poisonous fruit of Yellow Oleander

(Thevetia neriifolia). By P. J. Sanjeeva Raj (p. 639). 15. Calotes lizard occupying

bird’s nest. By Ishwar Prakash (p. 639). 16. Flying snakes. (With a text figure). By

K. H. Vaughan-Arbuckle (p. 640). 17. The food of the Bull Frog. By Richard Lane

Smith, S. J. (p. 642). 18. A preliminary note on the culture and development of Indian

earthworms. (With a text figure). By V. B. Tembe and P. J. Dubash (p. 643). 19.

Appearance of Nacaduba pactolus continentalis Frith., (Lepidoptera : Lycaenidae) at

Lonavla, Western Ghats. (With a text figure). By A. E. Bean (p. 647). 20. A new

variety of the butterfly Rapala nissa ranta Sinhoe. By Keit Cantlie (p. 652). 21.

Infestation of banyan tree by caterpillars of the moth Hypsa ficus Fabr. By P. R.

Sherred (p. 654). 22. Identity of the Ladybeetle, Epilachna implicata Mulsant, from

India (Coccineidae : Coleoptera). (With two figures). By A. P. Kapur (p. 656). 23.

Aphids of Calcutta and suburbs (West Bengal). By A. K. Ghosh and D. N. Ray

Chaudhuri (p. 660). 24. Insect pests of Maize in Rajasthan. By B. K. Srivastava

(p. 665). 25. The melting point of the wax of Indian bees. By Editors (p. 668).

26. Identity of a Tibeto-Himalayan Ranunculus (With text figures). By D. Chatterjee

(p. 669). 27. Cedrela toona Roxb. in Rajasthan.—A correction. By Editors

(p. 672). 28. A new plant record for India—Erigeron floribundus (H.B.K.) Sch. Bip.

(With text figures anda plate). By H.R. Ladwa and R. M. Patil (p. 673). 29. Record

of Cryptostegia madagascariensis Bo}. from Baroda. By A. R. Chavan and S. D.

Sabnis (p. 675). 30. Notes on the flowering of Carvia callosa Bremek. (=Strobilan-

thes callosus Nees). By V. G. Phatak and G. M. Oza (p. 676). 31. The flowering of

Strobilanthes. (With a plate). By H. Santapau, s.J. (p. 677). 32. The leaves of

Alseadaphne semecarpifolia Nees.—A correction. By H. Santapau, s.J. (p. 678).

GLEANINGS. . ore a th ce 679

ce ce

NOTES AND NEws Z um : .. 682

oa ee ee

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY FOR THE YEAR

ENDING 31ST DECEMBER 1958 .. a ie .. 684

HONORARY SECRETARY’S REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1958 che .. 685

APPENDIX TO THE HONORARY SECRETARY’S REPORT COVERING THE PERIOD

JANUARY TO AUGUST 1959 as bes ze .. 689

STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS OF THE BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY .. 693

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING .. a ae .. 698

JOURNAL

OF THE

BOMBAY NATURAL

HISTORY SOCIETY

1959 DECEMBER | Volese La ENOR a

The Non-violent Scientific

Study of Birds

J. B. S. HALDANE

(Based on a lecture given in Bombay on 17 January 1959)

I am very ignorant about birds, largely because I am unmusical

and most British birds are small and inconspicuous, so that their

songs and call-notes are more distinctive than their colours or shapes.

In the nineteenth century it was hard to study birds without killing

them. The first job of en ornithologist is to identify species; and in

order to be sure that we have, for example, three and only three

species of kingfisher in the suburbs of Calcutta it is necessary to kill

a number, and find that all can be assigned to one of these species.

This phase is now fortunately nearly over. One can learn to assign

a bird to its correct species without killing it.

What is the next step? It is, I think, to find the distribution of

species and subspecies in India at different times of the year, and also

their local habitats. names, and so on. Here Ogniev’s great Zoology

of the U.S.S.R. could be a model. Ultimately we should look

forward to a time when there will be an ornithologist for every hundred

or so square miles of India capable of enumerating the local species,

and a central organization such as the Bombay Natural History

Society to make maps showing the distribution of each species in

India. As, however, this would require ten thousand or so ornitho-

logists it is not immediately possible. But a start can be made.

The next question to be asked is. perhaps, how many birds of one

Or more species there are in a given area. At first sight this is a

very difficult question, as birds are so mobile. But as eggs they are

376 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 36 (3)

extremely immobile. I hope that, if we -develop statistical biology

at the Indian Statistical Institute, we may make the attempt

fo enumerate all the nests of some conspicuous species, such as

vultures, night herons, and cattle egrets, in an area of ten square

miles or so. When this has been done for thirty or so representative

areas in India we shall be in a position to estimate, no doubt very

roughly, the total population of these species in:India.

The total numbers of breeding adults of a few local species are

roughly Known (see Fisher and Lockley 1954). Thus for the gannet,

Sula bassana, the number of nests in the East Atlantic area’ (Britain,

etc.) was about 70,000 in 1939 and had risen to 82,000 in 1949. In

the West Atlantic (Newfoundland, etc.) it was about 13,000 in 1939.

Thus at present there are about two lakhs of mated birds, and perhaps

as many juveniles. They live on a small number of precipitous rocks,

mostly on small islands. There are fifteen ‘cities’ of 17,C00 to

1200 nests, and fourteen ‘villages’ of 500 nests or fewer. ‘These

numbers are fairly accurately known. James Fisher had counted

thousands of nests on cliffs from small boats. He was able to induce

the British Naval Air Force (Fleet Air Arm) to photograph many of

these sites as part of their training. The exact numibers of nests could

be counted at leisure from the photographs, and ‘the results compared

with those obtained by cheaper methods. Few of the. latter were

incorrect by ten per cent. — } Sash:

_- This ‘urbanization’ is characteristic of sea birds, and is carried to

greater lengths in more numerous species. The extreme example 1s

furnished by U’ria lomvia, Brinnich’s Guillemot, of which there appear

to be four or five million on the coasts of Greenland, about half of

which breed on a single rock Agpar-s-suit. This is one extreme of |

bird behaviour. Most small song birds keep a “territory” round their

nests private by singing and quarrelling with intruders, even if they

are more sociable when not breeding, while. others, such as_ the

Indian. weaver. bird, live in ‘villages’ of a few tens or hundreds of

nests. | ral | ay

Is there any possibility of counting all the breeding members of

an Indian bird species? 1 suggest that the most hopeful targets are

the large flamingo. Phoenicopierus. antiquorum, and the smaller species

Phoeniconaias minor. The former breeds in the Great Rann of

Kutch and the latter possibly in the Little Rann. The Lesser

Flamingo, which lives on unicellular algae, is not apparently found

in- many other localities except Sambhar Lake in Rajasthan. The

Rann of Kutch is unsuitable for walking but, owing to the absence

of: trees, it should be possible to photograph nesting birds from

THE NON-VIOLENT SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF BIRDS 877

the air. This can of course only be done by the Indian Air

Force. In peace time the armed forces have to carry out exercises

of various kinds. Their efficiency can be better gauged from their

performance against natural forces, for example the rapid replacement

of bridges destroyed by floods, or the landing on a difficult coast, than

by their prowess against ‘enemies’ who they know will not hurt them.

Hence such co-operation would, I believe, increase the efficiency of

our Aur Force.

So much for mere populations or densities per square mile. But

how do these increase or decrease? Observations on a few hundred

or even a few dozen nests of any species will tell us the average

number of eggs laid per year. More careful, but not very arduous,

watching will tell us how many young birds per nest survive to start

flight. On the whole tropical birds produce fewer eggs in a clutch

than birds of the same species or a closely related species in a

temperate climate. This is at least partly due to the shorter tropical

days, which do not give the parents time to feed'a large brood. Most

of the comparisons have been made by Moreau with African birds,

but Lack (1950) points out that 1a India Parus major (the Great

Tit) has an average clutch of 3 compared with 10 in England.

This difference must be compensated in one of two ways. Either

the average number of clutches in India must be greater or the

mortality less. There must be a balance because if, for example,

_ the numbers in an area increased by only 10% per year for a

century, the density would increase 13,781 times. This can of

course happen when a new species occupies a country, but not with

established species. In only one case has this balance been directly

demonstrated by comparison of statistics. In Switzerland the Starling

(Sturnus vulgaris, a bird very similar to the myna) lays more eggs

than in England, but dies younger. It will be easy to get data on

numbers of broods in India, not so easy to get data on mortality.

Before I speak about mortality, let me say a few words on the

feeding of young.

What do they get to eat? One can of course kill parents and

examine their crop contents. Apart from ethical considerations this

means that one can only get one piece of information from a bird.

Several other methods are available. Lack found that if he caught

parent swifts (Apus apus) they might desert their young. So he waited

until a parent bird fed a baby and departed, and then pressed the

baby’s throat, getting a pellet containing about 600 insects entangled

in the parent’s sticky saliva. They were largely flying aphids, so

swifts eat insects which compete with men for food plants, and what

378 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

is more, eat them while they are moving to new food plants and

invulnerable to sprays and other insecticides. Thus swifts seem to be

wholly favourable to agriculture, whereas some other bird species live

largely on seeds and lower agricultural output, while other insect

eating birds eat some insects, such as bees. which assist in the pollina-

tion of plants and thus help human horticulture and even agriculture.

We should certainly encourage the birds which are helpfui to man,

even if we do not massacre the others. A second non-violent method

has been used in the Soviet Union. The nestlings are replaced by

models which, when a watcher pulls a string, open mouths and may

emit a suitable noise. The food falls into a bag, and I hope is given

to its legitimate owners after the insects, molluscs, seeds, and so on,

have been assigned to their correct species. |

Do young birds get enough to eat? Lack (1954) found that when

the brood size was less than the average, the number of young starlings |

surviving for a few months was roughly proportional to the brood

size. However this was not so when the brood size exceeded the

average. Even if the excess young survived to fly, they did not

survive much longer. Presumably their parents could give them

enough food to fledge, but not enough to get an adequate start in

life. The technique consists of ringing nestlings. But of 15,000

starlings ringed in this research, only 346 or 2.3% were recovered,

that is to say found dead and the rings returned.

The ringing technique was invented by Mortensen in Denmark to

study migration. As you know, several ducks ringed in India have

been picked up in Siberia and vice versa, and one German-ringed

stork in India. Ringing birds does not harm them. One ringed

robin (Erithacus rubecula) in Eire lived for eleven years, though nearly

two-thirds of all robins die each year, so only about one robin per

lakh is expected to live so long. It is a fortunate and peculiar fact

that birds’ legs are fully grown before they start flying. A metal

or plastic ring can therefore be put on a nestling and remain on its

leg for life. The rings usually carry a request to send them to a

certain address if found. There may be a small reward. In Western

Europe population density and literacy are both so high that as many

as 15% of the rings on large birds are returned. We cannot yet hope

for such good results in India. But we may reach them when our

children are educated.

Table I gives data on Vanellus vanellus, the lapwing, a British

crested bird of about the size of the hoopoe, and which our great

British naturalist William Turner thought to be a hoopoe four hundred

years ago, since ancient authors of about two thousand years ago had

LE NON-VIOLENDT SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF BIRDS S19,

described only one crested bird of this size. Then he went to Central

Europe and saw a hoopoe, which agreed very well with the Latin

description. He realised that there were birds in Britain of which

the ancients knew nothing, and started to describe them. That was

the beginning of scientific ornithology in Britain.

Each ring is recorded on a card in an office at the British Museum

of Natural History in London, and I analysed all the cards recording

rings put on nestling birds before the year 1940 (Haldane 1955). I made

the table in 1954, so, as one bird had lived for fourteen years, if I had

included birds ringed, say, in 1950, many would still have been alive.

Following a method due to Lack, I omitted all birds picked up in the

same year when they were ringed. Their number is large, but it is

misleading because a man who has taken the trouble to ring fifty little

lapwings will probably notice dead ones in his neighbourhood, and

hence the apparent mortality in the first eight months will be too high

(Table I). The first cotumn is the year of the bird’s life in which it was

TABLE I

ew | aw) | 4 | le

| |

I | 2 | 3 4 eae 6

=— —— ———- | — ———__~-

1 194 194 206.38 — 12.38 0.74

2 145 290 136.21 + 8.79 0.57

3 90 270 89.90 + 0.10 0.00

4 54 216 59.33 — 5,33 0.48

5 48 240 39.16 t 8.84 2.00

6 25 150 25.85 — 0.85 0.03

7 24 168 17.06 + 6.94 2.82

8 9 72 11.25 — 2.25 0.45

9 6 54 7.43 — 1.43 0.28

10 5 50 4.90 + 0.10 0.00

ll (a '3*5 55

12 sig) eee ee

13 eee oo Ol 4i,9.53 — 2.53 0.67

14 acti 14 |

607 1785 Sus 0.00 8.04

picked up. Thus if a bird was ringed in 1930 and found dead in 1931

we say that its age x=1. dy is the number of birds found dead in

the xth year of their life. For example 54 rings were from birds

dying in their fourth year (e.g. birds ringed in 1940 and picked up in

1944). The third column is the product of the first two. Now

suppose that in each year a constant fraction m of all birds dies, we

380 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

find that 607/1785 (the ratio of the totals of columns 2 and 3) gives

us an estimate of m, namely .340 or 34.0%. Now this seems a very

simple theory, too simple to be true, for we know that in human

beings a bigger fraction die in their sixtieth year than their sixth,

in other words m is not constant. If m is constant we expect that

607 m, or 206.38, birds died in their first year, leaving 400.62, and

400.62 m, or 136.21, died in their second year. In this way the ex-

pectations in column 4 were calculated. Column 5 gives the differences

of columns 3 and 4. If m increased with age, as in man, the values

would at first be positive, and later negative. We can make a

further test. Dividing 4? by &(dx) we get the last column. If m

is constant we should expect the total to be 9; it is rather less. ‘There

is no reason to doubt the constancy of the mortality. In other words

all birds after their first year died of accident. There is no evidence

that any small bird dies of old age in nature, for other species have

yielded similar results. J dealt in a similar way with the figures for

120 birds ringed from 1940 to 1951. The mathematics are much

more complicated, and give m=.372, which is close enough to the

former value to give me some confidence in my calculations. The

annual mortalities range from about two-thirds for very small song

birds to about a tenth or less for large sea birds. But in some ways

the results obtained about migration are even more interesting.

Dr. Salim Ali tells me that systematic work is at last being started to

map out migration routes between India and Siberia.

How do bird populations change? This could be studied in

India as easily as anywhere else. When a species is introduced into

a new habitat it may increase very quickly. Figure 1 shows the rate

of increase of Phasianus colchicus on an island off the American coast.

Four pairs were introduced. The biennial census shows the effect of

juvenile mortality. The population increased from two to four times

annually, and showed some signs of stabilizing, until a very formid-

able predator, the American soldier, was introduced, and further

observations were useless. But the population had increased from

8 to 1325 in five years. Figure 2 of Parus major in a British wood

is more typical. The increase was due to the installation of nesting

boxes. The population increased violently each spring and fell back.

in autumn. Some birds left the wood each winter, and they or others

returned before the nesting season. Similar observations could be

made in India, even on the same species.

If there are enough ornithologists in India ten years hence we

shall be able to begin observations like those recorded in Fig. 3,

which gives the population of herons (Ardea cinerea) at a number of

1iE |} NON-VIOLENT SCIENTIFIC STUDY)OF: BIRDS 381

English nesting sites. A very cold winter, such as. that of 1947,

reduced the number of birds, probably because a great deal of water

was frozen. But they regained their original density in two years or

so, and showed no tendency to increase indefinitely. If we knew how

15406

1500

"1325"

1000

z 844.

5 *705

iPS)

2S ee: ; foe Pet i,

E 500 426

“282

100 re J

4 “—.

dil e)

Wr 5 Ml a3) eNO 4 ORs SS 4) [an 4 2.

Fig. 1. Increase of pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) on Protection Island,

Washington, U.S.A. After Einarsen and Lack (1954).

they achieved this stability we human beings might take some hints

from them. It seems likely that marriage is postponed where there

is a shortage of nesting sites. Other bird populations, especially in

northern regions, show cyclical fluctuations with a period of about

ten years, but the figures are not very satisfactory.

Such investigations take some time; Dr Salim Ali may wish me

to suggest topics which would give results in a year or two, and thus

secure a M.Sc. Bird behaviour offers many such _ possibilities. One

of our. Enghsh song birds, the thrush (Turdus ericetorum), leaves a

record of. its predations, as it breaks snail ‘shells on stones or tree

stumps before giving their contents to its young. -.Table II is a record

382 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

350

300)-

200

100

Number of individuals present

1947 1948 1949 1950 195)

Fig. 2. Seasonal changes in the numbers of Great Tits (Parus major) in a

63 acre wood near Oxford, England. After Gibb and Lack (1954),

Hard winters a

500 : y FC , f , é =

“40 “4142 45/47 oy &

do °

400

300

200

100

Number of occupied nests

1928 193436 °38 “40° 742° °A4. “46 948. “SOnMoue

Fig. 3. Breeding Populations of Herons (Ardea cinerea) in two areas

of England. After Lack (1954).

The ‘hard’ winters are those in which water was frozen for Jong

periods, rendering fishing difficult.

THE NON-VIOLENT SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF BIRDS 383

of its behaviour. The snail species Cepea nemoralis has several

colour forms, which can be classified as yellow and not yellow, the

former being recessive. On a brown background of dead leaves the

yellow snails are conspicuous to the human eye, while they are less

conspicuous among green leaves. They are also commoner on green

backgrounds such as grass which does not dry up in summer, than on

TABLE II

Snails Cepea nemoralis, collected by men and killed by thrushes in

Marley Wood, near Oxford

Data of P. Sheppard

Date — Yellow Not Yellow % Yellow

14. 4. 50 80 250 | 24:2 | Human

26. 5. 50 57 147 | 27'°9 | collections

6 to 11. 4. 50 3 4 43 Killed by

-23. 4. 50 | | 10 4] Turdus

-30. 4. 50 | 11 21 34 ate ericetorum

- 7.5. 50 | 9 25 26

~19. 5. 50 3 16 16

~22. 5. 50 1 6 14

~26. 5. 50 2 12 14

6. 4. 50 to 26. 5. 50 36 94 Deh Total bird-killed

brown ones such as the floor of beech woods. Sheppard (1951) made

counts of snails killed by thrushes during the breeding season of 1950 in

a wood where there were few green leaves in early April, and many

in late May. We see that the thrushes collected more of the snails

which were conspicuous to the human eye at the times in question.

But their overall bag favoured neither type of snail, so it looks as

if they were responsible for keeping the observed proportion of yellow

snails. This is an example of Natural Selection in action. Similarly

Kettlewell (1956) has shown how birds act as agents of natural

selection in transforming the colour of the moth Biston betularia. 1

have little doubt that similar studies of choice by birds in nature could

be made in India. My colleague Sri K. R. Dronamraju is now

making one at Calcutta, but in his case the choosers are butterilies,

not birds.

Here is another example of bird behaviour which could and should

be studied statistically. Moreau, Purchon, and others, in a series of

384 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY,. Vol. 36 (3)

papers in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, have

studied the visits of birds, both in Africa and Europe, to their nests

when brooding eggs and feeding their young. Unfortunately they

never give all the figures needed for a complete statistical analysis.

It is however clear that in several species the time spent on the nest

per day rose during incubation, and then fell again as the young

demanded more and more food but less and less warmth. The

durations of absences were less variable than those of stays on the

nest. This can be interpreted as meaning that the parent bird has a

strong urge to return after five minutes or so, even if it has found

little food, and no strong urge to leave the nest after a standard time.

However, it would be most valuable to collect such data in such a

way that they could be given adequate statistical treatment. This

would mean observation throughout the hours of daylight during

a nesting period, which would require the co-operation of at least two

men. Moreau however was very satisfied by the performances of

illiterate African assistants, and I have no doubt that equaliy reliable

Indians are available. If the data are complete, the Indian a

Institute can analyse them.

I am not musical, and cannot detect slight difference in bird songs

and calls. Their full investigation demands the rather expensive

apparatus used by Thorpe (1955). But this is not essential. Marler

(1952) wandered about Britain with no apparatus beyond two ears

and a note-book, and found differences in the song of the same species,

Fringilla coelebs, in five different areas. He also studied it in the

Azores islands, while Promptoff had previously done so in two areas

of the Soviet Union. The differences were quite marked. The most

complicated song, on an average, was sung in Scotland. But the

birds of the Thames Valley were more variable, and included the

finest songsters. In the Azores where there is no other species with a

similar song, and, therefore no biological need for a species-specific

song, the performance was much simpler and cruder. Similar work

could and should be done in India. Are there, for example, Marathi

and Gujarati songs in the same bird species?!

From a cursory reading of Tinbergen’s (1951) work you “ee

think that birds respond to very crude stimuli. Like men _ they

sometimes do so, but not always. Migratory birds have definite

routes which generally avoid long ocean and desert crossings, and

often follow coast lines and large rivers. In Scandinavia and Germany

most small song birds which winter in tropical Africa follow. the

Atlantic coast. But Sylvia curruca, the Lesser Whitethroat, flies

southeast from Germany to Turkey, and then south along the. Nile

THE NON-VIOLENT SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF BIRDS 385

Valley. They mainly fly at night, and birds in their first year can find

the way. How do they ‘know’ it? I end up by introducing you to

one of the most amazing stories in the whole of biology, a story

which I hope, but am not certain, is true, though I have the greatest

respect for its author. But scientists are human, and even the

greatest of them make mistakes. Sauer hatched birds in the laboratory

and kept them in cages where they never saw the sky. They became

restless at night for two or three weeks at the normal migration times

in autumn and spring. If they can see even a part of the sky, they

attempt to fly approximately southeast.

Now comes Sauer’s (1958) amazing discovery. The birds responded

perfectly well in a planetarium, that is to say a dome in which the

stars are represented by points of light. Now in such a planetarium

we can alter the apparent position of the stars in two ways. We can

alter them as they would alter at the same place during one night.

For example in Germany in late October Rohini (Aldebaran) was well

up in the sky when the stars were first seen after sunset, while

Kalpurush (Orion) was just rising. If the planetarium was arranged

to show the stars in this position the birds tried to fly southeastwards,

as they should. Now the planetarium was altered so that Kalpurush

was high in the sky, and Sinha (Leo) rising, in fact the stars as they

would be seen about 11 p.m. The birds tried to fly westwards. Now

at that moment they would have seen the stars in those positions if

they had been near lake Balkhash in Kazakhstan, and their best way

to western Turkey would have been to fly west. At intermediate star

positions they flew southwest and south. The pole of the planetarium

can also be shifted so that the stars appear as they would from another

latitude. Sauer changed the apparent position of the stars to that

which would be seen at the same time in Egypt. Achernar was shown

in the south, the Saptarshi (Ursa Major) were below the northern

horizon. The birds flew south, as they would have done in Egypt.

Of course I have over-simplified Sauer’s account. Perhaps

Matthews’s results on solar navigation are equally remarkable, though

they are still not universally accepted. But it does appear that some

birds have, if not an innate knowledge of astronomy, at least an

innate capacity for responding to certain star patterns. Presumably

some kind of pattern develops in their brain which corresponds to

that of the stars, as of course feather patterns develop on their skins.

Probably Matthews’s work will be easier to repeat in India, but some-

how Sauer’s seems to me more exciting, if only because it suggests

that birds may have knowledge which has not come to them through

their senses. And if birds, why not man?

386 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 36 (3)

I must apologize to Dr Sdélim Ali for the numerous inaccuracies

which I am sure have crept into this lecture. But this is inevitable

if I am lured into speaking on a subject to which I have made no

serious contributions. I close with the hope that in his old age he

may be able to introduce scientific ornithology, to which he has

made such notable contributions, into the curriculum of our

universities.

REFERENCES

Fisher, J. & Lockley, R. M. (1954):

Sea-birds. London, Collins.

Haldane, J. B. S. (1955): The calcula-

tion of mortality rates from ringing data.

Acta XI. Congr. Int. Orn. Basel.

Kettlewell, H. B. D. (1956): Further

selection experiments on industrial mela-

nism in the Lepidoptera. Heredity 10:

287-303.

Lack, D. (1950) : Family size in titmice

of the genus Parus. Evolution 4: 279-290.

—— — (1954): The natural regula-

tion of animal numbers. Oxford,

Clarendon Press.

Marler, P. (1952): Variation in the

song of the Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs).

Ibis 94 : 458-472.

Sauer, E. G. F. (1958) :. Celestial

navigation by birds. Scientific American

199; 42-47.

Sheppard, P. M. (1951): Fluctuations

in the selective value of certain pheno-

types in the polymorphic land snail

Cepaea nemoralis L. Heredity 5: 125-134.

Tinbergen, N. (1951): The study of

instinct. Oxford, Clarendon Press.

Thorpe, W. H. (1955): Comments on

‘The ‘bird fancyer’s delight’, together

with notes on imitation in the sub-song

of the Chaffinch. Jbis 97: 247-251.

The Vegetation of Kodaikanal

| Grassy Slopes

K. M. MATTHEW, S.J.

St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirapalli-2

LN ER OD UCTION

Kodaikanal, on the Palni Hills of south India, is situated at an

- altitude of 6000-7000 ft. Its flora is very rich, as can be made out

from the many references in Gamble’s FLORA OF THE PRESIDENCY OF

MADRAS, and particularly from Fyson’s THE FLORA OF THE SOUTH

INDIAN HILL STATIONS. Throughout the preparation of this paper, I

have made constant use of these two books; but the paper is mainly

based on the data that 1 have collected personally in the field, paying

particular attention to the precise dates of flowering and fruiting,

the exact distribution, and relative abundance of the various plants

studied.

This study is restricted to the angiospermic vegetation of the grassy

slopes about Kodaikanal. One fuli year has been spent in an intense

examination of the various species occurring on such slopes and on

the phenology of the same.

In the enumeration that follows, lengthy descriptions have been

omitted on purpose; interested readers are referred to the standard

works just mentioned. The notes given for each plant are meant to

bring out the more important features of the same. In this paper the

two terms abundance and distribution are not considered synonymous;

a plant is said to be abundant when large numbers of the same occur

at a particular spot: on the other hand, a plant is said to be widely

distributed when, without regard to the large or smalJl number of

specimens, the plant is found to occur in many spots or places within

the given area. Such data I consider of importance, particularly

when it is a question of plants that may have some economic im-

portance, medicinal or otherwise; this detailed information may

materially reduce expenses, should it become necessary at any later

time to collect the plant for commercial exploitation.

In this paper 154 species belonging to 114 genera and 47 Families

are mentioned. The order of the Families is the same as in Gamble’s

FLORA; however, a few Families have been split into more uniform

388 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

groups following Hutchinson’s FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS.

Within the Family both genera and species are given in alphabetical

order. The common English names, occasionally mentioned in my

list, are mostly taken from Fyson’s book.

METHODS OF STUDY

Three plots of land on open grassy slopes were selected for

intensive study from March 1956. The plots were all in the neighbour-

hood of Shembaganur, just below Kodaikanal, at an altitude of

about 6000 ft. I identified all the plants in these plots as_ they

appeared, and in my fortnightly visits took careful notes of their

phenology. The study was not restricted to these three relatively

small plots; comparison was constantly made with other parts of the

same hilly slopes, particularly to find out the distribution of the plants

and their size and to note differences in their flowering and fruiting

seasons, especially as affected by altitude.

SOIL AND CLIMATE

As regards soil, the plateau is made up of a special kind of gneiss,

called charnockite, consisting of blue-coloured quartz, felspar, and mica

in varying proportions. The soil is mostly yellow composed of

bauxite, hematite, magnetite, and aluminous sediments. This soil is

almost entirely covered by a layer, 25-60 cm. thick, of compact,

water-holding, black mud.

Though Kodaikanal lies within the monsoon zone, its climate is

greatly modified by altitude. Among the hill stations of India,

Kodaikanal is said to have the lowest maximum temperature in

summer and the highest minimum in winter, as may be seen from

the following table, which records the monthly average maximum and

minimum temperatures in °C. for Shembaganur for the years 1953-

1957:

TABLE I

Jan.| Feb. | Mar. 'Apr.! May | Jun. Jul.| Aug. | Sep. |Oct. Nov. | Dec.

fa | Nf ee

Max. |17.4| 19.8 | 21.3. (22.5 |. 20.9 | 20.6.419.4,) 19.2, 4.19.4 5) 8922 18.4 17.3

a ee [fee fe fe

Min. (10.2 |:11.8 | 13:5 (14.5) 16.2

#5.1°113.9) 14.14 13.6 jaa 11.9| 10.7

THE VEGETATION OF KODAIKANAL GRASSY SLOPES 389

As regards climate, Kodaikanal has four fairly clearly defined

seasons: (1) The Dry Season, January to March, during which rain

is rare and the sun hot, and in consequence tender annuals are often

severely damaged. (2) The Hot Season, April and May, — during

which showers are frequent, and annuals thrive. (3) The South-West

Monsoon Season, June to September: many plants come into bloom,

conditions are ideal for most plants; the rainfall is somewhat erratic

due to the fact that Kodaikanal lies within the rainshadow region of

the Cardamom Hills of Kerala. (4) The North-East Monsoon Season,

October to December: showers are more regular and frequent than

during the rest of the year. |

The annual average rainfall of about 185 cm. is more or less

distributed throughout the year, and this keeps the vegetation of

Kodaikanal fresh without the drastic monsoon and dry _ season

fluctuations that are so striking for most parts of peninsular India.

The following table gives the average monthly rainfall in cm. for

Shembaganur for the years 1953-1957.

TABLES?

Dec. | Total

| l | |

Jan. |Feb.| Mar. | Apr. | May June} July |Aug. | Sep. ined Nov.

| ae ; s

| | | :

7.25 oe 8.00 | 27.15 10.87 10.37/12.72 14.00

_ | ——

18.22 36.1 22.9 12.9 |183.35

ENUMERATION OF SPECIES

BERBERIDACEAE

1. Berberis tinctoria Lesch. The Common Nilgiri Barberry |

An evergreen thorny shrub, about 90 cm. high. The stem is hard,

and bright yellow inside. Inflorescence many-flowered:; flowers bright

yellow. Flowering February-March. Fruits ripe by May: at first

green, then red, finally dark blue.

Fairly common on slopes, though never abundant.

i VIOLACEAE

2. Viola patrinii DC. The Spear-leafed Violet

A perennial herb with a thick rootstock, without runners. Leaves

radical, lanceolate: petioles long, winged, sheathing at the~ base.

Flowers solitary, white. The first showers in March bring out an

390 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

abundance of flowers: stray ones may be seen almost throughout the

year. Capsules common by June, oblong, splitting into 3 boat-shaped

valves. ,

Common and abundant. though not easily noticed, being hidden

by grasses.

3. Viola serpens Wall. The Common Wood Violet

A perennial, creeping, uniformly pubescent herb. Leaves ovate,

on slender petioles 6-§ cm. long. Flowers solitary, 1-2 cm. across,

pale blue to white, abundant during May-June; stray ones throughout

the year. Capsules globose.

Strictly this is not a plant of open grasslands. but of the ‘sholas’,

where the plant is abundant.

POLYGALACEAE

4. Polygala bolbothrix Dunn.

A small, densely pubescent, spreading herb. Leaves alternate,

lanceolate-acuminate. Inflorescence few-flowered; flowers drooping,

pink. Flowering probably throughout the year.

Abundant in one of the three areas under study, but restricted in

distribution. It is more common at lower elevations. Not mentioned

by Fyson.

5. Polygala persicariaefolia DC.

A thin, scarcely branched herb, 25 cm. high. Leaves narrow.

elliptic to linear, 3-4X0.4-6.5 cm. Racemes up to 6 cm. long, mostly

lateral. Flowers 6-12 on each raceme, rose-coloured, available from

September to January with a peak in October-November; in places

not exposed to strong sun, flowers may be had even in March-April.

Fruit an oval capsule. |

_ Abundant locally on grass slopes, but not widely distributed; more

~ robust specimens occur at lower elevations. Not mentioned by Fyson

6. Polygala rosmarinifolia Wt. & Arn. The Rosemary Milkwort

An erect, scarcely branched annual, 25-30 cm. high. Leaves linear.

2-3X0.5 cm. Racemes few-flowered, short. Flowers greenish,

throughout the year, but abundant from June to August. Pod elliptic:

seeds two, black. covered with short white hairs and capped by a

conspicuous aril.

Abundant and common. Mcre robust specimens occur at lower

elevations. |

THE VEGETATION OF KODAIKANAL GRASSY SLOPES S91

7. Polygala sibirica L. The Common Milkwort

A small herb from a woody, perennial stalk. Branches many,

spreading. Racemes short, from the axils of the upper leaves.

Flowers purple, seen throughout the year. Capsule winged.

Common along cattle tracks or among low vegetation; this seems

to be the lower limit of the distribution of this plant.

HYPERICACEAE

8. Hypericum japonicum Thunb. The Marsh St. John’s Wort

A slender, erect herb, often tufted, up to 10 cm. high, growing

in marsh. Leaves sessile, ovate, entire, more or less reddish brown.

Flowers terminal, yellow. Flowering February-October. Fruit a

capsule, red; common from November to January.

Abundant in marshy places, rare elsewhere.

9. Hypericum mysorense Heyne The Common St. John’s Wort

A rough shrub, 90 cm. or more high. Young branches 4-angled;

leaves conspicuously decussate. Flowers large, showy, bright yellow,

terminal. Flowering October-May, abundant in March-April. Fruit

oval, surmounted by 5 persistent styles.

Abundant and common on slopes. During the flowering season,

this plant is one of the most conspicuous species on these hill slopes.

10. Hypericum wightianum Wall.

A slender herb about 15 cm. high. Stems terete, branches spread-

ing. Leaves ovate, 1.50.5 cm., often reddish brown.

Flowering etc. as for H. japonicum Thunb.

TILIACEAE

11. Triumfetta pilosa Roth. 3

A perennial undershrub 60-90 cm. high, uniformly hirsute. Lower

leaves 3-lobed, upper ones ovate-acuminate, 104 cm., coarsely

serrate. Inflorescence of 3-10-flowered axillary cymes. Flowers

yellow. Flowering September-November. Capsules covered with

long, soft spines; common in Deceimber-January.

Abundant, often gregarious, along roadsides, in waste land, etc.,

but not common.

LINACEAE

12. Linum mysorense Heyne

A slender, erect annual, 20-40 cm. high. Branches corymbose;

leaves sessile, linear. Flowers terminal, yellow, solitary or in racemes

392 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

of 3-5. Flowering November-January; in shaded spots flowers may

be seen till March-April. Capsules globose.

Abundant in places, but not common.

GERANIACEAE

13. Biophytum intermedium Wt.

A small herb, often less than 8 cm. high, with a woody rootstock.

Stems unbranched. Leaves 4-5 cm. long, paripinnate; leaflets 10-15

pairs, slightly sensitive. Flowers yellow, small, 5-6 on a peduncle.

Fruit an ovoid capsule enclosed in the persistent sepals.

Abundant locally but not common; in crevices of rocks, walls, etc.

Flowering more or less throughout the year, but scarce in the cold

months.

BALSAMINACEAE

14. Impatiens goughii Wt. Gough’s Water Balsam

A slender, much-branched annual, 10-25 cm. high. Stems fleshy,

reddish. Leaves ovate, opposite, exstipulate; petioles 2-4 cm. long.

Flowers pink, corymbose, each on a slender or filiform pedicel] 1-1.5

cm. long; usually 3-6 pedicels supported on a peduncle 4-6 cm. long,

axillary. Fruit an ovoid capsule.

Abundant on wet rocks, rare elsewhere. Flowers almost

throughout the year, with a peak in November.

15. Impatiens tomentosa Heyne The Red Liberty Cap

A slender, pubescent, annual marsh herb. Stems red, pubescent,

30 cm. long, rooting at the lower nodes. Leaves narrow, acute,

40.8 cm., on short petioles. Flowers pink, 1-3, axillary, on pedicels

about 2 cm. long. Flowering September-May; stray flowers through-

out the year. Capsules pointed at both ends; seeds 3-5, black.

Abundant in marshes, not seen elsewhere. Gamble reports 70

species for Madras, and Fyson 31 for the south Indian hill ‘stations,

but I have noted only about 12 about Kodaikanal.

PAPILIONACEAE

16. Crotalaria albida Heyne

A low, diffuse plant, branching abundantly but pei from below.

Leaves simple, subsessile, 1-1.5x0.5 cm., cuneate, thick, pubescent.

Inflorescence of terminal racemes 4-5 cm. long. Flowers yellow,

6-8 in a raceme. Flowering nearly throughout the year with

THE VEGETATION OF KODAIKANAL GRASSY SLOPES 393

occasional interruptions. Very few flowers seem to run into fruit.

Pods glabrous.

Not abundant but widely distributed.

17. Crotalaria calycina Sch. Rabbit’s Ears

An erect annual 10-60 cm. high, profusely covered with brown

hairs. Stems cylindrical, flexuous. Leaves oblanceolate, 4-6 0.6 cm..

densely hirsute on the lower surface. Flowers in loose racemes, distant

{from one another. Calyx 2 cm. long, densely tomentose. Corolla

yellow, not exserted from the calyx. Flowers abundant in September-

October; stray ones and pods nearly throughout the year. Pods 2 cm.

long, dark brown; seeds over 20.

Fairly abundant and widely distributed. Probably the name

“Rabbit’s Ears” comes from the two ear-like upper lobes of the calyx.

18. Crotalaria fysonii Dunn.

A small, trailing, perennial herb, with a thick rootstock. Upper

leaves ovate, lower ones orbicular, all usually pubescent. Racemes

terminal, leaf-opposed or erect. Flowers 4-6, showy, yellow. Flowers

throughout the year, but few of them seem to run into fruit.

Widely distributed along the slopes, and fairly abundant. There

is one form of the plant with perfectly glabrous leaves.

19. Crotalaria leschenaultii DC.

An erect, branched undershrub, 90 cm. high, or higher. Leaves

oblanceolate-cuneate, glabrous on the upper surface, silky on the

lower, 8 cm. long. Racemes many, large, bright yellow tinged with

brown, which turn black when dry. Flowering starts in August, and

continues for most of the year. Ripe pods 5-6 cm. long.

Common but not abundant.

20. Crotalaria ovalifolia Wall.

A low, diffuse, pubescent herb from a perennial rootstock.

Branches 20 cm. long, wiry, more or less erect among grasses. Leaves

simple, ovate. Stipules broad at the top and decurrent along the

stem. Racemes terminal, of 2-3 flowers. Flowering more or less

throughout the year, with a peak in September-November.

Common and abundant.

21. Crotalaria wightiana Grah.

A conspicuous, pretty shrub, 100-120 cm. high. Leaves 129 cm.,

elliptic-ovate, obtuse at the apex, densely pubescent; stipular wings

prominent. Racemes few-flowered. Flowers conspicuous. Flower-

ing June-November. Flowers and pods are seen on the same plant ©

394 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

for most of the year, except perhaps in April-May. Pods 4-5 cm.

long.

Common, at times fairly abundant. This seems to be the upper

limit of the distribution of this plant.

22. Desmodium parvifolium DC.

A. low trailer often hidden in the surrounding herbage. Fresh

leaves in June-July. Stems thin and pubescent when young, red and

glabrous when old; lateral branches many. Leaflets 3, often not more

than 0.5 cm. long. Racemes terminal, densely pubescent. Flowers

pink. Flowering September-December. Pods from January onwards.

Even after dehiscence, the pod persists on the plant, at times even

for months.

This is sometimes so abundant as to form the dominant ground

vegetation, but not widely distributed. Stray flowers seen even after

January in shaded places, but the statement ‘Flowers March-October’

of Fyson seems to be incorrect.

23. Desmodium rufescens DC.

An erect, tall, twiggy shrub, up to 150 cm. high; young parts

brown pubescent. Leaflets 3, obovate, the underside covered with

silky pubescence. Racemes mostly terminal, 8-15 cm. long. Flowers

blue-purple, crowded on the upper part of the raceme. Flowering

August-January. Pods and stray flowers from February onwards.

In thickets, in clumps.

24. Desmodium scalpe DC.

A shade plant, young parts pubescent. Leaflets 3, the middle

one rhomboid, lateral ones oblique. Stipules prominent. Inflor-

escence up to 30 cm. long, a lax terminal raceme. Flowers brick red,

abundant September-January.

Not a plant of the open grassland, but of shaded woods.

25. Flemingia grahamiana Wt. & Arn.

An erect shrub, with the fresh leafy branches rising above the

surrounding grass by April, after the first showers. Leaflets 3, thick;

the terminal one ovate-cuneate, 8X4 cm.; lateral ones oblique.

smaller. Flowers in dense axillary spikes; calyx densely covered

with red glands: corolla rather yellow than pink. Flowers common

from September onwards. The last flowers may be seen from

December to January along with pods which are also covered with

red glands. Pods may be seen as late as May.

Abundant and common everywhere on grassy slopes.

THE VEGETATION OF KODAIKANAL GRASSY SLOPES 395)

26. Indigofera pulchella Roxb.

A shrub 30-180 cm. high. Leaves imparipinnate, with 11-15

leaflets. Racemes 7-12 cm. long. Flowers purple, appearing before

the leaves, September-May. Pods narrow, straight, 4-5 cm. long.

Not abundant but widely distributed. The stem is often covered

with galls.

27. Leptodesmia congesta Benth.

A perennial, diffuse, trailing herb. Stems thin, young parts

pubescent. Leaves abovate, pubescent. Inflorescence a _ terminal

raceme. Flowers crowded in the raceme, which appears whitish on

account of the dense pubescence of the calyx. Flowers May-

December. Pods common from January onwards.

Abundant in certain places, but not common.

28. Shuteria vestita Wt. & Arn.

A slender twiner. Stems thin, pubescent. Leaves pinnately

trifoliate, leaflets ovate. Racemes up to 12 cm. long; calyx densely

pubescent; corolla purplish. Pods flat, pubescent. Flowers November-

January; pods till March.

Common in thickets, not in open grasslands.

29. Tephrosia tinctoria Pers.

An undershrub with imparipinnate leaves; leaflets 9 or more,

their undersurface pubescent. Racemes mostly terminal. Flowers

red, October-December. Pods flat, slightly curved, about 4 cm. long.

The empty pods persist on the plant after dehiscence.

Abundant only in certain places; commoner at lower elevations.

CAESALPINEACEAE

30. Cassia leschenaultiana DC.

A low, diffuse or decumbent perennial herb. Leaves 3-5 cm. long,

paripinnate; leaflets 16-24 pairs. Flowers on pedicels up to 1.5 cm.

long, solitary, axillary, yellow. Flowering more or less throughout

the year, abundant from August to September. Pods hairy, through-

out the year.

Both abundant and common. It is easily distinguished from

C. mimosoides L., a similar plant, which has 30-50 pairs of leaflets

and glabrous pods.

ROSACEAE

31. Rubus ellipticus Sm. The Yellow Raspberry

A large gregarious straggling shrub. Stems armed with curved

prickles; tender parts covered with white tomentum and red _ hairs.

396 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 36 (3)

Leaves pinnately trifoliate, rugose, obovate; the middle one the largest,

GX7 cm.: lateral ones 6X4 cm.; margins serrate. Flowers white, in

terminal or axillary clusters, drooping; abundant in September, less

so during the rest of the year. Fruit a globose aggregate of drupes,

yellow when ripe. The fruit of this and the two following species

are delicious when ripe.

Abundant and common along roads,. paths, and edges of forests.

32. Rubus fairholmianus Gardn. The Purple Bramble

A large, prickly shrub, about 2 m. high, gregarious. Stems, chiefly

the young parts, covered with dense woolly tomentum. Leaves

simple, 3- or more-lobed, up to 25X10 cm., rugose, cordate at the

base; undersurface tomentose, almost black when dry. Stipules

fimbriate. Inflorescence terminal; flowers white, throughout the year.

Fruit an aggregate of drupes, dark purple when ripe.

Gregarious, but not common; this seems to be the lower limit of

the distribution of this plant.

33. Rubus niyeus Thunb.

A very prickly straggling shrub, with prickles along the stem,

petioles, even along the midrib of the leaf. Leaves of 5-7 ovate-acute,

serrate leaflets, covered with dense white tomentum on the under-

surface. Inflorescence terminal or axillary; flowers pink, throughout

the year with a peak in September. Fruit an aggregate of drupes,

purple when ripe.

Often in groups in moist surroundings.

SAXIFRAGACEAE

34, Parnassia mysorensis Heyne The Grass of Parnassus of Kodai-

kanal

A slender herb with a perennial rootstock, occurring in clusters

on wet rocks or in marshes. New shoots by August. Leaves

radical, petioles 4-6 cm. long; lamina cordate. Scapes 12-20 cm.

long, with a long bract about half way up; flowers white, from

November onwards.

Only in moist places. The plant dries up early in January except

in shady places, where it may be seen in flowers much later.

CRASSULACEAE

35. Kalanchoe grandiflora Wt. & Arn.

A stout, succulent herb, in dense clusters on or near rocks. Stems

thick, cylindrical,. with prominent leaf-scars. Leaves thick, orbicular-

THE VEGETATION OF KODAIKANAL GRASSY SLOPES 397,

ovate, 8X5 cm., opposite. Inflorescence terminal, 45 cm. or longer,

branched. Flower buds appear by October; dense clusters of yellow

flowers are abundant from December to March. Fruits are enclosed

in the dry, persistent corolla tubes.

Abundant in clumps, chiefly along the edges of rocks; rare else-

where.

DROSERACEAE

36. Drosera burmanni Vahl The Common Sundew

A herb of moist ground, often concealed by surrounding grass,

with a permanent rootstock and no stem. Leaves red, spathulate, with

long-stalked glands, forming a rosette on the ground. Scape 8-12 cm.

Flowers white, in a scorpioid cyme. Flowers were collected in May,

but data insufficient to determine the flowering season.

In moist ground; rare elsewhere.

37. Drosera peltata Sm. The Moon-leaf Sundew

A perennial, slender herb. Stems thin, up to 30 cm. long. Leaves

peltate, alternate, cauline, dark, fringed by long-stalked glands.

Flowers terminal, white; abundant after rains, fewer during the year.

Both common and abundant, especially in damp soil. Stains the

paper red when dried for the herbarium.

MELASTOMACEAE

38. Osbeckia wightiana Benth.

A well-branched, hardy shrub or small tree. Young parts

densely pubescent. Leaves ovate-oblong, 3-8X2-5 cm., silky with

white tomentum on the undersurface. Inflorescence of up to 5

flowers; calyx densely pubescent; corolla purple, 2-4 cm. across.

Flowering starts by August; flowers abundant till October, persisting

occasionally till May.

Abundant and common,

CUCURBITACEAE

39. Metothria leiosperma Cogn.

A scabrid climber. Tendrils simple. Leaves very brittle,

shallowly lobed. Female flowers solitary, male ones fascicled,

yellowish; seen almost throughout the year. Fruit globose, green

with white streaks when young, red when ripe.

Common at lower elevations; on rocks, in thickets, etc.

398 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

UMBELLIFERAE

40. Bupleurum mucronatum Wt. & Arn. The Common Hare’s Ears

A slender, branched herb, 60-150 cm. high, with green, knotted

stems. Leaves narrow, lanceolate, 6 cm. long. Umbels compound,

terminal. Flowers yellow, from May onwards, quite abundant in

September, scarce by January when the plant begins to dry up.

Fairly common but never abundant.

41. Centella asiatica Urban

A prostrate herb. Stems wiry, reddish, rooting at the nodes.

Leaves orbicular with narrow sinus, 2X1 cm., larger in shady places.

Umbels simple, peduncles 1-2 cm. long, few-flowered; flowers pink.

Both common and very abundant on any type of soil. The size

of the plant varies much according to surroundings.

42. Heracleum rigens Wall. The Common Cow Parsnip of Kodai-

kanal Downs

An erect, branched herb, up to 150 cm. high. Rootstock thick.

Stems pubescent, brittle. Leaves large, of 3-5 rounded leaflets with

serrate margins. Umbels compound, terminal, spreading. Flowers

yellow, June-September. The peduncle elongates much when in

fruit. Fruit a double mericarp, elliptic, flat on drying. The plant is

dry by November.

Fairly common and abundant.

43. Pimpinella candolleana Wt. & Arn. |

An erect herb, up to 50 cm. high. Stem unbranched, slender.

Basal leaves cordate, petioles 8 cm. long; cauline leaves with sheath-

ing bases, 3-lobed. Umbels compound, terminal. Flowers white,

July-November. Fruit papillose. |

Common and abundant on slopes.

RUBIACEAE

44, Anotis leschenaultiana Wt. & Arn.

A perennial, procumbent herb, rooting at the nodes, densely

tomentose throughout. Leaves ovate-acute, 2X1 cm. Inflorescence

of trichotomous cymes, terminal. Flowers pink. Flowering August-

December; but in moist surroundings, flowers may be seen almost

throughout the year. Fruit a capsule.

Abundant in moist soil, especially on rocks, occasionally elsewhere.

45. Galium asperifolium Wall. The Indian Bedstraw

A scabrid, wiry climber often seen on shrubs, walls, etc. Stems

rough, thin, 4-angled. Leaves opposite, oblanceolate, with 4-6 leaf-

THE VEGETATION OF KODAIKANAL GRASSY SLOPES 399

like stipules. Fresh leaves appear in April, flowers are common in

July-August and abundant in September. Flowers minute, yellowish.

Fruits common in December; by January the plant dries up.

Common and abundant. The 4 or 6 leafy stipules are often

mistaken for leaves (Gamble and Fyson). It has been noted that

the leaves and stipules dry only after the stem has dried.

46. Knoxia mollis Wt. & Arn.

An erect herb, up to 90 cm. high. Stems cylindrical, or slightly

4-angled. Leaves ovate-acute, 6X2 cm., pubescent. Inflorescence in

small terminal corymbs. Flowers bluish, abundant March-October.

The large ellipsoid fruits, though few, are conspicuous.

One of the commonest and most abundant of the grassland plants.

47. Oldenlandia herbacea Roxb.

A small, branched, erect, annual herb, 10-25 cm. high, with small

narrow leaves and small white flowers. Flowering October-December,

after which the plant dries up.

Gregarious, often on rocks and in wastelands. This seems to be

the higher limit of the distribution of this plant. Not mentioned by

Fyson.

48. Oldenlandia swertioides O. Kuntze The Ground Lilac

A small shrub, up to 60 cm. high. Stem 4-angled, glabrous.

Leaves sessile, ovate, 6X2 cm., yellow when dry. Inflorescence

mostly terminal, at times axillary; flowers lilac, April-November; later

in the year, stray flowers and fruits may be occasionally seen.

As common and abundant as Knoxia mollis Wt. & Arn. Con-

spicuous on slopes, above the surrounding grasses.

49. Wendlandia notoniana Wall.

A shrub or small tree. Leaves ternate, elliptic-lanceolate, 9x4

cm., pubescent on the undersurface. Inflorescence in dense, terminal

panicles; buds appear by December, flowers are common by February,

white, scented. Fruits from May onwards.

Abundant in certain places, but not common; it is much more

common at lower elevations.

V ALERIANACEAE

30. Valeriana hookeriana Wt. & Arn.

A slender, softly pubescent, annual herb. Stems 40 cm. long,

often unbranched. Leaves opposite, the radical ones pinnate with

400 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

7 leaflets; odd leaflet ovate, lateral ones lanceolate. Inflorescence

a profusely branched corymbose panicle. Flowers small, pink-white,

April-October, abundant in September. .Fruits crowned by white

pappus.

Fairly common and abundant on grassy slopes. Young plants

are seen from November onwards.

COMPOSITAE

51. Ageratum conyzoides L. The Floss Flower

An annual, 30 cm. high. Stems branched, pubescent. Leaves

opposite, rugose. [Inflorescence a homogeneous head; florets all

tubular, light blue or purplish. The protruding purple styles are

characteristic. Flowers abundant January-April, less so in the rest

of the year. Achenes black.

Abundant but not common. A troublesome weed along road-

sides, in wastelands, plantations etc. .

52. Anaphalis aristata DC.

A viscid, green herb, up to 40 cm. high. Stems woody at the

base, supporting many erect, pubescent, flowering branches. Leaves

many, close, narrow, acute, clasping the stem with acute auricles;

undersurface white. Heads many, homogeneous; bracts pink when

young, bleached at the tip when old. Flowering November-January.

Plants dry up by February.

In rather dry places; common but not abundant.

53. Anaphalis beddomei Hook. f.

A gregarious undershrub. Main stem decumbent, brown, with

erect, ascending branches 30-60 cm. high, clothed below with the

older leaves. Leaves oblanceolate, thin, 10X2 cm., with a layer of

white tomentum on either surface, and with 5 prominent veins. Heads

white, corymbose, with the outer peduncles longer so that the corymb

is depressed in the centre. Flowering July-November.

Abundant in moist surroundings, especially near rocks, where they

occur in groups.

54. Anaphalis lawii Gamble

An annual herb, very variable in size, 10-60 cm. high, the size

depending on the kind of soil. Stems cottony, unbranched, bases

covered with dead leaves. Leaves sessile, oblanceolate, 2-4x0.6-1.4

cm., cottony. Inflorescence in terminal heads, bracts rose-coloured.

THE VEGETATION OF KODAIKANAL GRASSY SLOPES 401

Flowers abundant April-September; the dry, bleached bracts persist

for a long time.

Not only common and abundant, especially on exposed poor soil,

but one of the commonest herbs of the area.

55. Anaphalis travancorica Sm.

Resembles A. beddomei Hook. f., except for the noticeably larger,

closer-set, thicker and silky leaves, and larger inflorescence heads.

Flowering November-January.

Occurs in dense clumps on wet rocks and on moist earth banks;

occasionally elsewhere.

56. Artemisia parviflora Roxb.

A perennial undershrub, 120 cm. high, conspicuous above the

surrounding vegetation. New shoots from April onwards. Lower

leaves cuneate, upper ones deeply pinnatifid; both with a pair of narrow

stipule-like segments each at the base. Buds from July onwards;

flowers August-December, on a panicle 30 cm. long. The dry

panicles persist till March.

Common but not abundant. This seems to be the higher limit of

the distribution of the plant. Gall formation on the stem is charac-

teristic.

57. Bidens pilosa L.

An erect herb, up to 60 cm. high. Stem 4-angled, glabrous.

Leaves opposite, pinnately trifoliate, leaflets serrate. Inflorescence a

heterogeneous head, flat, with yellow discs and conspicuous white ray

bracts. Flowers throughout the year. Achenes. black, narrow,

angled, surmounted by 2 barbed spines.

A very common and abundant wayside weed. Its wide distri-

bution may be accounted for by the barbed spines on the achenes that

cause the latter to penetrate into, and adhere to, the clothing of man

and the limbs of animals, thus ensuring their dispersal.

58. Blumea neilgherrensis Hook. f.

An erect, aromatic herb, 60 cm. high, glandular-hairy all over.

Leaves obovate-acute, up to 8X3 cm., smaller below the flowers.

Heads without rays, in panicles; fiorets purple. Flowering April-June,

probably at other times also.

Rare in distribution and numbers; always in shady places.

59. Cnicus wallichii DC. The Common Indian Thistle

An erect, stout herb, 90-180 cm. high, spiny all over. Stems

branched. Leaves sessile, decurrent, variously lobed, margins armed ~

402 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

with sharp spines. Inflorescence terminal, on short, axillary, leafy

branches, of homogeneous heads; outer involucral bracts spiny.

Flowers June-September; florets purple. Achenes with feathery

pappus.

Common, not abundant.

60. Conyza ambigua DC.

An erect herb, up to 90 cm. high. Leaves alternate, narrow, linear,

up to 6 cm. long. Heads terminal, cylindrical; involucral bracts

narrow, green. Florets yellow. Flowers July-March.

A wayside weed, abundant but not common. An introduced plant.

61. Conyza japonica Less.

An erect herb, up to 35 cm. high. Leaves sessile, spathulate,

coarsely serrate. Heads nearly sessile, in terminal, rounded corymbs.

Florets pinkish.

Rare.

62. Conyza stricta Willd. The Kodaikanal Groundsel

A branched herb, up to 30 cm. high, pubescent throughout. Leaves

numerous, closely-set, entire, oblanceolate, 3-5X0.4-0.6 cm. Heads

very numerous, terminal, in corymbs; florets yellow; flowers through-

out the year.

One of the commonest plants in the area; occurs even in very poor

soil.

63. Emilia scabra DC.

A herb with alternate. pinnatifid, basal leaves when young, and

leafy throughout the stem when old. Stems 30-75 cm. high. Heads

solitary on slender stalks; florets red. Flowers throughout the year.

Common but not abundant.

64. Erigeron mucronatum DC. ‘Swan River Daisy’ (Lloyd, 1909)

A perennial herb with slender branches spreading flat, from a

woody base. Leaves narrow, oblanceolate, 2-4 cm., often 3-lobed.

Flower heads terminal, often in pairs, peduncles long. Ray florets at

first white, turning pink when old. Flowers February- -May, fewer

later. Stray ones throughout the year.

A very abundant plant all over the area, gatos ularly along the

sides of streams, on earth banks, etc. Fyson states that this is originally

a Mexican plant, often in south India erroneously confused with

Vittadenia australis A. Rich., an Australian plant.

The plant is supposed to have been introduced by Sir Vere Levinge,

Governor of Madras (Lloyd, 1909).

THE VEGETATION OF KODAIKANAL GRASSY SLOPES 403

65. Eupatorium glandulosum H. B. & K.

An erect shrub, 50-100 cm. high. Stems branched, reddish, glan-

dular. Leaves opposite, ovate-acuminate, serrate. Flower heads

homogeneous, in terminal corymbs. Florets white, scented. Flowering

February-April. Achenes black, surmounted by white pappus.

A native of Mexico, now found as an escape, often growing in

large numbers along the wayside etc., but not common. Not mention-

ed by Gamble.

66. Laggera alata Sch. |

A scabrid, stout herb, up to 60 cm. high. Stems and branches

angled and winged. Leaves alternate, oblanceolate, 71.5 cm.,

decurrent, sharply serrate, pubescent above, tomentose beneath.

Flower heads drooping in the axils of the upper (smaller) leaves,

forming a terminal panicle. Florets purple. Flowering November-

April.

Fairly common and abundant, especially at slightly lower eleva-

tions. Conspicuous above surrounding grasses. Dry plants with the

discs of the heads persist for months after flowering is over, some-

times even till the next flowering season.

67. Senecio wightianus DC.

A slender plant, | m. high. Stems slender, geniculate, scandent,

prominently ribbed, profusely branched. Leaves simple, alternate,

hastate, up to 7X3 cm., sharply dentate. Heads 12-20, on axillary

corymbs; florets yellow. Flowering January-March. Small achenes

with copious pappus.

Abundant in thickets, but not common.

68. Vernonia fysoni Calder

A straggling shrub, 120-150 cm. high, with cottony hairs through-

out. Leaves elliptic, acute at both ends, 10X4 cm., green on the

upper and yellowish on the lower side. Flower heads in terminal

corymbs; florets purple. Flowering February-May.

Common but not abundant, on slopes, even in poor soil.

CAMPANULACEAE

69. Campanula alphonsii Wall.

A small, wiry, spreading herb, from a perennial rootstock, often

on wayside walls. Stems slender, up to 30 cm. long, branched.

Leaves obovate, with white tomentum on the undersurface. Flowers

404 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

mostly terminal, blue, few. Flowers were collected in December and

May, but data insufficient to determine the flowering season.

Rare.

70. Campanula fulgens Wall.

An erect herb, up to 60 cm. high. Stems slendeniucnally

unbranched. Leaves mostly crowded at the base, distant higher up

the stem, elliptic, narrowed at both ends, serrate, pubescent. Spikes

terminal; flowers often in whorls at irregular intervals along the spike.

Flower buds start opening from the top. Flowering June-October;

stray ones up to January. The colour of the flower varies from

purple to almost white. Capsule 5-celled, opening by slits at the side.

Common and abundant on slopes. The opening of the flower

buds from the top downwards is usual, but is this so constant as

Fyson states?

71. Wahlenbergia gracilis DC.

A slender, perennial herb. Stems wiry, sparingly branched, up to

30 cm. high; many from the same perennial rootstock. Leaves

linear, 2-3 cm. long, alternate. Flowers terminal on pedicels up to

15 cm. long. The size of the flower varies; the colour is deep blue

to pure white. Flowers abundant in March-April after the first

showers, less during the rest of the year.

At times one of the commonest and most abundant plants in

open grasslands, with poor vegetation.

LOBELIACEAE

72. Lobelia excelsa Lesch. The Giant Lobelia

A conspicuous, coarse herb, 1-4 m. high. Stems cylin up to

5 cm. diameter, with soft pith inside. Leaves alternate, serrate,

simple, villous, up to 35X5 cm., oblanceolate, persistent on the

stem even after drying, giving the plant a shabby look. Flowers

purplish brown, in dense terminal, solitary spikes 30-150 cm. long.

Flowers December-March. Fruit globose, enclosed in the calyx tube.

The dry inflorescence with the fruits and the persistent calyx tubes

present an untidy sight, and remain long after the flowering is over.

Common and gregarious along roadsides, shola edges, etc., but is

restricted in distribution. A solitary terminal spike is the rule; but

if the terminal spike is cut in the bud stage, a dense cluster of smaller

spikes spring up from near the apex of the plant.

THE VEGETATION OF KODAIKANAL GRASSY SLOPES 405

73. Lobelia nicotianaefolia Heyne

Similar to the preceding, but with white flowers. Leaves glabrous,

oblong, 124 cm.; spikes looser and thicker. Flowering February-

March.

Rare at this altitude; more robust specimens at 4000-5000 ft.

ERICACEAE

74. Gaultheria fragrantissima Wall.

An erect shrub, 100-120 cm. high. Stems rough, branched,

brittle. Leaves simple, alternate, ovate, 6X4 cm., coriaceous; petioles

thick and red. Young shoots smooth and red. Flowers small, in

axillary racemes, November-May; stray ones during the rest of the

year. Calyx persistent as a fleshy coating around the fruit. Corolla

white, egg-shaped, fragrant especially when crushed, with 5 small

recurved lobes. Fruit a berry, biue when ripe, with a red stalk.

Common at edges of sholas, along waysides, etc., but restricted in

distribution.

75. Rhododendron nilagiricum Zenk.

A tree 4-6 m. high, with rough and thick bark. Branches very brittle,

usually only from the upper half of the stem. Leaves elliptic, 9x3

cm., acute at both ends, coriaceous, dark green on the upper surface,

silvery when young and rusty brown when old on the lower: margins

recurved. Flowers crowded in dense terminal bunches which are 10

cm. across, red. Flowers abundant December-February; stray ones til]

May. Capsule oblong, 2X1 cm., woody, opening from the top

downwards into the component carpels, but leaving the central axis.

The only tree noted in the area under study. Conspicuous on

slopes for the dense clusters of red flowers. Widely distributed.

PRIMULACEAE

76. Lysimachia deltoidea Wt. The Creeping Jenny

A slender, pubescent, trailing herb. Stems prosérate, 15-25 cm.

long. Leaves opposite, ovate, 2X1 cm. Flowers yellow, solitary;

pedicels up to 3 cm. long. Flowers April-July. Fruit a capsule,

_ opening by valves. |

Abundant in shaded, moist piaces; rare elsewhere.

ASCLEPIADACEAE

77. Ceropegia hirsuta Wt. & Arn. var. stenophylla Hook. f.

A thin, pubescent twiner, with a tuberous rootstock. Stems slender,

twining on grasses, 30-40 cm. long. Leaves linear, 5-10 0.2 cm. (the

406 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

trinomial stenophyila refers to the narrowness of the leaf), pubescent.

Flowers in 2-3-flowered axillary, peduncled cymes. Pedicels 1.5-2

cm. long, pubescent. Flowers reddish brown, with purplish spots;

corolla 2-2.5 cm. long, narrow in the middle, inflated at both ends:

lobes 5, connate by their tips, leaving 5 lens-shaped openings.

Flowers August-October. Follicles not seen.

Fairly common on grass slopes, though not easily noticed, except

when in flower. This seems to be the higher limit of the distribution

of this plant. Not mentioned by Fyson.

78. Tylophora fasciculata Ham.

A slender plant with thick, fascicled roots; branches many.

Lower leaves elliptic-acute, 5X2 cm.; upper ones _ lanceolate,

3X1 cm.; all opposite, glabrous. Flowers deep brown, small, crowded

in umbelliform cymes, at times axillary, oftener terminal. Flower-

ing April-May. Follicles not seen.

At times fairly common among grasses, though not easily noticed

owing to the small size of the plant and flowers. Commoner at lower

elevations. Not mentioned by Fyson.

GENTIANACEAE

79. Exacum wightianum Arn. The Giant Field Gentian

An erect, branched, leafy shrub, 40-120 cm. high. Stems square,

winged, glabrous. Leaves lanceolate, 5-10X3-4.5 cm., 3-nerved,

opposite, glabrous. Flowers blue, many, terminal or in the upper

axils; pedicels up to 4 cm. long, recurved in fruit. Flowers mostly

March-April, stray ones later on.

Gregarious here and there on slopes.

80. Gentiana pedicellata Wall. var. wightii Kurz.

A perennial herb, 6-12 cm. high. Radical leaves form a rosette

on the ground, obovate, 1-1.5x0.5 cm. long. Flowers terminal,

solitary, bright blue; common March-April, stray ones for the rest

of the year. Fruit a capsule, dehiscing longitudinally into 2 valves,

the empty capsule-valves persistent on the plant for some time.

Common everywhere, but plants occurring on moist ground are

more robust, with more flowers. Ordinarily the flowers are only

5-6 mm. diameter, but Fyson reports flowers up to 15-20 mm.

81. Swertia corymbosa Wt.

An erect herb, with several shoots from a perennial rootstock,

15-45 cm. high. Stems cylindrical, ridged by decurrent leaves. Leaves

THE VEGETATION OF KODAIKANAL GRASSY SLOPES 407

opposite, sessile, obovate. acute, narrower and shorter upwards.

Flowers in the axils of the upper leaves, in pairs of corymbs. The

colour of the flower is of various shades of blue; corolla marked with

glands and blue nerves; flowering October-March.

Common and abundant. Very variable in size.

SCROPHULARIACEAE

82. Calceolaria mexicana Benth. The Common Slipper Flower

An erect herb with fleshy stems up to 45 cm. high. Stems and

leaves covered with glandular hairs. Leaves opposite, deeply serrate,

the basal segments even pinnatisect. Flowers axillary; corolla tube

short and lips saccate, closed; colour bright yellow. Flowering

October-December.

A native of Mexico, naturalized and common along shady banks

of streams, as a weed in gardens, sometimes in waste lands. Locally

abundant but not widely distributed.

83. Pedicularis zeylanica Benth. ‘The Pink Rattle

A perennial herb up to 50 cm. high, often with many shoots from

a single rootstock. Leaves alternate, oblanceolate, 2-51 cm., the

margins variously cut and curved backwards. Flowers in the axils

of the upper leaves, 2-lipped, pink; flowering October-December.

-Common but not abundant; often found in moist localities, less

often in drier areas. The many incisions on the lamina remind one

of some fern-fronds. From a distance the inflorescence is often

mistaken for that of Satyrium.

84. Sopubia delphinifolia G. Don

An erect herb up to 80 cm. high. Leaves opposite, the upper

ones 1-2 cm. long, simple, linear; the lower ones pinnatisect with

2-4 pairs of filiform segments. Flowers axillary; corolla longer than

broad, narrow below, inflated above, pink. Flowers were collected

in November, but data insufficient to determine the flowering season.

Occurs in grass fields, a root parasite (Fyson). It is a plant of

lower elevations.

85. Sopubia trifida Ham.

A. pretty herb, 30-50 cm. high. Upper leaves simple, linear,

1.5-2 cm. long; lower ones larger, each with one pair of narrow

segments. Flowers axillary, one or more in an axil; corolla broader

than long, yellow with a purplish eye. Flowering starts with the first

showers in March-April, and continues till December.

Common and abundant in grass fields.

408 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

86. Striga lutea Lour.

A scabrous herb, parasitic on roots of grasses, 10-15 cm. high.

Stems sparingly branched. Leaves narrow, 3-4X0.5 cm., opposite.

Flowers in the axils of the upper leaves; corolla yellow or white.

Two sets of flowerings have been noticed: one from May to July,

the other from November to January, probably depending on the

rains. ,

Common and abundant in grass fields. Plants are more robust at

lower elevations. Are the yellow-flowered and white-flowered plants

just 2 forms of the same species?

LENTIBULARIACEAE

87. Utricularia graminifolia Vahl The Common Blue Bladderwort

A slender water herb, 7-12 cm. high. Leaves linear, from stolons

provided with small, dark purple bladders. Scape erect; flowers 1-3,

purple, terminal or subterminal. Upper corolla lip obovate, lower

one broadly arched in the middle; spur slender, pointing downwards.

Flowers nearly throughout the year.

Plentiful in marshy soil, not seen elsewhere.

GESNERIACEAE

88. Didymocarpus tomentosa Wt.

A ground herb with radical, broadly elliptical, rugose and densely

tomentose leaves. Flowers bluish purple, on a branched, densely

tomentose scape. Flowering May-December, depending on the rains.

From time to time fresh blossoms have been noticed. Capsules 2 cm.

long. The plant dries up by January.

Distribution poor, but abundant on rocks.

89. Klugia notoniana A. DC.

An erect herb with fibrous roots. Stems fleshy, smooth, 20-60 cm.

high, swollen at the nodes. Leaves alternate, very oblique at the

base, pubescent, up to 12X6 cm. Flowers conspicuous, bright blue,

in racemes. Capsule spherical.

Found on rocks near streams in the shade: not seen elsewhere.

ACANTHACEAE

90. Andrographis neesiana Wt.

A hardy herb, 30-50 cm. high. Leaves ovate-oblong, 106 cm.

Flowers in one-sided racemes crowding in dense terminal clusters.

THE VEGETATION OF KODAIKANAL GRASSY SLOPES 409

Flowering starts in September, reaches a peak in January-March, and

may last till June. Corolla purplish, the lips widely separated.

Stamens 2, with broad, white filaments and black anthers. Capsules

oblong or ellipsoid. By June the capsules dehisce, and the plant

dries up.

One of the commonest and most abundant plants in the area, found

even on very poor soil.

91. Justicia simplex Don

A herbaceous, pubescent, diffuse plant, from a perennial rootstock.

Branches procumbent, geniculate. Leaves entire, ovate, pubescent.

Spikes terminal, about 5 cm. long. Flowers throughout the year,

with a peak in November. Bracts and sepals very hairy; corolla pink.

Fruit an eiliptic capsule.

Common even on poor soil. The size of the plant varies according

to surroundings.

92. Strobilanthes kunthianus T. And. The Common Strobilanth of

the open hill sides. The Great Blue Flower of the Nilgiris (Robinson,

1935).

A branched, gregarious shrub, 50-150 cm. high, varying con-

siderably in size according to localities. Stem cylindrical in old

parts, angular in the younger, swollen at the nodes. Leaves elliptic,

acute at both ends, 4-6x2-3 cm., serrate, rough, greenish on the

upper and whitish on the lower side. Flowers in dense terminal,

usually branched, cone-like spikes, 6-14 cm. long. Corolla pale blue,

2-3X1.5 cm. Stamens 2. Capsule oblong.

Very abundant all over these hills, dominating the slopes along

with the bracken. The periodical general blooming, clothing the

slopes in blue, renders this plant a favourite of all. The local name

of the plant literally means “The Flower of the Hills”, and the pliant

is referred to in one of the Tamil classics. Records of eleven

consecutive geneal bloomings at regular intervals of 12 years are at

hand: 1838, 1850, 1862, 1874, 1886, 1898 (Robinson, 1935), 1910,

1922, 1934, 1946 (Anglade, unpublished), and 1958. However, stray

flowers have been noted almost every year from 1950-1957.

VERBENACEAE

93. Clerodendrum serratum Moon.

A robust, scarcely branched shrub, up to 180 cm. high. Stems

4-angled. Leaves ternate, serrate, elliptic, narrow at both ends,

410 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

16X6 cm. Inflorescence terminal, 8-12 cm. long. Flowers blue.

Flowering April-November; stray flowers throughout the year.

Fairly common, but never abundant. This seems to be the higher

limit of the distribution of this plant.

94. Lantana camara L. var. aculeata Mold. The Lantana

A strongly aromatic, straggling shrub, with recurved prickles

along the angles of the stem. Leaves opposite, rugose, cordate,

serrate. Flowers in corymbose spikes, pink, or blue and yellow at

this altitude (orange-coloured at lower elevations). Flowers more or

less throughout the year. Fruit a berry, black when ripe.

Common and abundant in waste land, in masses along the main

road.

95. Lantana trifolia L.

A pubescent, hispid undershrub, up to 50 cm. high. Leaves

subsessile, 8X3 cm., cordate, dentate, often ternate, at times opposite.

Spikes terminal, short, or at times up to 5 cm. long. Bracts con-

spicuous, boat-shaped. Flowers pink, common in June; stray ones

throughout the year. The axis of the spike seems to elongate in

fruit. Fruit a berry, bright red when ripe, well protected by the

boat-shaped, persistent bracts.

Not very common, though abundant in certain places. Not

mentioned by Fyson.

LABIATAE

96. Anisochilus dysophylloides Benth.

An erect, thick herb, 25-40 cm. high, silky all over, from a

perennial rootstock. Leafy shoots appear in September. Stems

tomentose, decumbent, branches ascending. Leaves opposite, elliptic,

2-5X1.5 cm., thick, aromatic. Inflorescence a spike, 3-8 cm. long.

Flowers purple, strongly-scented, crowded along a cylindrical, erect

axis. Flowers November-January; the dry spikes seen even in May.

Gregarious in dry places, on rocks, exposed summits of hills, etc.

97. Calamintha umbrosa Benth. The Catmint

A spreading herb. Stems angular, up to 80 cm. long. Leaves

ovate, dentate, 3X2 cm., slightly pubescent, petioles 1 cm. long.

Flowers purplish, in terminal and axillary whorls. Calyx tomentose,

2-lipped. Corolla with a flat upper lip and 3 spreading lower lobes.

Flowers September-December.

Abundant in moist places, borders of sholas, but not common.

THE VEGETATION OF KODAIKANAL GRASSY SLOPES 411

98. Coleus barbatus Benth.

A tomentose, aromatic, erect herb, up to 45 cm. high, from a

perennial rootstock. Leaves alternate, 103 cm., lanceolate, slightly

oblique. Flowers blue, in whorls on an elongated spike, May-October.

Calyx distictly hairy.

Widely distributed, never abundant; commoner at lower elevations.

99. Leucas linifolia Spr.

A branched, erect herb, up to 45 cm. high. Leaves entire, linear-

lanceolate, 8X0.5 cm. Inflorescence of terminal whorls. Calyx

tube with a very oblique mouth, the upper lip conspicuously long and

pointed. Corolla white, with a long lower lip.

Often gregarious on rocks, in waste land, etc.; it is a plant of lower

elevations.

100. Leucas ternifolia Desf.

A branched, often gregarious plant, 30-40 cm. high, from a stout

rootstock. Branches and leaves often in threes, covered with a

velvety pubescence. Leaves elliptic, 1.50.4 cm., strongly one-

nerved. Flowers often in 2 whorls about 3 cm. apart. Flowering

starts in September, reaches a peak in October, and may last till

June.

Common and abundant on slopes.

101. Leucas vestita Benth.

A robust herb, 60-120 cm. high, with brown pubescence all over.

Leaves elliptic, 7-12x3-5 cm., coarsely serrate, tomentose. Inflo-

rescence of large, spherical whorls, axillary or terminal. Bracts

ciliate, | cm. long. Calyx slightly shorter. The brown upper lip of

the corolla distinguishes this species from all the others. Flowers

more or less throughout the year.

Along roadsides, etc. in moist soil. Locally abundant but not

common.

102. Micromeria biflora Benth. The Lemon-scented Thyme

A strongly aromatic herb with a stout woody rootstock and many

ascending wiry stems, 10-15 cm. long. Leaves ovate-acute, subsessile,

0.5 cm. long. Inflorescence normally in 3-flowered axillary cymes;

flowers purplish, strongly scented. Flowering starts in February and

continues till the rains.

Common, at times abundant, chiefiy in grass fields, on walls, etc.

103. Plectranthus coetsa Buch.-Ham.

A stout herb, 60-150 cm. high, with densely villous stems. Leaves

Opposite, ovate-acute, 6X3 cm., densely pubescent, white on the

412 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

undersurface. Flowers in crowded terminal compound panicles up to

15 cm. long; flowers blue, October-January.

Abundant along roadsides, streams, but not common.

104. Plectranthus wightii Benth.

A pubescent herb, 30-60 cm. high. Leaves 106 cm. ovate-acute,

dentate. Flowers white, speckled with red spots, arranged in spread-

ing panicles with foliaceous bracts. Flowers December-February.

Abundant in moist areas, rare elsewhere.

105. Scutellaria colebrookiana Benth.

An erect, slender herb, up to 35 cm. high. Leaves deltoid, 2.52

cm., petioles 2 cm. long. Spikes 8-18 cm. long. Flowers September-

November, probably at other times also.

Rare at this altitude; commoner and more robust lower down.

106. Scutellaria violacea Heyne

A sparingly pubescent, fleshy herb, 25-60 cm. high. Leaves ovate,

crenate, 6X3 cm.; petioles 4 cm. long. Spikes 8-25 cm. long. Flowers

white tinged with purple; July-January.

Abundant in shaded and moist places; rare elsewhere.

AMARANTACEAE

107. Allmania nodiflora R. Br. var. angustifolia Hook. f.

An erect herb, with many sparingly branched shoots from a

perennial rootstock. Stems 6-20 cm. long. Leaves alternate, entire,

4X0.3 cm., acute, glabrous, brownish. Flowers in axillary sessile

clusters, white; more or less throughout the year.

Common in dry places on rocks etc., but not abundant.

POLYGONACEAE

108. Polygonum chinense L.

A rambling stout herb, often semi-scandent along walls or in

thickets. Stems reddish, swollen at the nodes; the ochreate stipules

1.5-2 cm. long. Leaves 7-12X3-5 cm., ovate-oblong, finely serrate.

Flowers white, with a pinkish tinge, clustered in terminal panicles;

nuts enclosed in fleshy perianth; both flowers and nuts seen through

out the year.

Abundant on hedges, at the edges of woods, ete,

THE VEGETATION OF KODAIKANAL GRASSY SLOPES 413

THYMELEACEAE

109. Lasiosiphon eriocephalus Dcne.

A large, branched shrub, up to 180 cm. high. Leaves linear-

oblong, 5X1 cm., entire, glabrous. Flowers in terminal, silky,

globular heads; perianth tubular, 1-2 cm. long, densely woolly except

for the yellow lobes. Flowers December-May.

Scarce at this altitude; more common and abundant at lower

elevations where thickets of this plant dominate the hill slopes.

EUPHORBIACEAE

110. Phyllanthus gardnerianus Baill.

A very variable herb, about 15 cm. high at this altitude. Branches

slender, numerous. Leaves oblong, 1X0.4 cm., green to brown,

subsessile. Male flowers numerous, short pedicelled; female ones

fewer, on filiform pedicels 2-3 cm. long. Flowers and capsules

throughout the year.

Common and abundant. Though at this altitude the plants are

dwarfed, specimens reaching 40-50 cm. high have been collected at

lower elevations.

URTICACEAE

111. Pouzolzia wightii Benn.

A gregarious herb, 45-80 cm. high. Leaves lanceolate, 52.5 cm.

strongly 3-nerved, ternate or opposite, gradually passing into floral

bracts. Flowers pedicelled, on an axis 25-40 cm. long. Male flowers

rounded, flat topped; female ones flask-shaped with a contracted

mouth from which the stigma projects. Flowers almost throughout

the year except during the cold months, when fruits are common.

Gregarious in cool places.

BURMANNIACEAE

112. Burmannia coelestis Don

A slender herb about 10-15 cm. high, occurring in very moist soil.

Leaves reduced to ensiform, radical scales. Flowers solitary or a

few, blue; were collected in June, August, and January-March.

Probably throughout the year.

Only in very moist places, often along with Utricularia,

414 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

ORCHIDACEAE

113. Aerides crispum Lindl. The Common Pink Rock Orchid

A robust, usually epiphytic orchid. Stems stout, 5-25 cm. long.

Roots thick, greenish white, clasping the host firmly. Leaves

distichous, thick and close-set, 12-183 cm., notched into two

unequal lobes at the tip. Racemes axillary, 25 cm. long or longer.

Flowers large, rose-coloured. Flowering May-June. Once 4 stray

racemes were noted in March. Few flowers seem to run into fruit.

This once common orchid has unfortunately practically disappeared

from these hills!

114. Cheirostylis flabellata Wt.

An inconspicuous ground orchid of shady woods. Stems succulent,

greenish and thickened at the base. Leaves 3-5, thin, brownish,

Ovate-acute, sheathing at the base. Scape 8-16 cm. high, with 5-8

flowers; the bifid, well-fringed lip is characteristic. Flowering

January-February.

Abundant in the Eucalyptus forest at Shembaganur.

115. Coelogyne glandulosa Lindl. The Plantain Orchid

A ground orchid, the creeping rhizome bearing annually renewed

pseudobulbs that carry 2 terminal leaves. Pseudobulbs 6-123 cm.,

green. Leaves 10-304 cm., green. Scape almost fully sheathed by

bracts; flowers about 6, lasting for about 3 weeks, white, except for

an inside yellow patch on the lip. Flowering March- ——,

Gregarious on rocks; rare elsewhere.

116. Eulophia nuda Lindl.

A ground orchid, with tuberous rhizomes, 45-60 cm. high when

in leaf. Leaves from a lateral bud, elliptic, lanceolate 30-40 6-8

cm. appearing after the flowering, and lasting till December. Scape

brown, 30 cm. long, bearing a raceme of 6-15 flowers; flowers purple.

_ Flowering March-May. Fruits 4 cm. long.

Gregarious locally, but not widely distributed.

117. Eulophia pratensis Lindl. The Yellow Ground Orchid

Vegetative parts and habitat similar to that of E. nuda Lindl.,

but seldom gregarious, and slightly smaller in size. Scape 15-25 cm.

long, bearing a raceme of 4-8 yellow flowers. Lip broader than long.

Flowering December-February.

More widely distributed than the preceding species. The plant

is very variable in size apparently on account of the kind of soil,

THE VEGETATION OF KODAIKANAL GRASSY SLOPES 415

118. Habenaria crassifolia A. Rich.

A ground orchid with an ellipsoid tuber. Stems slender, up to

30 cm. high, with sheathing, lanceolate bracts. Leaves only 2, fleshy,

radical, flat on the ground 2-3.5 cm. diameter. Racemes 12 cm. long

with 15-25 flowers; flowers small, 0.6 cm. across; ovary and club-

shaped spur 1-1.5 cm. each.

Abundant but restricted in distribution; occurs also in poor soil.

119. Habenaria digitata Lindl. var. travancorica Fischer

A slender ground orchid, 15-30 cm. high. Leaves spirally

arranged; lower ones ovate-acute, 3-4X 1.5-2 cm., upper ones narrower

and acuminate. Racemes 8-15 cm. long, with 6-20 nearly green

flowers, matching in colour with that of surrounding grasses. The

plant is easily distinguished by the filiform segments of the petals

curving upwards horn-like. Spur shorter than the ovary, both

enveloped by a long bract. Flowers August-November.

Abundant in grass fields, and widely distributed.

120. Habenaria longicalcarata A. Rich. Elephant’s Head

A ground orchid, 30-60 cm. high, from an oblong tuber. Leaves

radical, 3-5, oblong-acute, 5-10x1-2 cm., mostly near the ground.

Flowers terminal, 3-5 only, white. Spur 10-15 cm. long, green, thick.

Flowering June-October.

Common but not abundant; more abundant at lower elevations.

121. Habenaria longicornu Lindl.

Plant similar to the preceding species, but smaller (20-35 cm.

nigh), and occurring in clusters. Leaves cauline, 4-8, narrow 3-7X

1-1.5 cm., from near the ground. Flowers more numerous than in

the preceding (3-8), lip 3-partite, ivory white, the side lobes finely

toothed. Spur up to 10 cm. long. Flowers August-November.

Gregarious, often in thin soil on rocky ground.

122. Habenaria perrottetiana A. Rich. |

A stout ground orchid, 30-60 cm. high. Leaves elliptic-acute,

4-8 X 2-3 cm., closely set, gradually passing into floral bracts. Flowers

4-12, yellow, nearly covered by the large foliaceous bracts. Sepals

obtuse, concave, 1.50.8 cm.; petals erect; lip longitudinally folded.

Flowers in November.

A rare plant.

123. Habenaria rariflora A. Rich.

A ground orchid, 8-12 cm. high, occurring in large numbers.

Leaves basal, 4-5X1-1.5 cm., oblong-lanceolate. Flowers white, 3-4

416 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

in a raceme. Petals 2-partite, segments curved backwards. Spur

slender, curved, 6-9 cm. Flowering July-September. |

In large numbers on thin soil on or near rocks.

124. Microstylis densiflora Fischer

A brownish ground orchid, only up to 12 cm. high. Stems slender,

bare below the flowering axis. Leaves usually 2, plaited, 6-8 X2-3

cm., ovate-acute. Racemes many-flowered, often under 6 cm. long.

Flowers purple. Lip reniform, finely dentate. Flowering June-

September.

Common, at times gregarious.

125. Nervilia carinata Sch.

A low ground orchid, often hidden by grasses, with a single,

long-petioled (6-8 cm.), orbicular leaf 4*4 cm., which appears in June

after the flowering and remains till December. Flowering April-

June. Scape about 10-15 cm. long, bearing 3-5 small. purplish

flowers supported by long bracts. Sepals and petals pale green; lip

yellow, with purple veins and spots.

Common and abundant about Shembaganur, hidden among grasses.

Not mentioned by Fyson. :

126. Peristylus goodyeroides Lindl.

A ground orchid 20-30 cm. high. Leaves on the lower half of

the stem, oblong, 8X3 cm. Spikes 6-10 cm. long, many-flowered:

flowers greenish white, small, with characteristic globose spurs. The

sepals and the lateral petals form a hood over the rest of the flower.

Flowering July-November.

Common, especially in dry places; more common at lower

elevations. Not mentioned by Fyson.

127. Phyllomphax obcordata Sch. The Common Purple Ground

Orchid

A ground orchid, 10-25 cm. high. Stems leafy throughout.

Leaves ovate-acute, green with a purplish base, 4X1.5 cm., passing

into bracts. Bracts leafy, longer than the ovary. Spikes of 6-12

flowers; flowers vary from purple to white. Spur short and broad.

Flowers May-August, with a peak in July-August.

Common and at times very abundant; very variable in the size

of the vegetative parts and in the colour, shape, and size of the floral

parts, especially the lip.

128. Phyllomphax obcordata Sch. var. jantha Hk. f.

Similar to the preceding species but a larger plant, up to 35 cm.

high, found in cool, moist places. Stems purplish, leaves green with

THE VEGETATION OF KODAIKANAL GRASSY SLOPES 417

purplish nerves, and larger flowers. Lip 2.5 cm. across, purple.

Flowers June-August.

Less common and abundant than the preceding species.

129. Platanthera susannae Lindl.

A robust, leafy, gregarious, ground orchid. Stem leafy, up to

120 cm. high. Leaves ovate-oblong, 6-15X3-8 cm., passing into

leafy bracts. Bracts lanceolate 9X3 cm. Flowers 3-6, white, fragrant,

5-9 cm. across; lateral petals linear; lip very large with pectinate

side lobes; spur 12-15 cm. long, hidden within the bracts. Flowers

September-November.

Poorly distributed. The size of the whole plant and structure of

the lip make this a very conspicuous ground orchid.

130. Satyrium nepalense Don The Pink Twin-Spur

A ground orchid, 25-60 cm. high. The lowest 2 leaves radical.

large, 10-16 6-10 cm., broadly ovate, with a sheathing base, spread-

ing flat on the ground. Spikes stout, 10-25 cm. long, many-flowered;

bracts larger than the flowers. Flowers pink to white. Lip erect,

with a spur hanging from either side. The ovary is not twisted.

Flowers August-November. The dry scape sometimes remains for

months.

Common and abundant. A very variable plant, but the variations

do not warrant the splitting into varieties.

131. Spiranthes australis Lindl.

A slender ground orchid, 15-25 cm. high, with a buibous root-

stock and thick, white roots. Leaves 4-5, clustered at the base of

the stem, oblanceolate, 5-10X0.8-1.2 cm. Scape 15-25 cm. high,

slender; spike spirally twisted, 6-9 cm. long, bearing 30-35 flowers.

Flowers small, white, spirally arranged. Flowering March-June.

Abundant in moist ground, but not well distributed.

Hy POXIDACEAE

132. Curculigo orchioides Gaertn. The Yellow Ground Star

A small herb, with a stout, vertical rootstock, with radical,

plaited leaves. Leaves lanceolate, 10-14X1.5 cm. Flowers solitary,

or a few, bright yellow, stellate, close to the ground. Flowers appear

soon after the first showers in March-April. Stray ones throughout

the year.

Fairly distributed and abundant. An abundance of flowers with

the first showers after the dry months is characteristic,

418 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

LILIACEAE

133. Disporum leschenaultianum D.Don The Nilgiri Solomon’s Seal

An erect, profusely branched herb, up to 120 cm. high, with a

creeping rhizome. Leaves broadly ovate, 7X4 cm., glabrous.

Inflorescence often of sessile, terminal umbels. Flowers white,

pendulous or drooping from curved pedicels. Flowering May-August.

Berries dark blue when ripe, by November.

In moist places, in sholas, but not well distributed.

134. Iphigenia indica Kunth.

A wiry herb, up to 20 cm. high, often hidden in the grass. Corms

globose, covered with brown scales, 10.5 cm. Leaves linear,

12-15X0.5 cm. Flowers terminal, solitary or in pairs; deep purple;

perianth segments filiform. Flowers with the first showers in March-

April. Fruit an oblong, 3-valved capsule, | x0.5 cm., ripe by August-

September. _

Well distributed, but not abundant. Not easily noticed in the

grass except when in flower.

135. Lilium neilgherrense Wt. The Nilgiri Lily

An unbranched, erect, leafy herb, 60-i20 cm. high. The under-

ground bulb sprouts with the first showers in March-April. Leaves

lanceolate-acute, 8-10 cm., sessile, glabrous. Flower buds appear by

June; flowers 2-4, white, 15X10 cm., terminal, spreading, trumpet-

shaped, strongly scented; flowering August-October. Fruit an oblong,

loculicidal capsule 6-9 cm. long, dehiscing by January.

Common on slopes, the large flowers render this plant conspicuous.

COMMELINACEAE

136. Aneilema dimorphum Dalz.

A decumbent herb, with a non-tuberous rootstock; roots fibrous;

the plant spreading by the lateral branching of the rootstock. Stems

10-15 cm. long, leafy at the base. Leaves 4-6X0.5-1 cm. Flowers

bluish, regular, in terminal dichotomously branched panicles; from

July onwards, with a peak in December; the plant begins drying up

by January. In the shade flowers are seen later in the year. Capsule

oblong.

Common in moist surroundings.

137. Commelina clayata Clarke

A decumbent herb, with slender, geniculate stems. Leaves

4-6X0.6-1 cm., alternate, with sheathing leaf bases which are

THE VEGETATION OF KODAIKANAL GRASSY SLOPES 419

noticeably ciliate. Flowers blue, in scorpioid cymes, protected by a

spathe. Flowers most of the year, with a peak in August-September.

The plant dries up by December. Fruit a 4-angled, oblong capsule.

Common and abundant.

138. Cyanotis arachnoidea Clarke The White Spider Legs

A decumbent herb, covered all over with silky pubescence. Stems

stout, 25-40 cm. long. Leaves 4-5X0.6-1.5 cm., acute. Flowers

bluish, in terminal, subsessile cymes with bracts below. Flowers

nearly throughout the year. Fruit an oblong capsule.

Common and abundant even in dry places.

PALMAE

139. Phoenix humilis Royle var. pedunculata Becc.

A perennial, erect shrub, up to 150 cm. high at this aititude. Stems

marked with numerous leaf-scars. Leaves up to 120 cm. long,

pinnate; leaflets 30-45 cm. long; spadix yellow, branched, monoecious;

fruits orange when young, deep purple when ripe.

This is a plant typically belonging to lower elevations; one flower-

ing was noticed in October. Only 3 plants were noted in the area

under study. Not mentioned by Fyson.

ARACEAE

140. Arisaema leschenaultii Bl. The Common Cobra Lily

A juicy herb with a tuberous rootstock. Stems 60-90 cm. high,

greenish mottled with purple spots. Leaf solitary, palmately com-

pound; leaflets about 9, elliptic-lanceolate, 14X4 cm. The plant

sprouts with the first showers in March-April; flowering May-July.

Spadix enclosed in the spathe; sterile appendix stout, blunt. Fruits

conical, on a fleshy receptacle, at first green, then red.

In shady places.

141. Arisaema tortuosum Sch. The Ratstail Cobra Lily

Very similar to the preceding species except for the sterile appendix

of the spadix exserted from the spathe, resembling a rat-tail.

Same habitat as the preceding, but is less abundant.

ERIOCAULACEAE

142. Eriocaulon brownianum Ruhl. The Black-backed Hatpin Flower

A marsh herb with a thick rhizome. Leaves radical, linear, acute,

12-15X0.5-1 cm., tomentose. Scapes slender, 2-3 per plant, each

420 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

25-50 cm. long, tomentose, with a sheath 10-15 cm. long. Flowering

March-June; flower heads flat. Involucral bracts appear whitish grey,

but actually they are black, covered with silky tomentum.

Gregarious in marshy soil.

CYPERACEAE

143. Kyllingia cylindrica Nees

A perennial herb, with a thick rhizome, 2-4 cm. long. Stems

10-15 cm. high. Leaves radical, linear, 5-15 cm. long. .Heads of

white spikelets terminal on the stem, cylindrical, protected basally by

leaf-like bracts. Flowering July-December, after which the plant

dries.

Common, and fairly abundant in places.

144. Mariscus cyperinus Vahl

A perennial herb, with erect stems 15-25 cm. high. Leaves

radical, linear, 15-25 cm. long. Spikes divergent, 2-5 cm. long, with

leaf-like bracts at their base. Flowering June-December.

Common and very abundant in places.

GRAMINEAE

145. Andropogon lividus Thw. The Purple Grass

Culms usually 25-30 cm. high, smooth, thin but rigid. Leaves

radical, linear, acuminate, 5-8 cm., erect. Spikes 2 only, 2-4 cm.

long, terminal, divergent, purple; spikelets in pairs. Flowers May-

December.

Common and abundant.

146. Arundinella fuscata Nees

An erect, stiff, perennial grass, 30-45 cm. high. Leaves mostly

basal, narrow, linear 5-15x0.5-1 cm. Panicles 8-10 cm. long with a

dense cluster of spikes. Spikes stiff, 3-4 cm., spikelets crowded along

one side only of the spike, often in pairs, one spikelet having a longer

stalk than the other. Flowering June-September.

Common and abundant.

147. Brachiaria semiundulata Stapf

A decumbent, villous grass. Leaves ovate, 1.5-4.5 cm. long,

densely pubescent. Spikes 1-2 cm. long, few; spikelets irregularly

arranged. Flowers August-November.

A shade weed. Common and abundant.

THE VEGETATION OF KODAIKANAL GRASSY SLOPES 421

148. Chrysopogon orientalis A. Camus

A tall, handsome grass. Culms slender, up-to 90 cm. high, with

glabrous nodes. Leaves basal, 4.5-24x1-1.5 cm., acute, pubescent.

Panicles 12-18 cm. long, branches ascending, bearing red hairs at

the base of the spikelets. Spikelets in threes, middle one sessile and

fertile, pale yellow, 0.6 cm. long; lateral ones pedicelled and sterile,

1.2 cm. long, red. The yellow anthers and stigmas against the red

glumes, all raised up on a tall culm, make the plant conspicuous on

the slopes. Flowers July-December.

Common and abundant.

149. Eulalia phaeothrix O. Kuntze The Auburn Tresses

A stout grass; culms 45-60 cm. high, with brown, tomentose,

leaf-sheaths crowded at the base. Leaves slender, very sharp at the

edges, acuminate, 15-45 cm. long. Spikes 5-10 cm. long, brown.

Flowers June-September.

In large clusters near rocks.

150. Heteropogon contortus Beauv. The Spear Grass

A gregarious, variable grass; culms about 30-45 cm. high. Leaves

from the middle of the culm, distichous, rigid, 3-7<0.4 cm. Spikes

grey, 3-6 cm. long, with about 10 pairs of spikelets and a terminal

odd sessile one. The spike terminates in a ‘spear’ made up of many

awns twisted together. Flowers nearly throughout the year, with a

peak in July.

Common and abundant. A troublesome weed, on account of the

sharp and barbed awns which penetrate into the clothing of men and

hairs of animals.

151. Setaria pallidifusca Stapf

A gregarious grass: culms about 30-40 cm. high. Leaves linear,

14-20 0.5 cm. Spikes cylindrical, usually 6 cm. long, pale yellow to

reddish brown; spikelets dense, ovate-elliptic, 0.3 cm. long, deciduous,

with about 10 barbed awns. Flowers September-November.

Abundant as a weed in gardens, scarce elsewhere. A _ fodder

grass.

152. Themeda cymbaria Hack.

A robust, perennial grass; culms erect, up to 3 m., clothed with

broad, coriaceous leaf-sheaths at the base. Leaves linear, up to

120 cm. long. Inflorescence 30 cm. or longer, a decompound spike;

the individual spikes have each a spathe-like bract at the base and

422 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

consist of 6-11 spikelets. Flowers July onwards. The plant dries up

or is burnt by January. Fresh leaves with the first showers.

Common on slopes.

153. Themeda triandra Forsk.

An annual, erect grass; culms up to 3 m. tall. Leaves linear.

25-50 cm. long. Spikes crowded, drooping in globose fascicles.

Flowers July-November.

Common.

154. Tripogon bromoides Roth.

A slender, tufted grass; culms 10-40 cm. high, slender but rigid.

Leaves 8-20 cm. long, rolled. Spikes 6-10 cm. long; spikelets 1.5 cm.

arranged closely in two rows.

Gregarious near rocks.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To Fr. J. Pallithanam, s.J. for the suggestion of the subject, to

Fr. J. Vincent, S.J. for the notes on soil and climate, and to Fr. H.

Santapau, S.J. for his patient correction of the manuscript, for his

constructive criticisms and valuable suggestions for improvement, are

due the thanks of the author.

REFERENCES

Fyson, P. F. (1932) : The Flora of the Kodaikanal and its History. Kodaikanal.

South Indian Hill Stations. Madras. Robinson, M. E. (1935) : The Flower-

Gamble, J. S. & Fischer, C. E. C. ing of Strobilanthes in 1934 (with 8

(1916-1935) : Flora of the Presidency of plates). JBNHS 38 : 117-122.

Madras London. Santapau, H. (1955) : Botanical Col-

Hutchinson, J. (1926, 1934): The Fami- lector’s Manual. New Delhi.

lies of Flowering Plants. London. Wadia, D. N. (1953) : Geology of

Lloyd, E. M. M. (1909): Guide to India. London.

Seno Methods for the Indian Shad

[Ailsa tlsha (Hamilton)] in the

Indian Region

S. JONES

Central Marine Fisheries Research Station, Mandapam Camp,

South India

ParT Il

(With 3 text-figures and 7 plates)

(Continued from Vol. 56, page 275)

PAGE

HILsA FISHING METHODs: (contd.)

6. Andhra Pradesh nd Ae ¥ i .. 423

7. Madras a y: he, i x .. 425

8. Bombay ty of ae ae Re .. 429

II PAKISTAN = “e oe ss hi .. 431

1. East Bengal ae oy rf “F. .. 431

2. Sind sy; < ay a A ~. 438

III. BURMA 3 te Be ee a .. 440

SUMMARY as af: 7 q: = .. 441

REFERENCES a a 3: x. a v.44)

GLOSSARY OF LOCAL NAMES rh A st aa Ne a eh)

6. Andhra Pradesh

The most important rivers in Andhra Pradesh where hilsa fishing

is carried out are the Godavari and the Krishna. Hilsa is caught

from the sea also along the Andhra Coast.

Gill net |

Rangoon vala (Rangoon net). This is a drift net introduced from

Rangoon, Burma, and is used below the anicuts in the Godavari and

Krishna _ rivers for catching hilsa. In the Godavari, I have seen it

being used below the anicuts at Bobberlanka, Maddurlanka, and

Bigneshwaram, and I was informed that it is used in a similar manner at

Dhowleshwaram also. Each net is 30 metres or more long, about

5 to 5.5 metres broad, and of fine netting with 10 to 13 cm. mesh.

The head-line has a series of floats of Avicennia roots at regular

424 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

intervals while the lower portion is free. At one end of the head-line

is a buoy of gourd and the other end is tied to the boat. The boat

is manned by two or three persons and one person is in charge of

the net. The boat is taken towards the anicut along one side

of the river and, on approaching the eddies in the vicinity of the

foot of the fall, the buoy is thrown into the river and then the net

ig paid out, the boat in the meanwhile proceeding to the opposite side

trying to keep a course parallel to the anicut. What actually happens

is that by the time the whole net is paid out, the boat as well as

the net has drifted down a considerable distance. The fish ascending

the ‘river towards the anicut get gilled in the net that drifts down in

the opposite direction. When the desired distance is traversed down-

stream, the boat is rowed back towards the opposite shore (from where

it first started) hauling in the net and collecting all the gilled fishes.

The process is repeated, the catches being more when the flood level

is high and the current strong. The whole operation is diagrammati-

cally represented in Plate XVI, fig. 18.

Seines'!

Pedda ayilu or Pedda vala. This is a drag net composed of 6 to

10 pieces, each 30 metres long and 18 metres broad with 2 to 2.5 cm.

mesh. The head and ground ropes are made of coir and are provided

with wooden floats and brick sinkers respectively. Two six-ton boats

pay out the nets simultaneously as they proceed towards the shore

describing a semicircle. The end ropes are given to two groups of

30 to 35 men on the bank to be dragged as a typical shore seine.

The net is operated in the estuaries of the Godavari River and is

reported to bring in heavy catches of hilsa.

Vusa vala. This is a drag net about 460 to 600 metres long and

about 3 metres broad with floats about 1.5 metres apart along the

head rope. The mesh is about 10 cm. and the ground rope has burnt

bricks as sinkers. The net is cast by a couple of boats and then

hauled from the bank of the estuary as typical shore seine.

Thelu vala. This is a boat seine about 530 metres long and 2.7

metres broad with 10 to 13 cm. mesh and 350 floats along the head

rope and brick weights along the ground rope. It is operated in

combination with kettu vala below the Godavari anicut when the

level of the water begins to fall after the floods. Kettu vala is a

wall net about 460 metres long and 1.5 metres broad with about

1 My thanks are due to Mr. I. Ram Mohan Rao, Deputy Director of Fisheries,

Andhra, for kindly arranging to furnish the information on the drag nets used for hilsa

fishing in Andhra State.

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FISHING METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION 425

10 cm. mesh with coir head rope and ground rope without floats and

sinkers. This net is firmly tied to poles fixed across the river below

the anicut with the bottom rope close to the river bed. The thelu

vala is loaded in two boats of 4 to 6 ton capacity with about 6 men

in each and is cast some distance away from the kettu vala and the

two boats proceed towards it making an encircling movement. The

thelu vala is dragged close to the kettu vala and the fish that con-

gregate in the diminishing space are hauled into the boats. The

operation is repeated till most of the fish in the particular area are

caught.

Pelagic trawl

Triga vala (Pl. TX, fig. 11 a). This has already been described under

Orissa (p. 265).

Cast mets

Vessur vala. Two ordinary cast nets are joined together side to

side and cast in a circle with the help of two boats. The water is

disturbed with bamboo sticks when one side is still open. The nets

are then hauled out of water into the respective boats and the fish,

if any found inside, is taken out.

7. Madras?

The important hilsa ascending river in the Madras State is the

Cauveri and its main deltaic branch, the Coleroon. Most of the

fishing is done below the lower anicut in the Coleroon. Hilsa is

caught during certain months from the sea also. Both Hilsa ilisha

and H. toli occur in the sea off the Coromandel Coast. The Kappu

valai fishing and the fish drives in the Coleroon have already been

mentioned by Hornell (1946 and 1950).

Gill nets

Kanni valai. This is an untanned gill net about 55 metres long

and about 3 metres broad. It is made of 14 ply 20 count cotton

thread and the mesh is of 3 inches. The head rope has floats of

Calotropis gigantea, locally known as erukh or of Erythrina indica.

There are 70 floats in all tied at intervals of 12 meshes. The ground

rope has weights of burnt clay (5 cm.X2 cm.) at irregular intervals.

At one end of the head rope is a long pointed threading peg or

1 I am indebted to Mr. Ranganathan, Assistant Director of Fisheries, Tanjore,

Mr. Balasubramanian, Inspector of Fisheries, Kumbakonam, and Mr. Kesavan,

Inspector of Fisheries, Negapatam, for local assistance rendered during my visit to

the Cauveri Delta to study the hilsa fishing methods.

426 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

korpan-kutchi of the Portia Tree (Thespesia populnea) measuring about

50 cm. which is used for gathering the net in folds. The net is held

against the current by 8 to 12 persons who ‘stand in a row along the

entire length of the net treading on the foot rope. The net portion,

known as the maal, curves in the form of a bag by the force of the

current. p

Kettu valai. The kanni valai mentioned above is used without the

floats and sinkers as a fixed gill net. The head and ground ropes

are stouter and these are tied to stakes and fixed in the bed of the

river. For a single net about 55 metres long, 8 stakes are fixed

equidistant from one another, and the length of one operational unit

will depend on the stretch of river to be covered.

Quite often kanni valai and kettu valai are operated in combination

and invariably so at the time of regular fish drives referred to on p. 428.

Rangoon valai or Ulla valai or Uliam valai or Kanni valai (Drift

net). This is a drift net of the type used in the Godavari and the

Krishna rivers. it is operated in the lower reaches of the Cauveri and

its deltaic branches during low tides. Formeriy the net was obtained

readymade from Rangoon, Burma, and hence the name rangoon valai.

At present they are made locally from mill-made yarn (equivalent

to 10 count 6 ply thread) and is said to be not as effective as the

imported ones. The mesh size is 11.5 cm. and an operational unit

consists of 6 pieces, each 27 metres long and about 5 metres wide joined

together. The head rope has small floats of Avicennia roots, 2 metres

apart from one another. There are no weights or ground rope. The

net is cast across the river and is allowed to drift down with the boat

during low tide. Small nets operated in canals are sometimes known

as ulla thundu or ullathundu yvalai.

Thedachi valai. This is a gill net operated along the Coromandel

Coast for all kinds of fishes. During the months of April and May

some quantities of hilsa, presumably both Hilsa ilisha and Hilsa toli,

are caught from the sea with this net. In some places including

Cuddalore and Pondicherry this is also known as kanni valat.

Thedachi valai is a long untanned gill net of 11 cm. mesh made of

3 ply 10 count or 9 ply 20 count cotton yarn. Its length varies from

185 to 460 metres and the breadth is about 3 metres (covered by 24

meshes). The head rope has wooden floats 4 metres apart and the

ground rope has stone weights alternating with them. The net 1s

operated from a catamaran with a crew of 3 or 4 persons during night

time. After the whole net is paid out, the catamaran is anchored and

the fish that get gilled are removed from time to time.

FISHING METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION 427

Thuri valai (Pl. XVUI, fig. 19 a). The net known by this name in

the Lower Anicut is quite different from the well-known thuri valai of

the Coromandel Coast operated in the sea like a pelagic trawl with

a pair of catamarans. The fthuri valai of the Lower Anicut is a

simple dome-shaped net of about 7 metres in circumference and

shaped into a bag about 1.5 to 2 metres deep when set against the

current. It is made of 20 count 12 ply or 10 count 6 ply cotton

yarn with a stout cord along the circumference which prevents the

net from getting unduly stretched out. The net is held against the

current by two persons who tread on the lower margin to keep it

close to the bed of the river. It is used close to the anicut and all

fishes including hilsa that are carried down by the force of the current

get gilled..

P-ws hn ét s

Kappu valai (Pl. XVII, fig. 19 b). This is the simplest type of net in

operation and consists of a large oval ring net fixed to the V-shaped

(forked) branch of some hardwood tree like Thespesia populnea.

The height of the net including the handle is from 3 to 3.5 metres

and the greatest width from 1.2 to 1.5 metres. The ring is made

up of a pair of small bamboos, split or whole as the case may

be. The handle is about 46 cm. long and the fork about 30 cm. In

some a cross bar is tied across the extremities of the fork to give

strength to the frame.. The net is made of 20 count 6 ply or 40 count

8 ply cotton thread. The size of the mesh varies from 2.5 to 6 cm.,

the larger meshed ones being used when operated for hilsa.

The kappu valai is used in two ways. When specially used for

hilsa at the time of high floods, it is used as drifting push net by a

person who floats down the river on a log of wood with the net held

in front in which the ascending fish get gilled. The gilled fish are

removed and deposited in a palm leaf bag with a detachable lid

having a chevaux de frise opening which prevents the escape of a

fish, or it is killed by biting and threaded on to a cord tied to the

waist. After covering some distance the person gets on to the bank,

retraces the distance on foot and repeats the process.

It is also used in the manner of a typical dip-net by fishermen

who remain standing in the water by the side of open sluices. All

varieties of fish including hilsa that congregate in such places are

caught.

Cast mets

Veechu valai (Pl. XVII, fig. 19 c). This is extensively used in the

Cauveri system and perhaps the largest group of fishermen operating

428 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

this net is at the Lower Anicut. All kinds of fishes from tiny carp

minnows to large sized catfishes are caught with the help of this net.

The mesh is quite variable but when mainly used for hilsa large

meshed ones are used. The veechu valai of the Cauveri Delta is

essentially the usual type of cast net of peninsular India. It is

made of 20 count 10 ply cotton thread with 6X8 cm. mesh. The

depth is about 3 metres and the circumference about 13 to |5 metres.

There are about 150 iron weights of about 3 cm. length and 1.5 cm.

thickness. Each part of the net has a name and these are indicated

in the diagram. It is generally used untanned.

The veechu valai is operated in two ways. The commonest

method is to remain on the bank or up to waist-deep water close to

the shore and cast the net as usual and collect the caught fish in the

palm leaf basket hung at the waist. Generally ten to twenty men

stand more or less en echelon on either side of a pool near the sluice

gate and cast the net giving very little chance for any fish in that

stretch of water to escape. The other method known as theppam

veechu (Pl. XVIII, fig. 20) is followed when fishing in deeper waters

by a fishing unit of two persons. The fisherman stands on a raft made

of about 5 or 6 logs of light wood locally known as kalyanamaram

(Erythrina indica) and another person who wades in the water pushes

the raft to the desired place.

Fish drives (Pl. XIX, fig. 21). The fish drives in the Coleroon in the

Cauveri delta were events of considerable local importance in former

days with the semblance of a mela when, unlike as at present, there

was greater flow of water and more frequent floods in the river. With

the construction of a number of dams-and anicuts in the upper

stretches of the Cauveri and its tributaries for diversion of water for

irrigational purposes, floods are rare and even where they occur are

only of very short duration reducing the hilsa fishery to an ephemeral

feature.

The method generally adopted is as follows: Stakes are fixed across

a selected portion of the river and kettu valai is tied to them so as to

prevent the escape of fish. A number of kanni valai are joined

together to cover the width of the river and the whole net is dragged

towards the kettu valai by a number of fishermen. As hilsa collect

‘together in large numbers in the diminishing space between the two

nets, they are removed with the help of dip nets, scoop nets, etc.

When the kanni valai meets the kettu valai the former is lifted up

bringing into it most of the remaining fish. Auxiliary nets are brought

behind to ensure the capture of the fish that escape from the net in

front,

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FISHING METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION 429

The operation is repeated whenever appreciable quantities of hilsa

are known to be present in the river. The fishing rights in the river

system are auctioned by the Government and the fish drives are

organised by the lessees concerned.

8. Bombay

Kulkarni (1951) has given in fair detail, the methods employed for

catching hilsa in Narbada River and its estuary. The fishing methods

by the Bhils in the Narbada River have very interesting parallels in the

Cauveri and Indus rivers in Madras and Sind respectively.

Gill nets

Budichi jal (Pl. XX, fig. 22 a). The fishing done in the Narbada

estuary with this sunken drift net has been described by Kulkarni

(1951 p. 619) as follows:

‘The usual gear employed for large scale capture of hilsa in

the Narbada River is sunken drift-nets. They are ordinary drift-nets,

but, instead of floating near the surface they are set almost near the

bottom and drift at that level. Each piece is about 72 feet long and

7 feet deep. Ten or twelve such pieces are joined together end to

end as a single unit and are allowed to drift as a vertical wall. The

nets are generally made of twisted hemp with a mesh of 5 inches

(stretched mesh). Triangular pieces of burnt clay with a hole in the

centre or some other similar articles are tied to the lead line and

used as sinkers. About 16 floats, generally made of dry gourds are

tied to the cork line (head rope) to keep the entire net erect in the

water. The net is similar to the “Palwa jal”, or “Hilsa net” described

by Pillay (1948), which fishes at the surface. The position of floats

on the surface gives the impression that the net is on the surface but

actually there is a long string between the floats and the net (text-fig.

No. 2). This length is adjusted according to the depth of the water —

fished so that the net remains in reality near the bottom of the river.

In some places the earthen sinkers dangle half a foot below the head

line (foot rope), so that the chances of the net getting entangled in

bottom debris are reduced.’

‘The boats used for the fishing are all flat bottom boats of about

a ton in capacity varying from 20 to 30 feet in overall length. Each

boat has a crew of three or four, one of whom is a skipper (‘“tindel’’)

who manages the boat while the others operate the nets. After

the net is cast, one end of it is tied to the boat which also drifts along

with the net. It is paid out across the stream almost at right angles

to the current so that it drifts downwards slowly and the fish swimming

430 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

upstream are enmeshed in it. After about half an hour, the net is

hauled up to remove the catch and is paid out again for further

operations. During spring tide period, these operations are con-

tinued day and night, and are suspended only when me catches

dwindle towards the end of spring tide period.’

Palwa jal. This net is operated at Kodinar on the Kathiawar

coast (Pillay 1948). It is a cotton drift net of 5 cm. to 6.3 cm. mesh

made up of 30 to 50 pieces, each piece 28 metres long and 2.7 to

3.7 metres deep with a number of wooden floats tied to the head rope

which is about 1.5 cm. thick. The foot rope is thin and without sinkers.

The different pieces of netting are tied together by means of the free

ends of the head and foot ropes and the composite piece is paid out

so as to form a long wall of net drifting with the current. Fishing

is carried out in the sea and the net is operated both day and night.

Valli jal. This is a fixed gill net operated in the marine and

inshore areas of the Veraval and Porbunder coasts in Kathiawar.

The operational net used in the Veraval zone consists of 30 to 40

pieces, each about 31 metres long and 2 metres broad with 10 cm.

mesh. The head rope has wooden floats of about 30 cm. long and

7 cm. thick at about 2 metre intervals. The foot rope has no sinkers

but the two ends are anchored and buoyed. Yarn of 12 ply 20

counts is used for the net and 12 ply 6 counts for the head line. The

fishing season is from August to October and March to May. The

net is operated in the early hours of the morning and hilsa is caught

along with other fishes.

The valli jal of Porbunder zone is a multipurpose drift net operated

in the sea from September to November and April to June. Each

piece is about 77 to 86 metres long and 3 metres deep with 15 cm.

mesh made of 12 ply 20 counts yarn and 7 such pieces are laced

together to make one operational net. The head rope has cylindrica!

wooden floats at 2.5 metres interval.

Khanderi jal’. This is a gill net operated during the rainy season

in the estuaries and creeks of the Veraval zone. Each piece is about

130 metres long and 3.7 metres deep with 7 cm. mesh made of 6 to

9 ply of 40 to 20 counts yarn. This is also a multipurpose net and

hilsa forms one of the catches.

Pankha rach'. This is a fixed gill net operated in the estuarine

areas of the Jamnagar zone. Each piece is about 29 to 36 metres

long and 4.7 to 5.5 metres deep with 9 to 10 cm. mesh and 7 to 8

1 Information on valli jal, khanderi jal,and pankha rach has kindly been fur-

nished by Mr. K. R. Srivatsa, Director of Marine Products, Rajkot, Saurashtra.

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FISHING METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION 431

such pieces are laced together and used at a time. The head rope is

tied to two poles fixed in the estuary while the ground rope which

is provided with sinkers remains pressed against the mud at the

bottom. All kinds of fish including hilsa are caught.

BTEto ne t

Jamda jal (P|. XX, fig. 22 b). In principle this is similar to the Kappu

valai fishing by the Cauveri (Madras) fishermen and the sumbokee

and matlee fishing by the Sind fishermen. The fishing has been

described in detail by Kulkarni (1951). The ‘Bhil’ fishermen catch

the ascending hilsa with jamda jal during high tide when the maximum

movement of the fish is expected. The jamda jal is a dip net with

a loose bag-like net portion and a wooden cross bar across the centre

(see Kulkarni op. cit. for particulars). The fisherman with the net

in his hands drifts with the current supported on a float of dry gourds

encased in a meshwork of coir. As soon as an ascending hilsa

strikes the net, it is lifted and the fish is retrieved and secured to a

cord with a float at the end tied to the waist of the fishermen.

Eight to ten fishermen drift down in a line and cover in one operation

a stretch of river about 5 miles long and then walk back to the starting

place. Each fisherman gets five to ten fish a day.

Ii. PAKISTAN

In Pakistan from the hilsa fishery point of view, East Bengal

constituting the eastern wing of the country is the most important

while Sind lying in the western wing comes next in order.

|. East Bengal

As stated already under West Bengal the fishing methods employed

in the two Bengals are the same in principle as well as in details. All

the methods enumerated under West Bengal are employed in East

Bengal also, except that in view of-the vastness of the fishing areas

and greater fishing activity, a number of modified methods are in

vogue. Ahmad (1952 & 1954) in recent accounts on the fishing gear ~

of East Pakistan and Hilsa Fishery of East Bengal has described

briefly the methods employed there for catching hilsa and the relevant

extracts from it are quoted here. The description of the bundh jal

is based on the information furnished by a fisherman who migrated

from East Bengal.

432 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Chap net's

Kharki jal. See under West Bengal (p. 252). This is known as

sharki jal in Pabna and the dimensions of the net which vary in

different districts (Ahmad 1954 a) are given below:

Rajshahi.—3.7 to 5.5 metres by 3 to 3.7 metres, with mesh of 4 cm.

Pabna.—6.7 to 7.3 metres by 4.5 metres, with mesh of 6.3 cm.

Kushtia.—8.2 metres by 1.8 to 4.2 metres with 5 to 7.5 cm. mesh.

Faridpur.—7.3 to 9 metres by 7.3 to 9 metres with 9 cm. mesh.

Dacca.—9 metres by 4.5 metres with 5 cm. mesh.

Tippera.—6 metres by 7.3 metres with meshes from 4.5 to 5.7 cm.

Shangla jal. See under West Bengal (p. 253). This net is known

as khosh jal in Bakarganj, hilsa jal in Mymensingh, and lawa jal in

Sylhet. The dimensions of the net in the different districts as reported

by Ahmad (1954) are as given below.

In Rajshahi it measures 4.5 to 5.5 metres by 3 to 3.7 metres with

4 cm. mesh, in Rangpur 4 to 4.5 metres by 5.5 to 6 metres with meshes

from 5 to 6.3 cm., in Pabna 7.3 by 3.7 metres with 5 cm. mesh, and.

in Khulna 9 metres by 2.1 metres with 2.5 to 4 cm. mesh. In Kushtia

it is 6.2 to 8.2 metres by 1.8 to 2.7 metres with 5 to 7.5 cm. mesh, in

Tippera 7.3 to 8.2 metres by 3.7 to 4.9 metres, with "2319 7s cur

mesh.

Biri jal. This in principle is similar to the shangla jal. Ahmad

(1954) has described this net which is used in Mymensingh throughout

the year for catching small-sized fish. It is 9 metres long and 14

metres wide, the meshes of the upper part of the net being 6.3 cm.

while the meshes of the lower part are as small as .3 cm.

Honga jal. 7 metres long, 3 metres in breadth, with 5 to 10 cm.

mesh, is used in the district of Sylhet from April to November for

catching hilsa and is similar to the biri jal (Ahmad 1954).

Gill nets

Apsha jal has weights attached te its lower rope and nets

used in Bakarganj measure 274 metres in length, 6 metres in

width, with 2.5 cm. mesh. It is used from November to March for

fishing hilsa (Hilsa ilisha) and some other species. Apsha jal is also

used in Faridpur.

Barain jal. 9.5 metres long, 7.5 metres deep, with mesh size of

4 cm. This net is employed in the district of Chittagong in September

and October for capturing hilsa.

Chhandi jal. See under West Bengal (p. 254) for the description of

the net. In East Bengal it is employed for gilling hilsa from May

to October in the districts of Chittagong, Noakhali, Bakarganj, Pabna,

FISHING METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION 433

Dacca, Tippera, and Faridpur. The net is laid at night and hauled in

the morning (Ahmad 1954).

Chapila jal. Measures 150 metres by 27 metres with 1.3 to 2-5. Cm),

mesh and is used in the district of Mymensingh throughout the year

for catching chapila (Gadusia chapra), bhangon (Mugil sp.), pangas,

and hilsa (Ahmad 1954).

Dar jal measures from 5.4 to 9 metres in length, 4.5 to 8 metres

in depth, and has meshes from 4 to 5 cm. It is used in the district of

Tippera from April to November for catching hilsa (Ahmad 1954).

Dora jal or Ilish jal. See under West Bengal (p. 254).

Era jal is made of Sun-hemp and is used in the district of

Bakarganj. It measures up to 723 metres in length, 12 metres in

depth, with meshes from 9 to 12.5 cm. It is employed for catching

hilsa from May to November (Ahmad 1954).

Har jal is used in the district of Bakarganj by joming a number

of pieces to form a net 610 metres long and 22.4 metres deep. The

meshes of the nets are 5 cm. It is operated for catching hilsa, silond,

pangas, etc., from June to November (Ahmad 1954).

Khot jal is 15.2 metres by 4.5 metres with 5 cm. mesh and is used

in the district of Bakarganj from June to November for capturing

hilsa (Ahmad 1954).

Pye jal. According to Ahmad (1954) this net is used in Bakarganj

throughout the year for catching a variety of fishes including hilsa.

It is 274 metres by 6 metres with 2.5 cm. mesh.

Tuni jal is used in the district of Tippera for catching hilsa during

the months from April to June. It is 13.7 metres by 6.7 metres and

has a mesh of 5 cm. (Ahmad 1954).

Seine nets

Bara jal. See jagat ber jai under West Bengal (p. 257). According

to Ahmad (1954) this net is also known as jagat ber, eogar and maha

jal.

Ber jal. This net is reported to be used both as a drag net as

well as a seine net. See under West Bengal (p. 256).

Kona jal or Bhasha gulli. See under West Bengal (p. 257). The

size of the net differs considerably in the different parts of the country.

In Faridpur this net has only one pocket situated at one end. The

net alone measures 9 to 10 metres by 6.3 to 11 metres with mesh

of 5 cm. (Ahmad 1954).

Chhota ber jal. From the name (chhota=small) it means a small

ber jal. This is used for catching a variety of fishes except in

434 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Bakarganj where this is employed for catching hilsa. The net is

about 91 metres by 4.6 metres with mesh of about 4.5 cm.

Dhop jal. This net is used in the district of Bakarganj for catch-

ing pangas and hilsa. It is 36 metres by 9 metres with 2.5 cm. mesh

and has both floats and sinkers. A number of pieces are joined

together for operation and is hauled while still afloat (Ahmad 1954).

Ghai ber jal. This is a very large seine net measurimg up to 723

metres long and about 13.7 metres deep with 2.5 cm. mesh used for

catching hilsa in the district of Bakarganj from November to April

(Ahmad 1954). It has a series of pockets which prevent the fish from

escaping.

Gulti jal. The net measures 305 metres in length, 6 metres in

depth, and has mesh of 6 cm. It is used in the district of Bakarganj

from June to November for catching hilsa. It has both floats and

sinkers and has pockets (ghai) at the lower end which are formed by

doubling up about half metre of the lower margin (Ahmad 1954).

Gultin jal is a hilsa net used in the district of Bakarganj, from

April to September for catching hilsa. It is 46 metres long, 13.7 metres

deep, with 5 cm. mesh. Like gulti jal it has pockets at the lower

extremity and is also provided with fioats and weights (Ahmad 1954).

Jangla jal. This net is used in the districts of Bakarganj, Pabna,

Jessore, and Faridpur. In Faridpur it is 12 metres by 7.3 metres with

mesh of 6 cm. and is operated from December to April for catching

hilsa and a variety of other fishes. In Pabna the dimensions of the net

are 9 metres by 3.7 metres with mesh of 1.3 cm. and the net is used

from October to December for catching prawn. A number of pieces

of the net are often joined at the time of operation. The lower end

of the net is doubled up and is sewn to form pockets. The net is

known by the name of jangalia jal in Bakarganj. In Pabna the jangla

jal is used for catching hilsa (Ahmad 1954).

Kochal jal. See under West Bengal (p. 255). ‘This net is called

kochal in Kusthia, Pabna, Rajshahi, Bogra, and Dacca; dora and

kochal in Jessore; and kochal and jangil in Bakarganjy (Ahmad 1954).

Patan jal. This net is used for catching hilsa in the districts of

Pabna and Bakarganj. In Pabna it is 61 metres by 6 metres with 5

cm. mesh and is used from June to August, whereas in Bakarganj it

measures 274 metres by 13.7 metres and has 5 cm. mesh. It is used

for catching other fishes also (Ahmad 1954).

Tana ber jal. See under West Bengal (p. 256). This net is used

in Dacca from September to May for capturing carp and hilsa and

measures 152 by 4.6 metres with 5 cm. mesh. It has no sinkers

(Ahmad 1954).

FISHING METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION 435

Drag nie t's

Ber jai. See under seine nets (p. 256).

Dara jal. This net measures 274 metres by 4.6 metres and has

mesh of 6 cm. and is used for catching hilsa from November to April

in the district of Bakarganj (Ahmad 1954).

Trawl net

Jangalia jal. This is a simple type of hand trawl. About a third

of a rectangular netting is doubled up and sewn to form a long pocket.

The free side of the netting is lashed to a long bamboo pole and

sinkers are attached to the doubled up edge which help to keep the

mouth of the bag open when the net is operated. Two short ropes

with brick weights are tied to the two extremities of the bamboo pole

and this helps to keep the upper part of the net at the desired depth

when it is pulled along the water. This trawl net is used in Pabna

for catching hilsa (Ahmad 1954). It may be recalled here that there

is a seine net, a modification of jangla jal known by the name of

jangaiia jal in the district of Bakarganj (see p. 434).

Dip nets

Chhakni jal (Fig. 25). This is a small dip net used in the district

of Faridpur for capturing hilsa when the fish swims near the banks of

rivers (Ahmad 1952).

TT hk

a ae

me CRS % rte

i ry YY es OK i,

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Fig. 25.—Chhakni jal of East Bengal.

Bheshal jal or Khara jal or Kadra jal (Fig. 24). This is a large

triangular net with mesh from 1.3 cm. to 4 cm. worked from a bamboo

platform erected on the bank of the river or in shallow water.

436 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

According to Ahmad (1952) the net is used in Jessore and Tippera for

catching hilsa. In principle this is similar to the gara besal of

West Bengal (p. 260).

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Hath Bauli jal. This is a small bhesal jal of 5 cm. mesh worked

by hands from a boat for catching hilsa in the districts of Rajshahi

and Pabna during rainy season (Ahmad 1954). Further details about

this are lacking and it is not known in what manner it differs from the

nauka bhesal described under West Bengal p. 261. |

Hefa jal or Haja jal (Fig. 26). This is a triangular dip net about

7 metres in length and 3 metres broad at the distal part having a mesh

Fig. 26.—Hefa jal of East Bengal. (After Ahmad 1954).

of 10 cm. This is used in the district of Sylhet from April to May for

capturing hilsa.

FISHING METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION 437

Fence net or Pound net

Bundh jal (P|. XXI, fig. 23'). In principle this is somewhat similar to

the pound net used for shad in the United States. Bundh jal is a fixed

net and is generally constructed across large rivers like the Meghna

and the Padma. This method of fishing is done from February to

May and the most important fish caught in the pound is hilsa. The

stakes are removed towards the end of May by which time the effect

of monsoon rains begins to be felt in the river.

Long stakes are driven in the form of an arc from one shore

across the greater part of the river leaving one side for the passage

of boats and launches. !n between long stakes shorter ones are fixed

and all these are bound together by horizontally placed pieces of

sticks. To give additional stability the whole fence is held in

position by a series of anchors fixed upstream, their number depending

on the force of the current. The end of the fencing away from the

shore curves inwards in the form of a circle leaving a small passage.

for the entry of fish. Close meshed (about 1.3 cm.) netting is

fastened to the stakes up to the water line like a wall obstructing the

passage of fish either way. Above the water line wide-meshed netting

is tied up to a height of about 90 cm. Another wide-meshed netting

is tied about 46 cm. above the water line and this is folded over and

stretched and attached to distantly placed poles as the chord of an

arc leaving a sagging bag-like space in the form of a verandha net.

The enclosure or the pound at the inner end consists of a single net

in the form of a trough with an opening on one side for the entry of

the fish. It is open above the water line.

The bundh jal is intended to capture fish that migrate upstream

against the current. Fishes such as carp, coming against the

obstruction, try to overcome it by jumping and get caught in the

verandha net. Hilsa on the other hand move along the fence and

eventually enter the pound where they remain circling round and

round with very little chance of escape through the passage by which

they had entered. To remove the fish, the ‘pound’ is untied from

the supporting stakes and the contents emptied into a boat.

Fish drives. Mojumdar (1939) refers to fish drives in the eastern

part of the Bay of Bengal during winter months which he describes

as follows: ‘The other way of catching the hilsa in this part of the

country is to drive the shoals into the branch rivers opening in the

1 The figure is based on a model shown to me by Shri Lakhi Kanth Burman,

a refugee fisherman from East Bengal now employed at the Central Inland Fisheries

Research Station, Calcutta.

438 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

sea by the beating of tins or drums. When they are up in such a

Khal, their way to the sea is obstructed with nets and they are

caught for days together.’

2. -Sind

The fishing method for hilsa in the Indus is very similar in

principle to that in the Narbada in Bombay and the Cauveri in

Madras, but looks somewhat queer and hazardous. The method has

attracted the attention of early European travellers as far back as the

first half of the 17th century, as is evident from the writings of

Sebastien Manrique (Luard and Hosten, 1927) during his travels between

1623-43. In describing the voyage down the Indus to Bakhar he

writes :

“We sailed on peacefully in this way, keeping careful watch at

night, finding as we advanced on our road an abundance of good

cheap provisons in every place we anchored at. In some places,

where the stream was shallow, we met many fishermen who furnished

us with most excellent shad very cheaply ... They dispense with

the encumbrance of nets and assistants as they go out fishing on

large earthen vessels with the circumference of ten to twelve palms

in breadth, flattened at the rim, and open at the top in a big, circular

aperture just of a size to receive the front of a man’s stomach, which

being pressed into it checks the ingress of the water. It thus serves

as a safe receptacle for the fish as well as a steady base and support

for the fisherman, who lies upon it directing his earthen ship with

his legs, his hands being busy with the spear, piercing the scaly

swimming fishes . .. This abundance of fish was most welcome

From the above report it appears likely that hilsa was abundant

at one time near the surface to be available for spearing and that the

water was clear to see the movements of the fish. Spearing is not

done now but a modified hand net with a long shaft is used by

fishermen who drift on earthen vessels and other floats. Rarely,

fishing is also done from boats.

It appears from Day’s report (1873) that a triangular type of

lave-net known in Sindhi as ‘Sumbokee’ which could be closed like

a purse net is also in use. He says: ‘A species of lave-net is also

used and in various ways; their plan of construction is in a ‘triangular

frame. In Sind, the fishermen float down the Indus on a gourd or

hollow earthen pot, and this net is let down below him; as a hilsa

fish, ascending up the muddy stream, strikes against the net, it is

PLATE XXI

Y PSS i:

Fs ONES

= > a Paleee. *,

[PILES

TZ 7h Coes 3

CSooS OR

oto

SSS

JOURN. BOMBAY NAT. Hist. Soc.

OE as ae —

ae BY de

oem

(By M. Mydeen Kunju).

Bundh jal of East Bengal.

Pig. 23;

Journ. BomBay Nat. Hist. Soc. PLATE XXII

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Fig. 27. Sandh jal of Sind. (By M. P. Lakshmanan).

FISHING METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION 439

made to contract like a purse by means of a string the fisherman

holds in his hand.’ The observation is repeated in his subsequent

account on Indian fish and fishing (Day 1883).

Sandh jal (P|. XXII, fig. 27'). This appears to be the same as the

Sumbokee referred to by Day (op. cit.). The handle of the net is

about 6.5 metres long and each side of the triangular frame is of

equal length measuring a little over 2 metres. The mesh size of the

net is about 5 cm. The fisherman drifts with the current supporting

himself on a dry gourd 45 cm. to 60 cm. in length with the net held

almost vertically down. A string tied to the deep bag of the net

is held by him and the entry of any fish is communicated through

this. By a twist of the handle the fish is imprisoned. The net is

lifted up and the captured fish threaded on a string tied to the waist

of the fisherman. .

Matlee (Palla pot). While describing hilsa fishing in the Indus

Hornell (1950, p. 109) makes mention of the palla pot method. He

summarises the fishing activity as follows: ‘But the excitement of

hilsa-fishing in the Cauveri is as nothing compared with the animated

scenes on the Indus, where the Hilsa gives employment to hundreds

of fishermen the whole length of Sind. The usual device is a

development of the Cauveri one. The net used has grown, however,

into the form of a gigantic landing net, with a shaft 20 feet long and

with a bag much deeper in proportion. Armed with this the fisher-

men float downstream, either seated in the bow of a small raft-like

punt, or supported by gourds, enveloped in netting and strapped to

his back. Or he may, when the fishing reach is short, elect for a

third, still more primitive method, and float down the river

balanced precariously over the mouth of a great globular chatty or

earthenware pot made for the purpose by the village potter. The net

is used as on the Cauveri, but in a nearly vertical position. The

hilsa, pushing upstream in vehement haste to reach the spawning

grounds, blunders into the net and in spite of the extraordinary agility

of this fish, man triumphs, being prepared: a sharp twist of the shaft

imprisons the fish in the tail of the net and the fisherman, cautiously

shortening his grip, finishes it with a knife and consigns it to the

bottom of the boat or the depth of the chatty beneath him: if his

support is gourds, a needle is passed through the eyes or the gills and

1 My thanks are due to Dr. M. R. Khan, Assistant Regional Fisheries Officer,

Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, Bangkok, for having kindly

taken the trouble of arranging to get information on hilsa fishing in the Indus, and

to Mr. Agha G. Hussain, Deputy Director, Central Fisheries Department, Pakistan,

for furnishing a sketch on which Figure 27 in this article is based.

440. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

the fish is threaded on a string with the previous victims in tow beside

the float.’ , é Drees |

‘In specially favourable spots, where the river is deep alongside

one bank, the fisherman with his net immersed walks downstream

along the shore, adjusting his pace to the speed of the current. In

the vicinity of towns both the gourd-float and the chatty are preferred

to the punt; they give better results and involve practically ne

expense. The chatty is considered the better killing method, but

where the reach within which the fish are caught is long, the fisherman

prefers the gourds—their weight is less for the long weary tramp back

to his starting-point.

The palla pot has a flattened spheroid shape and is neckless with

a comparatively small mouth on which rests the stomach of the

fisherman closing it effectively, the latter directing his movements with

his hands and legs in a froglike manner. Earthen vessels of smaller

size without any opening on which the fishermen float down in a

sitting posture is also reported to have been employed (Burns, 1834).

The fishermen who cannot afford the ‘luxury’ of a ‘Palla pot’ use a

bundle of dry reeds to float down which is discarded on getting water-

logged (Wood, 1841). This has the advantage that it need not be

carried back but the problem of making a fresh bundle every time

remains. A more convenient and perhaps safer alternative commonly

employed is the use of a netful of dried gourds strapped to the body.

In. view of its Nghtness no serious problem of transportation arises

during the trek back to the starting point. The method is very similar

to the one followed by the ‘Bhil’ fishermen of the Narbada.

lil. BURMA

Hilsa occurs along the entire coastal waters of Burma from Arakan

in the north to the Mergui Archipelago in the south and ascends the

rivers for spawning purposes. The information we have on the fishing

methods is very meagre and is mainly confined to the observations

of Kyaw (1953).

Gill nets

Hmyaw paik'. This is a drift net used all round the year in rivers

and estuaries of Burma. It is made of cotton yarn and the length

varies. from 15 to 90 metres and width from 2.7 to 3.7 metres. The

mesh is about 10 to 12.5 cm. There are floats along the head rope

a ne a ar a tm

1 The information regarding this net was furnished personally by U Ba Kyaw, 3

Fisheries Officer, Burma.

FISHING METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION 441

but no ground rope or sinkers at the bottom. The net is allowed to

drift with the current and the gilled fish are periodically removed.

Fishes other than hilsa are also caught in this net. It appears that

the net is sometimes provided with a ground rope also to which

weights of lead pieces and burnt clay are attached, as stated by Khin

(1948). |

Nea-thalouk paik. This net is reported by Kyaw (1953) as being

used in the Mergui Archipelago. Each operational net is about

550 metres long and 11 metres deep consisting of 3 sets laced together,

each set having 20 separate pieces of netting of about 9 metres in

length. The mesh size varies from 10 to 15 cm. according to the size

of the fish available in the different seasons. The net is operated by

three open boats with a total crew of 12 persons. Two boats are of

2 tons capacity each and are used as net boats, while the third one is

of 6 ton capacity and serves as the mother boat. When a shoal is

sighted it is encircled by the net which is paid out simultaneously

from the two small boats. After the two ends of the net meet, the

boats go about scaring the fish by beating the water with poles. The net

is then hauled up into the two small boats which traverse the circle

in the reverse direction and the gilled fish are removed. Each

operation takes 2 to 5 hours depending on the catch.

SUMMARY

The methods of fishing for the Indian shad, Hilsa ilisha (Hamilton),

in India, Pakistan, and Burma are described in fair detail. Some of

the nets are specially devised for catching hilsa while the others are

multipurpose nets in which this fish forms one of the catches. In all,

about 102 nets are classified and dealt with, and of these most of the

important ones are illustrated. A glossary of local names of fishing

gear and tackle is given with explanation.

REFERENCES}?

Ahmad, Nazir (1952): Hilsa fishery

of East Bengal. J. Asiat. Soc. (Sci.)

20 (1) : 7-14 (1954).

— — — (1954) : Fishing-Gear of East

Pakistan. Pakistan J. Sci.6 (3): 162-178.

Burns, Alexander (1934) : Travels into

Bokhara 3: 40.

Chacko, P. I. (1952): Past, present

and future of the Hilsa fisheries in the

Madras State. J. Asiatic Soc. (Sci.)

20 (1) : 55-58 (1954).

Day, F. (1873) : Report on the Fresh-

water fish and Fisheries of India and

Burma, pp. 22 & 23. Calcutta.

= (1883): Indian Fish and

Fishing. International Fisheries Exhi-

bition, Handbooks, 2, pp. 488-489.

_Government of India (1951): Pre-

liminary guide to Indian fish, fisheries,

methods of fishing and curing. Revised

Edition, Marketing Series No. 66. pp. 70,

five 1195 125: &)127— Dethi.

-—

1 In addition to those referred to in the text, a few references on the subject not

included in the bibliography on Hilsa by the author (Jones, 1952) are also given here.

442

Hornell, J. (1924a): The Fishing

Methods of the Ganges.—Mem. Asiatic

Soc. Bengal 8: 223-224, 227-230. Calcutta.

(19245): Fishing Methods

of the Madras Presidency, Part I. Coro-

mandel Coast. Madras Fish. Bull. 18:

59-110.

— — — £(1946): Water Trans-

port: Origins and Early Evolution.

Cambridge University Press, pp. 2 & 5

— — — (1950): Fishing in many

waters. Cambridge University Press,

pp. 88 and 108-113.

Jones, S. (1952): A Bibliography of

the Indian Shad, Hilsa ilisha (Hamilton),

J. Zool, Soc. India, 4 (1) : 97.

& Sujansinghani, K. H.

(1953) : Fish and fisheries of the Chilka

Lake with statistics of fish catches for

the years 1948-1950. Jndian J. Fish. 1

(1 & 2).

Kaushiva, B. S. (1952): A prelimin-

ary note on Hilsa fisheries of Uttar

Pradesh. J. Asiatic Soc. (Sci.) 20 (i):

45-46 (1954).

Khin, U (1948): Fisheries in Burma.

Govt. Printing and Stationery, Rangoon.

epee

— == ae

JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Kulkarni, C. V. (1951): Hilsa Fish-

eries in the Narbada River. JBNHS

49 (4) : 619-621.

Kyaw, Ba (1953): Information on

Hilsa Fishery of the Mergui District,

Union of Burma, JI.P.F.C., Communica-

tion.

Luard, C. Eckford & Hosten, H.

(1927): Travels of Frey Sebastein Man- .

rique. 1629-1643. 2. pp. 230 & 232.

Mojumdar, C. H. (1939): Foreshore

. fishing in the eastern part of the Bay of

Bengal. Sci. & Cult., Calcutta, 5 (4) : 219.

Naidu, M. Ramaswami (1939) : Report

on a Survey of the Fisheries of Bengal,

pp. 8-17. Calcutta.

Pillay, T. V. R., (1948): Marine

Fisheries of Kodinar in Kathiawar.

JBNHS 48 (1) : 47-61.

Qureshi, M. R. (1952): Palla of

Sind. J. Asiatic Soc. (Sci.) 20 (1) : 59-63

(1954).

Varma, C. P. (1952) : Hilsa Fishery in

Bihar. J. Asiatic Soc. (Sci.) 20 (1) : 41-43

(1954).

Wood, J. (1841): Journey to the

source of the River Oxus.

London.

GLOSSARY OF LOCAL NAMES

Jal means net in Hindi and other north Indian languages and the term is current

in the states of Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, and Bombay in India and in

East Bengal and Sind in Pakistan.

This is modified into Jalo in Oriya (Orissa).

Vala and Valai mean net in Telugu and Tamil in Andhra Pradesh and Madras res-

pectively.

| | State or

Local name j| Page Country

Apsha jal 432% East Bengal

Ata vala 266 | Orissa

| :

Bada irgali 265 | Orissa

Bada jal 259 | West Bengal

Bandal 275 Uttar Pradesh

Barain jal .| 432 | East Bengal

Baranda 267 Orissa

Bara jal ..| 433 | East Bengal

Bar jalo 263 & Orissa

266 |

Baromadi 266 | Orissa

Basa jal 260 | West Bengal

Basal jal 260 | nese

Basani jalo 264 | Orissa

Meaning where |

ane Explanation

Gill net

A portion of Pedda

irgali near the wing

| Bada=big Large conical bag net

| Big net Stake net

Method of fishing

| after blocking with

| | _ bamboo fencing

Gill net

Border meshes. of

Tangra jalo

Big seine net. Known

also as Jagat ber,

| Goger and Maha jal

Long drag net

border -

big net

Bag portion of Pedda

irgali

Lift net

Gill net operated

from boat

SC TS

FISHING

Local name .

Batchari jal

Batchari nauka

Behunti jal

Ber jal

Bhahali jal

Bhasa jal

Bhekti Phandi-

jalo

Bhesha gulli

Bheshal jal

Bhido jalo

Bhiro jalo

Biri jal

Bisari jal

Budichi jal

Bundh jal

Chairon jal

Chapila jal i

Char-pata jal or

Char-gherra jal

Chawk jalo

Chhandi jal

Chhandi nauka

Chhakni jal -

Chhanta jal.

or Chhata jal

Chhota ber jal .

Chondi jal

State or

Country

West Bengal

West Bengal &

East Bengal

Assam

West Bengal

Orissa

East Bengal

Orissa

East Bengal

Bihar

Bombay

East Bengal.

Assam

East Bengal

West Bengal

Orissa

West Bengal &

East Bengal

West Bengal

East Bengal

Uttar Pradesh

East Bengal

Orissa

Meaning where

known

Nauka = boat

Bhekti= Lates

calcarifer

Bundh=em-_

bankment

Four-finger-

meshed net

(Chairon deri- |

ved from

char = which

means four)

Char = Mud-fiat

exposed dur-

ing low water

Nauka=boat

Chhota= small

“Ber =encircle

jal=net

| Boat used for

_ Fixed bag net.

METHODS FOR. HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION 443

Explanation

Large sized cast net.

Also known as

Othar jal

the

operation of Bat-

chari jal

Also

known as behundi

jal, bainti jal, or

bim-jal

' Seine net

— alee

Drag net

Lift net operated

from a_ drifting

boat

Lever dip net opera-

ted from a boat

Large meshed gill net

Seinenet. Also known

as Kona jal

Large lever dip net,

Known also. as

Khedra jal or Kedra

cee ee i

| Gill net. Known also

as Bhida jalo

Gill net. Known also

as Bheed jalo or

Tlishi jalo

| Clap net

Dip net

| Sunken drift net.

Fence net

Clap net

Gill net

A type of barrier net

Drag net used for

fish drive

| Gill net

Boat employed for

using Chhandi Je

Dip net

Shore seine net

Small seine net

A kind of drift net.

a Re Re a re Se ee gS RE RE

Local name

Chondi jalo

Chotta irgali

Chouhandra

Cuna jalo

Dandi jal

Dara jal

Dar jal

Dhop jal

Dinghi

Dondi jal

Dongya

Dora jal

Dui-tuni jal

Era jal

Erukh

Funga jal

Gai ber jal

Gab

Gara jal or Gara

besal

Ghai ber jal

Gharia ka ghauch

Ghauch

Gherua jalo

Goolti jal

Gulti jal

Gultin jal

Hadia jalo

Hafa jal

Har jal.

Hath bauli jal

| State or , Meaning where

| ne | Country | known

269 | Orissa

| 266 | Orissa Chotta=small |

268 | Orissa

68 1

273 Bihar

435 East Bengal

43 3 | rr) om)

434 | East Bengal

253 West Bengal

273 | Bihar

270 = Orissa

433 | East Bengal

272 | Assam Two poled net

(Dui=two &

tuni=pole) |

433 East Bengal |

425 | Madras Calotropis

gigantea

272 | Assam

256 | West Bengal |

252 | West Bengal Diospyros em-

bryopteris

260 | West Bengal

434 | East Bengal Ghai=bag or

pocket

275 | Uttar Pradesh

265 | Orissa |

255 | West Bengal

434 | East Bengal

434 99 $>»

268 | Orissa

436 | East Bengal

433 | East Bengal |

436 a oh _ Hath=hand

JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Explanation

Similar to Chondi jal

used as drag net

during fish drives

in the Mahanadi

Small conical bag net.

Known also. as

Sanna irgali

Small meshed net be-

hind Satiya jalo of

Mal jalo

Free ends of Mal

jalo. Known also

as Chuna jalo.

Gill net. Also known

as Dondi jal.

Drag net

Gill net

Seine net

Round bottomed

boat

Gill net. Known also

as Dandi jal.

Flat bottomed boat

Gill net. Also known

as Ilish jal.

Lever type of clap

net

Gill net

Name of a tree.

Timber used as

floats

Clap net

Seine net

Name of a tree, the

fruits of which are

used for tanning

nets

Lever dip net fixed in

the river

Seine net with pock-

ets he

The term used for the

operation of scoop-

net from a boat

Lift net used in the

Bandal method of

fishing

Hempen gill net

Gill net

Seine net

A triangular dip net

operated by hand

Same as Hefa jal

Gill net

Triangular dip net

operated by hand

FISHING METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION 445

Local name Page |

Hefa jal 436

Hela jal ..| 260

Hilsa Z|

Hilsa jal 432

Hmyaw paik 440

Honga jal 432

Auli 269

Tlihi eg |

Tlish 254

Tlishi 263

Tlihi jal 271

Hish jal 254 &

433

Tlishi phandijalo. | 263

Iriga vala | 265 &

425

Jagat ber jal 257

Jal

Jalia dinghi 252

Jalo 263

Jamda jal © 431

Jangalia jal 435

Jangla jal 434

Jarul 252

Joha jal 274

Kala-kayir at.

Kalyvanamaran . vi 428 -

Kamail jal | 274

Kami jal .| 271

Kanni valai | 425

State or

Country

| Meaning where >

known

Explanation

East Bengal

West Bengal

Bengal

East Bengal

Burma

East Bengal

Orissa

Assam

Bengal

Orissa

Assam

Bengal

Orissa

South Orissa &

Andhra Pradesh

Orissa

W. Bengal,

E. Bengal,

Bihar, Uttar

Pradesh,

Assam, and

Bombay

Bengal

Orissa

Bombay

East Bengal

West Bengal

Bihar

Madras

| Uttar Pradesh

Assam

Madras

Hilsa ilisha

(Hamilton)

Hilsa net

Hilsa

Hilsa net

Jagat=universe |

Ber=enclose or

encircle

net

dinghi=small

boat

net

Lagerstroemia

flos-reginae

Kala= bull;

kayir=rope

Erythrina indica

Meshed. net

(Kanni=mesh)

Triangular dip net

Operated by hand

from a boat

Hand operated push

net

The Indian shad

Clap net

Drift net. Paik

which means net

in Burmese is writ-

ten as Paikgyi also

Clap net

Dug-out canoe

Clap net. Known

also as Kami jal.

Gill net. Also known

as Dora jal.

Fixed gill net. Also

known as Ilishi jalo

Conical bag net. Also

known as /rgali or

Irgal jalo

Long seine net

A Hindi term mean-

ing net common

throughout north

of peninsular India

Fishing boat used in

the rivers of Bengal

Common term for

net in Oriya

Purse-like hand tet

Hand trawl net

Pocketed seine net

Name of a tree. Tim-

ber used for con-«

structing boats ~

Seine net vA

Cord along the cir-

“cumference of the

cast net

Name of a tree. Tim-

ber used for mak-

ing rafts

Clap net

Clap net. Known

also as Ilihi jal —

Gill net

446

JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Local name

Kappu

Kappu valai

Karal jal

Kephla jal

Kettu valai

Khanderi jal

Kharki jal

Khepa jalo

Khosh jal

Khot jal

Kochal jal

Kona jal

Konta jal

Korpan-Kutchi

Kosa nauka

Lawa jal

Maal

Maha jal

Mal jal

Mal jalo

Male madi

Mani ;

Matlee

Mela

Nanhya jalo or

Naya jalo

Nauka

Nauka-Besal

Nega-thaloukpaik

Odi vala

Othar jal

Page

..| 427

uaae5

wa 255

.| 261

.| 424&

426

.| 430

M252

432

..| 268

.| 432

..| 433

255

257

| 433

255

eal

.| 432

Sele 204

262

| 268

| 266

.»| 439

268

.| 261

| 261

441

.| 265

.| 261

State or

Country

Madras

West Bengal

Madras »

Bombay

West Bengal

East Bengal

Orissa

East Bengal

West Bengal

West Bengal &

East Bengal

West Bengal

Madras

Assam

East Bengal

Madras }

Uttar Pradesh

West Bengal

Orissa

Madras

Sind

‘Hindi’

Orissa

West Bengal

Orissa

West Bengal &

East Bengal

known

Meaning where |

Fork net

Fixed net

(kettu=tie)

Korpan=thread-

ing, Kutchi=

peg

Maal=net

Big net

(Maha=big)

Procession

festival

boat

Hilsa net (Nga-

thalouk =

Hilsa, paik=

net)

Odi=prevent

or obstruct

Explanation

| Forked branch of

tree used for mak-

ing Kappu valai

| Push net

Gill net

Cast net

Kanni_ valai without

floats and weights

Gill net

Clap net

Clap net. Also

known as_ Sharki

jal

. Cast net

Shangla jal of Bakar-

ganj

Gill net

Fixed gill net

Seine net. Also

known as_ Bhesha

gulli

Fixed gill net

Threading peg

| ‘Small sized fishing

boat

Shangla jal of Sylhet

Net portion of cast

net

Large bag net

Barrier net

One portion of Pedda

Irgali in front of

Baromadi

Lead weight of Vee-

chu valai of Cau-

veri Delta

Earthenware pot used

as a float in hilsa .

fishing 5 NRE

Portion of Mal jalo

near the Cuna jalo

Name for boats in

general

Lever not operated

from boat

Gill net

Drift net. Known

also as Odi jalo

Large cast net

FISHING METHODS FOR HILSA ILISHA IN INDIAN REGION 447

I a a a rc a

Explanation

| Drift net

Fixed gill net

_ Large sized fishing

boat

| Seine net

| Seine

| A type of drag net

net. Also

known as’ Pedda

vala.

_Trawl type of net.

Also known

Bada Irgali

| Gill net

: Meaning where

Local name | Page Cae vere aa

Palwa jal .| 430 | Bombay Palwa=hilsa

Hilsa net

Pankha Rach .| 430 | Bombay Rach=net

wet (Gujarati)

Pansi nauka 271 | Assam nauka=boat

Patan jal ..| 434 | East Bengal

Patua jalo .| 267 | Orissa re

Pedda ayilu .| 424 | Andhra Pradesh | jalo=net

Pedda irgali 265 Orissa |

| |

Pye jal .| 433 East Bengal

Rangoon vala .| 423 & Andhra Pradesh | Rangoon net

426 |

Sal .| 252 | West Bengal | Shorearobusta |

Sandh jal .| 439 | Sind

Sangla jal ..| 271 | Assam

Sanna Irgali .| 266 | Orissa Sanna=small

Sarni-phasi jalo ‘| 267 | Orissa

Satiya jalo or | 268 | Orissa

Santiya jalo

Shangla jal 253 | West Bengal. &

432 | East Bengal

Sinapu vala 266 | Orissa — Small meshed

; net (Sinapu

==small mesh-

ed)

Sumbokee ..| 439 | Sind

Sungail .| 273 | Bihar

Suti jal .| 258 | West Bengal

Tana ber jal 256 | West Bengal & | Ber—~enclose

434 | East Bengal

Tangra jalo .| 266 | Orissa

Thedachi valai_ ..| 426 | Madras

Theppam veechu ..| 428 Theppam= raft,

veechu=cast

Thelu vala 424

Andhra Pradesh |

Drift

net

imported

Burma.

Known also as Ulla

or Ullam valai or

Kanni valai

Name of a tree. Tim-

ber used for con-

structing boats

formerly

from

Dip net

Clap net :

Small conical bag net.

Also known as

Chotta Irgali

A combination net of

Sarni jalo and

Phasi jalo

End portion of Mal

Jalo

Clap net

Middle part of Pedda

irgali

Small hand net

Clap net. Also

known as Sungla

jal or Hilsauri

Funnel shaped bag

net. Also known

as Soti jal

Seine net

Pocketed drag

Also known

Tangna jalo or

Tangni jalo

Gill net

Casting net from a

raft

Drag net

net.

448 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Local name Page

Thuri ©

Thuri valai

Tisto jalo

Toni jal

Tuni jal

Ul-kayir

Ulla-or Ullam

valai

Ulla thundu or-

Ulla thunduValai

Vala :

Valai

Valli jal

Vanku kayir

Veechu valai

Vessur vala

Vusu vala

Waram

| 427

.| 427

263

252

He ES

426

423

Ags

430

427

425

424

266

State or

Country

Madras

Orissa

East Bengal

Madras

Andhra Pradesh |

Madras

Bombay

Madras

Andhra Pradesh

S: ‘Orissa &

Andhra Pradesh

Ul=inner,

kayir=rope

| Ulla or Ullam=

hilsa

Thundu= piece

net

| Vanku=receive,

kayir=rope

or coir

Cast net (Veechu

=cast)

Cast net

(Vessur =cast)

side

| Meaning where | Explanation -

known

The cod end of a bag

net

Gill net (not the

typical Thuri valai

of the Coromandel

coast)

Fixed gill net

A kind of trawl net

Gill net

Drawing rope of cast

net

Drift net. Known

also as- Rangoon

valai or Kanni valai.

Small Rangoon valai

or Ullam valai

Telugu term for net

Tamil term for net ©

Fixed gill net

Gathering or receiv-

ing rope of cast

net

Cast net

Used | as a combi-

nation of two cast

nets

Drag net sine

‘Wing portion of

Pedda irgali. Telu-

gu word.

William Jack, the Botanist (1795-1822)

D. CHATTERJEE

Indian Botanic Garden, Calcutta

Botanists and plant-geographers who are interested in plant life

and its distribution in Malayasia must have come across the name of

Jack in various books. Jack was indeed one of the pioneer naturalists

who explored the virgin forests of India, Malaya, and Sumatra.

Unfortunately, he died at the young age of twenty-seven years and it

is perhaps for this reason that he is not much known to our botanists

of today. Yet, from the few scattered papers and memoirs. it was

felt that a short biographical account of Jack would perhaps be well

worth publication even after such a long period, as it would stimulate

the minds of our younger field botanists.

William Jack was born on the 29th January 1795! at Aberdeen,

Scotland, where his father Dr. William Jack was the principal of a

College. Young Jack was unusually intelligent from his boyhood and

joined a grammar school at the age of six. While in school, he almost

always kept the top position in his class. He soon became a scholar

in classics, French, and natural science and commenced the study of

medicine at the age of fourteen. He completed his studies and passed

the M.A. examination at the age of sixteen. He then wanted to

continue his medical studies in Edinburgh but could not do so for a

year as he was attacked by scarlet fever. During this time, he taught

classics for sometime in his own school, studied Italian and Spanish,

and attended classes on Divinity. He came to London in 1811, ie.

before completing his seventeenth year.

In London, he continued his studies in medicine and botany and

he soon came in contact with such eminent persons as Sir Joseph

Banks, Robert Brown, and G. Anderson. After attending hospitals

and lectures in medicine and surgery he appeared for his F.R.CS.

examination and duly passed at the young age of 17. He communi-

cated the good news of passing the medical examination to his father

in a letter dated the Ist February 1812. He wrote: ‘Yesterday, I

passed as Fellow of the College of Surgeons and with flying colours.

_ 1 The year of birth given by Burkill (JBNHS 51: 868; 1953), ie. 1773, is

evidently incorrect. The year of birth was, however, correctly given by him in his

earlier paper (Gard. Bull. Str. Settl. 4: 125; 1927).

450 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Five days were all I had in which to prepare and go through the

previous business. I appeared before my examiners with all” the

courage I could muster, and having evaded in the best way that I

could, the demand for a certificate of age, they agreed after a little

consultation to examine me. Sir William Blizard questioned me. and

as it was an extra-ordinary meeting, the whole court were judges. My

trial was short and they seemed so well pleased with my replies, that

Sir William Blizard said that it was unnecessary to put any more

questions as it was evident I understood my subject. Sir James Earle

agreed and obligingly declared that not one in five hundred would

answer so accurately. I retired for a while, and when I returned, the

Master put a few questions as to my period of study etc. and informed

me that I had passed. They then congratulated me on my success;

one observed that I should be an honour to the Company’s service and

paid me such compliments as modesty forbids me to repeat.’

Jack then went back to Aberdeen and spent a few months at

home with his parents. He returned to London and secured an

appointment of a surgeon in the Bengal Establishment of the East

India Company and sailed for India on board the Company’s ship

‘Baring’ on his eighteenth birthday, i.e. on 29th January 1813.

On his arrival in India, he was posted as a surgeon in the East

India Company’s army at various places like Dum Dum (1813). Nepal

terai with Ochterlony’s army (1814-15). Bettiah (1815), Bechiaco (1816),

Dinapore (1816-17), and Calcutta (1818). Jack visited the Botanic

Garden at Calcutta on the 19th July 1818, and wrote: ‘I have paid

a visit to Dr. Wallich at the Botanic Garden, a short distance from

Calcutta; he received me with great kindness and warmth, and insists

on my coming to stay with him while I remain here. He is not only

a good botanist but an excellent physician, and much inclined to

assist me in obtaining some situation which may open a field for

botanical research and connect me with himself in that department.’

During this time, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, Governor of the

East India Company’s establishment in Sumatra, also visited the

Botanic Garden and met Jack at Calcutta. At the request and re-

commendation of Dr. Nathaniel Wallich, Sir Stamford very willingly

agreed to take Jack with him to Sumatra. The party soon sailed in

the Company’s cruiser ‘Nearchus’ and, besides Jack, contained two

French zoologists. On their way, the party spent a few months in

Penang and Jack collected a large number of plants. From _ this

collection, Jack described 130 plants of which about 80 were con-

sidered new. In Sumatra, they stayed at the headquarters at Bencoolen.

From Bencoolen, Jack made several trips to the interior of Sumatra

es CS j

Si Ww

WILLIAM JACK, THE BOTANIST 451

including a climb on the Gunong Benko peak. He worked hard and

made exhaustive notes and descriptions of these plants, many of which

proved new to science.

Sir Thomas Stamford took keen interest in the natural history and

social customs of the people of Sumatra. It may be noted that it was

mainly due to his interest that the wonder plant Rafflesia arnoldi R.

Br., which commemorates his and Dr. Joseph Arnold’s name was first

discovered in 1818 and made known to science. The plant, as is well

known, is a root parasite and bears gigantic flowers, about three

feet across and the largest in the vegetable kingdom. Since the

discovery of this plant, Jack visited the type locality and other areas

and collected considerable additional information about this species

which was duly published in his Malayan Miscellanies. Jack con-

tinued his botanical activities in the midst of various official assign-

ments and by March 1822 he had described seventy-five new plants,

including fifteen new genera.

Although Jack’s indomitable energy continued, his health was not

Keeping very good. On April 8, 1821 he wrote in his letter to his

parents: ‘I have lately had a return of the old complaint in my lungs,

which laid me up for some time; but by dint of bleeding, blistering

and starving, I got over it pretty well, and have now only to recover

strength which I shall do very fast, I feel no doubt.’ Towards the

end of August 1822 Jack returned from a trip to Java, and at that

time he was definitely very ill. In view of his failing health, Sir

Thomas Stamford Raffles agreed that he should go to the Cape (South

Africa) for a change of air. He boarded the ship ‘Layton’ but

unfortunately died the next day (15th September 1822) while the ship

was still anchored at Bencoolen. Jack thus died prematurely at the

young age of 27 years.

Soon after Jack’s death, Sir Stamford Raffles wrote a letter to the

East India House in London. An extract of this ietter dated the

iSth September 1822 was as follows: ‘We were to have embarked

this morning for Singapore, but the wind has proved foul, and it was

ordained that we should remain another day to bury our dear and

invaluable friend, William Jack. Poor fellow! a finer head or heart

there never was and whether as a bosom-friend or a scientific assistant

he was inyaluable to me.’

About that time, Dr. Wallich of the Calcutta Botanic Garden was

on tour at Singapore. The ship touched there on the 10th October

1822, and Dr. Wallich heard the sad news from Sir Thomas Stamford

Raffles. Dr. Wallich was so moved that he thought it fit to send a

452 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

letter of condolence to Jack’s father. He also agreed to erect a

monument in the Calcutta Botanic Garden in memory of aes The

letter of Dr. Wallich to Jack’s father was as follows:

‘When ! wrote you last, I had hopes of being shortly able to convey

to you more welcome intelligence. Aias! it was otherwise ordained,

and it has become my lot to condole with you on the untimely

departure of your most excellent son, my dear and beloved friend,

William! This sudden and most melancholy intelligence was com-

municated to me by Sir S. Raffles who landed here this morning and

who deeply participates in our deplorable loss. Your son’s spotless

integrity, his excellence of character, and of heart and of universal

esteem which he enjoyed here, have now their reward. It is, there-

fore, only my bitter loss and that of his revered and afflicted parents.

that distresses me, and which recent as the shock is, almost overcomes

me while I pen these words. Forgive me, therefore, for dwelling in

this manner on this sad event. I should endeavour to console you—

and I cannot console myself.’ ;

Principal Jack received a similar letter of condolence from Sir

Thomas Stamford Raffles. All friends and admirers of Jack were

convinced that he was an indefatigable worker and a most zealous

contributor to science. His premature death was a great loss to

Malayan botany. The major part of his plant collection and various

manuscripts and drawings, which were being sent to England after his

death and whose posthumous publication would have further added to

the magnificent record of Jack’s scientific attainments, were un-

fortunately destroyed. This happened in 1824 when the ship in which

Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles was returning home on leave caught fire

at sea. Ironically enough, the name of the ship was ‘Fame’.

Jack was elected a fellow of the Geological Society of London

where he submitted a paper on the Geology of Sumatra for publication. -

His name was commemorated in the genus Jackia in the family

Rubiaceae by Dr. Wallich. Blume also honoured him by naming

another genus Jackia in the family Polygalaceae. Jackia BI., being

a later homonym and congeneric with Xanthophyllum Roxb. the

latter generic name has to be followed.

His other papers were as follows:

(1) Malayan Miscellanies 1 & 2, Bencoolen, (1820-22).

Note. In view of the excellence and rarity of the above

publication, it was reprinted in various journals, e.g. (a)

1For some unknown reason this monument was never erected.

WILLIAM JACK, THE BOTANIST 453

Calcutta J. nat. Hist. 4: 1-62, 160-231, 305-374 (1843).

-(b) Comp. volume to Hooker’s Bot. Mag. 1: 147-157, and

253-272. (c) Hooker’s J. Bot. Ser. 2. 1 : 358-380 (1834).

(2) On the Malayan species of Melastoma. Trans. Linn. Soc.

Lond. 14 : 1-22 (1825).

(3) On Cyrtandraceae, a new natural order of plants. Trans.

Linn. Soc. Lond. 14 : 23-45 (1825).

(4) Account -of Lansium and some other genera of Malayan

plants. Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 14 : 114-130 (1825).

Besides these Jack prepared a few other memoranda dealing with

certain socio-economic aspects about the native people of Sumatra.

Biographical notes on Jack appeared earlier in the following:

(a) Comp. Vol. to Hooker’s Bot. Mag. 1 : 121-147 (1835; (bd)

Gard. Chron. Ser. 3; 26 (2): 252-53 (1899; (c) Gard. Bull. Str.

Settl 4: 125 (1927); (d) Flora Malesiana 1 : 256-57 (1950).

Below is reproduced the text of a letter from William Jack to Dr.

Wallich, mainly concerning the discovery of Rafflesia in Sumatra,

together with a photostat facsimile of its last page:

Bencoolen,

Ist June, 1820.

‘My dear Wallich,

‘I have been much disappointed at not having a single opportunity

of writing you for a long period and now I have nothing better than

the circuitous route of Batavia. I must, therefore, content myself

with a few lines and trust that ere long, I shall have some direct

opportunity. I am very anxious to hear from you and learn your

plans for the ensuing season. The time of your proposed voyage

is fast approaching and I am desirous of learning your arrangements

regarding it. I do hope on your own account that you will put it

in execution, it will relieve you from a great deal of tiresome

“worrying business, and a year passed in amusement and pleasure in

an alpine region like Napaul will be as good as a voyage to Europe

and be an epoch from which to date the commencement of a new

lease of life. If you could have made a voyage here in place of

the Napaul trip, it would have been to me still more delightful.

But we are seldom fated to have all we wish in this world and

happy is he who looks at the brightest side of the present whatever

it be, and takes the honey of every flower he finds without repining

that it is not the wished-for rose. I think, there are few people who

454 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

have more the means of being independent of circumstances than

ourselves and such as like us can turn from any prospect, however

dark, to that of nature which is always the same, fresh and bright.

But stop, good Mr. Pen, not so fast, as Fielding says, we have got

on the top of a hill and how we are to get down again is the

question. I believe, he does it by ringing the bell for breakfast and

though I have not that resource at nand just now, I must somehow

contrive to descend to matters of fact. And first for domestic

news; I have a new character to introduce on the stage in the

presence of lady Raffles’s second son who made his debut about a

week ago with great applause. Capt. Watson’s lady also presented

him with a girl a few days before. In short, increase of population

is the order of the day in more ways than one. Sir Stamford’s

ever indefatigable mind is now turned to the improvement of this

place and to drawing forth its resources whatever they may be. It

could be too long to give you here a detail of all he has done and all

he is doing. Suffice it to say that the very aspect of the place is

changed and in spite of all its natural disadvantages, there are good

hopes of its rising. Natives and Europeans all seem to awake to the

new impulse they receive, and I really think the former more

readily and fully than the latter. It is hardly possible to conceive

the apathy and vis inertiae of the Europeans who have been trained

up and imbibed the spirit of the old school of this place. The last

20 years of Bencoolen have been its age of Gothic darkness. It

was far better before the time of its old Government but has

declined ever since it fell under Bengal. Nunc vedit ad pristinam

dignitatum, yea it revives in more than pristine splendor.

‘L have just concluded the second and longest part of a zoological

paper, the Birds. The remainders will not be given so much in

detail and will, i hope, be soon finished. Then for botany anew.

It has been almost suspended by these and other occupations. I

have got numbers of the great flower and have at length satisfied

myself upon every point. I have corrected many of the first ideas

of it. I mean to send you a specimen. How to send it living is

more puzzling. I find, it is parasitic on a species of Cissus with

quinate and ternate leaves, which I cannot ascertain as yet for want

of Roxb. These leaves are serrate and smooth. From the stems of

this woody Cissus which run either on or under the ground, spring

these gigantic flowers at first a round knob, enveloped in a number

of calycine or bracteal leaves, which open as the flower enlarges

and mostly drop off as it gets ripe. The flowers are unisexual

WILLIAM JACK, THE BOTANIST 455

? ergo dioecious. The male has the globular anthers disposed round

the margin of the central column as I have already described. The

female wants them, but is otherwise similar, and the center of the

column is occupied by the minute seeds which are not exactly

undulant but disposed on the surfaces of a number of fissures

which traverse the substance of the column, without any order or

regularity. We get them in numbers from all parts of the country

sean, lity Lar Ui rllcse

2 3 Git cee loricn

Jill Had

2 ; —s

so that they do not appear to be rare. Strange that they should

never before have been heard of. They are called by the natives

456 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Pelimun Sikuddi or the Devil’s siribox or as you would call it in

Bengal Paun box. I like the name. Poculum jovis. proc. dub.

‘I had a story to tell you of the Frenchmen but will let it alone

just now.

Here break we off at that unhallowed name

Like bards of old, when words ill-omened came,

Believe me, my dear Wallich,

Thine in saecula saeculorum.

William Jack.

‘P.S. My best regards to Mrs. Wallich and pray write, write,

write.’

Observations on Finn’s Baya (Ploceus

megarhynchus Hume) re-discovered

in the Kumaon terai, 1959°

SALIM ALI

Bombay Natural History Society

AND

JOHN HURRELL CROOK

Ornithological Field Station, Madingley, Cambridge

(With 2 plates and 5 text-figures)

CONTENTS

PAGE

I, INTRODUCTION

‘ 1. Previous knowledge of the Species ee . 458

2. Re-discovery in Kumaon, 1959 .. . 459

3. Field Recognition, and Particulars of Specimens collected in

1959 $3 a ne .. 461

II. BREEDING ECOLOGY

1. Habitat an: a, aye .. 462

2. Colony Sites ua a a .. 463

3. Breeding Season ee, SD .. 464

4. Flocking, Feeding, and Food S ae .. 464

III. THE BREEDING COLONY

1. Colonies particularly observed .. i .. 465

2. Nest site, Structure, and Building behaviour af .. 465

3. Polygamy ae, ie: .. 469

4. Eggs, and Cintch : size ef .. 469

IV. AGONISTIC AND REPRODUCTIVE aR

1. Territorial Behaviour a a .. 469

i. The Lunging Match Bed oe .. 470

ii. Supplanting ay Ke et 412,

2. Mobbing ne of o eaca 72

3. Pair formation .. Rs S. ee!

4. Behaviour during brooding ae ae ae YL:

s: -Care of Youngs .”. : es .. 480

6. Behaviour of First year J nvemieet a .. 481

7. Vocalisation de ie $i .. 481

V. SUMMARY ¥ > f .. 482

REFERENCES a 2 at -» 483

3 Dedicated with deep admiration to Professor Dr. Erwin Stresemann on his

70th birthday.

458 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

I. INTRODUCTION

fe Previous knowledge of the Species

In December 1866, 93 years ago, the celebrated ornithologist

A. O. Hume obtained from ‘Kaladoongee’ two examples (both female

or male in winter plumage) of a previously undescribed weaver bird

which on account of its strikingly massive bill he named Ploceus

megarhynchus (1869, Ibis: 406). In the original description Hume

mentioned that his specimens differed from females of the large-billed

eastern form of Ploceus philippinus from Sikkim terai, East Bengal,

and Burma, not only in being larger and darker but in the more

rufescent tone of the entire plumage and in other details.

It was not until 1901 that the breeding plumage of the male first

became known. Frank Finn, then a Superintendent in the Indian

Museum, procured two live birds in the Calcutta market said to have

come from below Naini Tal. Finn’s description of the breeding male,

quoted by Stuart Baker in FAUNA OF BRITISH INDIA, BIRDS 3: 69,

emphasizes the large amount of yellow in the plumage. Finn observed

his birds, apparently both males, moult from the bright yellow

breeding dress to the dark brown plumage described by Hume earlier.

His coloured plate in the /bis (1901 : 29) depicts one of his birds:

when it was in breeding dress, and the same bird after it had gone

off plumage. Curiously enough, during the next 50 odd years practi-

cally nothing further was added to our knowledge of the species with

the exception of the finding of a breeding colony in the Bhutan duars

by C. V. O’Donel in 1912 (NIDIFICATION 3 : 4) the identity of whose

owners was refuted by Whistler. Indeed though a few birds turned

up from time to time in the Calcutta bird market, their exact pro-

venance was in doubt, and mystery continued to surround the species

which was believed to be exceedingly rare. So much so that some

4 years ago the Indian Board for Wild Life entered it on the list of

rare and vanishing species whose export, dead or alive, was totally

prohibited. |

As Humayun Abdulali (1952) has since shown, much of the

mystery and confusion that has surrounded this species was due

to the unwarranted doubts cast by Whistler and Kinnear (1933)

upon the identity of the breeding specimens of P. megarhynchus

collected by C. V. O’Donel in the Bhutan duars in 1912 which,

they maintained, were nothing but the eastern form of the

Common Baya, namely Ploceus philippinus burmanicus Ticehurst.

However, in his MS. notes (now in SA’s possession) Whistler himself

gives the diagnosis of P. p. burmanicus male, as differing from

FINN’S BAYA RE-DISCOVERED IN KUMAON TERAI 459

philippinus in ‘the total or almost total absence of yellow on the breast,

and no yellow on the mantle; throat variable and may be almost

whitish to almost as dark as in philippinus; underparts rusty or tawny

white. Female, juvenile, and non-breeding male, with more rusty

supercilium; underparts and flanks more tawny than in philippinus,

Later Whistler had the opportunity of examining at least one of

O’Donel’s breeding specimens, a female collected in the Bhutan duars

on 25-5-1912 obviously at the very colony referred to by Stuart Baker

and upon which the latter’s description of the breeding female is

based (F.B.I. 3: 70). On this specimen Whistler reported as follows

(personal communication to SA, see Indian Forester, June 1935 : 372):

‘The crown and nape and sides of the face are olive-brown, strongly

washed with yellow and practically unstreaked, these parts contrast-

ing with the rest of the plumage. The chin, throat, breast and flanks

are largely canary yellow. In all other respects the bird . . . agrees

entirely with the rest of the series (of burmanicus), and I have no

doubt it is the same form.’ In view of his own description of female

burmanicus as having no yellow on the underparts it is difficult to

understand Whistler’s conviction that the above specimen was the

same form nevertheless! |

Humayun Abdulali (1954) has further shown that in view of the

good series of undoubted megarhynchus recently collected by Dr.

Walter Koelz at Agia, near Goalpara in western Assam, Whistler and

Kinnear were definitely mistaken in considering O’Donel’s breeding

birds to be P. p. burmanicus. Abdulali draws attention to certain

differences in coloration between on the one hand live birds obtained

from the Bombay market (said to come from Kumaon terai) together

with those recently procured in Calcutta (said to come from Gorakhpur

via Bareilly), and on the other O’Donel’s specimens from the

Bhutan duars together with those collected by Koelz in Assam.

If these differences can be sustained on further material it may be

worthwhile to recognize an eastern race of Ploceus megarhynchus.

2. Rediscovery in Kumaon, 1959

This being the unsatisfactory state of our knowledge, it was felt

imperative that a well-organized effort be made to re-discover the

species in its natural habitat, and to collect fresh breeding specimens

and data on its ecology and habits. One of us (JHC) has been study-

ing the ethology of the Ploceinae in Africa and is now in India to

continue his researches on the Indian weavers. We welcomed the

opportunity of making a concerted attack on this elusive creature, _

460 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Our field trip’ in the Rampur and Haldwani districts of Kumaon

(U.P.) lasted from 10 July to 8 August 1959. One of us (SA) returned

to Bombay on 23 July, leaving the other to continue investigations

by himself thereafter. While together, our base of operations was

Fatehpur (c. 10 km. from Haldwani). Later work was done mainly

from the Forest Rest House at Lalkua. A car made daily visits to

the colonies possible, as also the exploration of an extensive tract of

the surrounding terai and bhabar country. We wish to record our

thanks to the Chief Conservator of Forests, U.P., for the helpful

co-operation and facilities we received during the field work from

him and all officers of his department, in particular from Shri S. S.

Bahadur, Wild Life Warden, Western Circle.

It may be recalled that as far back as 1934 a special expedition

to Kaladhungi? to re-discover Ploceus megarhynchus had failed to

locate the bird or to procure any workable clue concerning its where-

abouts. (Ali, Sdlim, 1935). In September 1953 Mr. Horace Alexander

and one of us (SA) made a second fruitless quest in the terai around

Bilaspur (Rampur dist.) where Mr. Alexander had definitely seen 12

to 15 birds while motoring through on 24 June of the same year.

Since then correspondence with various residents in the Rampur area

had elicited only diffuse vicarious information concerning the species,

but all the same it was encouraging that at least professional bird

catchers did distinguish a larger “Pahari Baya’ from the Common,

Striated, and Blackthroated species inhabiting the same area, which

confirmed the fact that the bird did exist in the locality.

However, were it not for a lucky accident on our very first day

while still en route from Rampur to Fatehpur, the finding of the bird

would not have been quite such a simple affair. When about 40 km.

out of Rampur City, and 3 beyond Bilaspur, on the Naini Tal road

a largish weaver with conspicuous yellow rump and _ underparts

suddenly flashed past in front of our car and into some tall grassland.

A follow-up on foot failed to flush the bird again, but presently a

second bird was seen to fly out of the grass and up into the leafless

top of a Silk Cotton tree about 10 m. high growing alongside the road.

Binoculars revealed this to be a male megarhynchus in breeding

plumage, and the roughly woven blobs and tangles on the bare branches

there to be nests in various stages. Soon several more of the

weavers appeared on the tree-top with strips of grass, intertwining them

1 Aided in part by a Rockefeller -grant through the Bombay Natural History

Society.

2 An obscure little village at the foot of the hills on the old Moradabad-Bazpur-

Naini Tal road which, by the sensational success of the book MAN-EATERS OF KUMAON

has shot into fame as the home of the legendary Col. Jim Corbett. His cottage,

now in changed ownership, stands there crumbling in decay.

FINN’S BAYA RE-DISCOVERED IN KUMAON TERAI 461

laconically into the part-built structures. Since this first unexpected

discovery and the many other nest colonies thereafter, it is no longer

difficult to understand how the bird—which actually proves to be not

at all rare or uncommon in this locality—could have been overlooked

on previous quests. Indeed, but for the builders in attendance among

the tree-top one would have hardly thought of looking for a nest

colony in such a situation, or recognized such completely unorthodox

structures as nests of an Indian weaver bird.

5. Field Recognition, and Particulars of Speci-

mens collected in 1959

Adult Male (breeding): Above, head and nape bright yellow with

contrasting dark brown ear coverts. Back and upper parts dark brown,

broadly streaked. Rump yellow. Below, from chin to vent, including

flanks, bright golden yellow (richer and deeper than in the Baya).

Beginnings of a dark brown collar or breast-band on sides of neck.

Adult Female (breeding): Above, head and nape pale canary yellow,

or brownish heavily suffused with yellow. Rest of upper parts rich

brown, streaked darker. Below, pale canary yellow or yellowish

white. First year male in breeding season exactly like female. The

latter can be distinguished in the hand by smaller overall proportions,

and slenderer bill and tarsus.

First year males in this plumage were observed collecting grasses

and weaving them into partly built structures giving the illusion that

females also build. We have no evidence that these rough and form-

less tangles are ever completed or functional.

Specimens collected:

Wing Bill Tar. Tail

2 do’ ad. (breeding) 78.5-80 22-23* 25 56-60 mm

*Depth of bill at base 15-15.5 mm.

Iris orange-brown; bill blackish horn, paler at base; legs and feet

brownish flesh. Testes 107, 10X8 mm.

Wing Bill Tar. Tail

2 do’ (first year) 771-19 21% 25-26 57 mm.

*Depth at base 14-15 mm.

Iris hazel/orange-brown; bill horny brown, paler (whitish) at base

and chin; legs and feet brownish flesh. Testes minute c. 2X1

mm.

Wing Bill Tar. Tail

1 9 ad. (breeding) 74 20.5% PRS 34 mm,

*Depth at base 11 mm,

462 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Iris orange-brown, duller than in ad. o; bill: upper mandible horny

brown, lower pale flesh, brownish at tip; legs and feet brownish

flesh.

In this species the tail is rounded and almost fan-shaped.

In non-breeding plumage male and female are alike and separable

from Ploceus philippinus only by their somewhat larger size, darker

coloration and larger bill. Definite field identification, however, is

not always possible.

The facts that P. megarhynchus builds a type of nest very different

from that of any other Indian weaver of the genus Ploceus, and that

the female is seasonally dimorphic in such marked degree, suggest the

need of a deeper study of its proper systematic status.

II. BREEDING ECOLOGY

1. Habitat

Finn’s Baya inhabits pure terai country in which marshes and

extensive stands of sarpat (/mperata arundinacea) and munj grass

(Saccharum spontaneum) are sparsely dotted with isolated trees, parti-

cularly Salmalia malabarica, and occasionally interspersed with patches

under rice or sugar cane cultivation. Nest colonies were found perched

in the topmost twigs of trees in limited areas locally distributed within

the terai as a whole. The largest number were located along a four

mile stretch of road starting just north of Bilaspur and extending to

about a mile north of Rudrapur on the main Rampur to Naini Tal

highway. Here some twenty colonies were seen, mostly containing

some 15-20 nests each, but in a few cases with many more—up to 200

at least in one colony. A further two colonies were found at about 1.5

and 7 km. respectively from Rudrapur on the Bazpur road, and several

further colonies were located on the Lalkua-Bareilly road near Kitcha.

The latter group lay close to the borderline between the terai and the

bhabar country that lies between it and the Himalayan foothills.

Several colonies normally occur together but always with wide stretches

of intervening country between them and other groups. ;

It seems certain therefore that, at least in the breeding season, the

species is not found in the bhabar. The two females obtained “by

Hume from Kaladhungi in typical bhabar in December 1866 were

therefore probably from the scattering of the birds in the non-breeding

season. Alternatively the locality name on the label may have been

meant only as a broad indication of the general area in which the

birds were shot. After our present experience of the species in the

terai it is understandable why the quest for the birds in their published

FINN’S BAYA RE-DISCOVERED IN KUMAON TERAI 463

type locality in 1934 (Ali, 1935) failed. A brief visit to Kaladhungi

during our present investigation again failed to reveal the birds.

Certainly Stuart Baker (F.B.I. 3 : 70) is quite incorrect in stating that

the species breeds up to 3 or 4000 feet. His information is obviously

based on O’Donel’s breeding record and specimens from the Bhutan

duars labelled 300-500 feet. and the Rudrapur area also lies at ca. 700

feet elevation only. Kaladhungi itself is not more than 1300 feet.

2;-Colony Sites

All the breeding colonies located by us were in tree-tops, almost

all of Salmalia malabarica, at about 9 or 10 metres from the ground.

In a very few cases other trees were favoured and the main observa-

tions on behaviour were made on birds building their nests in a

Dalbergia sissoo. The birds strip the leaves off all the twigs around

the nests so that the upper part of the canopy is normally completely

denuded and the colonies thus stand out prominently against the

skyline. O’Donel in the Bhutan duars found the species nesting ‘in

a vast area of grass more or less intermixed with scrub’. In Kumaon

nest building was also observed in reeds and rushes over standing

water, but since most of the birds concerned were first year juvenile

males and these reed beds were also roost sites, it is likely that the

activity was no more than ‘doodling’. The nests observed here were

never complete, and may simply be the results of excessive building

energy having no certain connection with definitive breeding. Similar

observations have been made on this species in Dr. S. C. Law’s

-aviary in Calcutta in 1936 or thereabouts, and on other weavers in

captivity. Also on wild first year males of Ploceus philippinus in

India (Ali, 1931, p. 958) and on Quelea quelea in West Africa (Morel

& Bourliere, 1957; Crook in press). Thus while nests are certainly

sometimes built in reeds it is not yet certain to what extent such sites

are actually used for breeding.

The smaller Salmalia trees probably provide the birds with some

degree of protection from terrestrial predators by virtue of their ex-

tremely spiny trunks and branches. It was in fact a major operation

to obtain nests and eggs from one of these trees, and the climber had

to use every possible caution. Further many of the colonies were

situated near water in land which after heavy rain is mostly flooded.

Five out of seven colonies in which birds were observed were built

in trees in which a pair of Black Drongos (Dicrurus adsimilis) were

also nesting. The drongos were extremely alert to all approaching

birds, attacking especially crows (Corvus splendens) and birds of prey

with great effect. They also drove off birds of other species that

464 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

approached the tree including Common Mynas, Redvented Bulbuls,

Yellow-eyed Babblers, and Rufousbacked Shrikes.. There is no doubt

that the weavers derive great benefit from the dash and audacity of

their neighbours. In all cases noted the young of the drongo were much

older than those of the weaver, suggesting therefore that the drongo

had occupied the tree site prior to the arrival of the weavers.

“a

3. Breed ine Sicas on

On our arrival in Kumaon on 12 July it was at once apparent that

breeding was largely completed. Out of the many nest colonies located

on the Bilaspur-Rudrapur road only two were fully occupied, and, in

the only one that could be closely observed, the birds were already

busy feeding young. In two further colonies a few nests were being

visited. Later on nest construction and courtship were seen in a fresh

colony between 22 July and 5 August. These nests were, however,

never finished and pair formation never attained. Ultimately the nests

were deserted. At Kitcha a colony with well-incubated eggs was found

on 2 August. It is thus clear that Finn’s Baya breeds very early in

the rainy season well before the main breeding period of the other

Ploceines' in the area. The colonies found abandoned on 12 July still

sat among bare twigs and as it was ascertained that Salmalia

malabarica puts out new leaves on the defoliated branches within a

week of the birds’ departure, we can say the colonies could not have

been left for longer than that time. We were told that heavy rains

fell in the area near the end of May and it is probable that: these

marked the onset of the birds’ breeding. During SA’s preliminary

enquiries, one correspondent had furnished information obtained from

a local bird catcher apparently familiar with the bird under the name

of ‘Pahari Baya’, that the species breeds twice in the year—in July

and again in September, i. it has two broods. Our experience

indicated that this information is probably quite correct.

4. Flocking, Feeding, and Food

The species is at all times gregarious moving in flocks about the

grassland, feeding in company and coming to the colonies and depart-

ing therefrom in well integrated groups. The flocks fed in the tall

grass and sugar cane stands where insects were apparently taken. Also

on ploughed fields and on the roadsides where seeds appeared to

constitute the food. Parents were once seen feeding their young on

seeds pecked up on the roadside. On the ground the birds walk well,

but when moving at speed they hop.

1 Ploceus philippinus, P. manyar, and P. benghalensis.

FINN’S BAYA RE-DISCOVERED IN KUMAON TERAI 465

The crops and gizzards of the shot specimens contained entire

husked rice grains probably gleaned on the road, other smaller seeds,

and brown chitinous insect remains (ants?). One female shot at a

nest colony with an insect in her bill for the young had insect remains

in the crop.

Hl. THE BREEDING COLONY

1. Colonies particularly observed

Since we had arrived after the main breeding period it was not

possible to observe the development of a colony from its first visitation

by a flock throughout reproduction to the departure of the young. It

is not possible therefore to assign time periods to the different phases

of life in the colony. Thus unfortunately we do not yet know how

long it takes to construct the nest, at what stage in its construction

the female accepts it and lays eggs, the incubation period, or the

fledging period. These must await a further study in which observa-

tions should be started by the middle of May. The following account

has thus been constructed from notes taken at three different colonies

each at a different stage in the reproductive cycle. The colonies

observed, in chronological order, were as follows:

(i) A colony in a Salmalia malabarica tree on the Bilaspur road,

approximately half way to Rudrapur (Plate I). |

Here young were in the nest on 12 July; by 25 July only

a single nest was still occupied at which a female was

feeding well-fledged young. A week later the colony was

deserted and the old nests partly obscured by new green

shoots. At this colony observations were made on parental

care.

(ii) A colony in a Dalbergia sissoo tree on the Rudrapur- Bazpur

road. Nest construction and courtship were observed

between 22 July and 5 August. The colony was ultimately

deserted before pair formation occurred.

(iii) A colony in a Salmalia malabarica near Kitcha on the

Lalkua-Bareilly road in a site difficult of access, on the

far side of a river. Here behaviour during incubation was

observed on 2 and 4 August. )

peeNrest site, Structure, and Buildings behaviour

The nests of Finn’s Baya are unlike those of any other Indian

weaver. They are large gobular structures, untidily but firmly woven

with long strips of coarse grass, and the entrance is at one side near

the top. Often.a porch-like projection surrounds the entrance forming

466 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

a small papilla as often seen in munias’ nests. The structures are

usually firmly knotted to upright twigs which are often worked into

the fabric and also support the body of the nest from below.

Occasionally the nests are slung sideways on to a twig or two so that

the nest chamber hangs free below it. In no case, however, are the

nests truly suspended from fine single twigs as is normally the case for

the Common Baya, Ploceus philippinus (Ali, 1940). The nests thus

most resemble those of the Quelea in Africa (Morel, Morel, & Bourliere

1957) both in form and in the method of attachment to the supporting

vegetation, as well as in the progressive stages of construction.

Silhouetted against the sky in the distance, a nest colony looks rather

like a cluster of honeycombs in the bare tree-top. In Asia the only

other species with a comparable nest would appear to be the Golden

Weaver (Ploceélla chrysaea Hume) of Burma which, however, builds

mostly in small trees and bushes (Stuart Baker, NIDIFICATION 3 : 12).

All other Asian species have nests normally slung or suspended from

fine twigs (P. philippinus) or from grasses or rushes (P. benghalensis

and P. manyar) and with vertical tubular entrances opening below.

A feature of especial interest is that many of the nests form com-

posite units being linked together with connecting walls or flanges of

material, or by long separate strands bound in firmly at each end to

different individual nests. Usually these composite structures (2, 3, or

4 nests) belong to a single male, but at the larger nest composites at

least two males were often responsible (see below). The linkage of

the structures is due to the extreme proximity of the building positions

at which the birds begin construction. Loose strands from one nest

are thus pulled across into the neighbouring nest and the ends tied

in. With repetition of this behaviour, together with indiscriminate

building on flanges and sometimes even on a neighbouring male’s nest,

a partial fusion of the individual nests occurs. This is a rare condition

in the Ploceinae the only other recorded case being for Malimbus

rubricollis in Southern Nigeria (Crook, 1958 a) and infrequent cases in

Quelea colonies. It occurs only in species in which the area defended

around the nest during its construction (i.e. its territory) is extremely

small (see below) and it appears to mark a half way step in the evolu-

tion of the giant fused nesting structures, such as are found in other

Ploceidae (Philetairus socius, Friedmann 1949; Bubalornis albirostris,

Crook 1958 5).

The individual nests are constructed by the male birds. Building

started in the Dalbergia sissoo with the tying together of twigs into

the shape of a ring (the initial ring, Skead 1947) that forms the founda-

tion of all weaver nests. The birds perch on one twig and repeatedly

PLATE I

Journ. Bompay Nat. Hist. Soc.

h nest colony at top.

wit

lk Cotton Tree

Sdlim Ali

Photo :

JourRN. BompBay Nat. HIst. Soc. PLATE II

Close-up of the nests.

Photos: Sdlim Alt

FINN’S BAYA RE-DISCOVERED IN KUMAON TERAI 467

lean out to grasp another in the beak. This is then pulled close to

the body and held under the feet. Many such isolated movements

are made until ultimately the twig is bound to the perch by a knot

of grass tied around it by movements of the bill. In cases where the

twigs are too stiff for bending, as is usual in Salmalia trees, separate

twigs are simply linked up with knotted strands of material which

eventually complete the circular shape of the. ring. When the initial

ring is finished, it is thickened at the sides by the twining in of fresh

grass strands. At the same time separate strands are looped across

from one side to the other at any angle and at random so that a kind

of trellis-work or net gradually appears. At this stage the bird pushes

the material with its beak, head, and breast so that it becomes curved

outwards from the usual working position at the base of the initial

ring. The horizontal depth of the nest is thus determined by the reach

of the bird during the performance of the shaping movements. All

the while the bird is actively engaged in snipping off the leaves on the

twigs near the nest and these then fall from the tree. Some leaves

very close to the developing nest are, however, sometimes incorporated

in the structure. The nest now develops by repeated additions of

long strands of grass (30-60 cm. in length and up to | cm. in breadth)

each taken to the site singly held in the beak of the builder. These

strands are loosely looped across from side to side of the initial ring

or between it and other supporting twigs that are incorporated into

the developing walls. Thus on arrival the male first ties the end of

a strand to the side of the initial ring by inserting it through the

accumulated material, pulling it through and reinserting it several times

until it is firmly fixed; the free end is then taken in the beak, twisted

once or twice around the various supports and either laid against

or interlaced with the developing trellis-work and then, if long

enough, tied in again firmly to the far side of the initial ring.- After

each bout of knotting and twining, a bout of shaping movements

usually occurs. The bird then sits on or near the nest titivating with

loose pieces of his own nest and those projecting from his neighbours’.

Also sometimes he hops on to a neighbouring structure where he per-

forms further in the same way. He may also steal materials and take

them to his own nest or take loose ends left hanging from a

neighbour’s nest and tie them in to his own. In this way the inter-

connections between neighbouring structures are established. Some-

times one bird alights on its nest with a long strand the end of which

hangs temptingly near another builder. The latter then often seizes

it and pulls. At once a vigorous tug-of-war ensues, each bird strain-

ing to gain the prize. Several times the grass strands broke under

468. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

the- strain. Curiously enough, these intensely fought competitions

never ended in fights, perhaps because the birds always had the full

length of the grass between them.

As the framework develops, the strands -are é eudhba dovetonieas iid

twined around supports below the building position and also to the

lower rim of the initial ring itself. The chamber thus begins to bulge

below the original ring (fig. I) in a rough kidney shape. As the

whole structure is being fitted throughout to supporting twigs, its shape

is normally somewhat irregular conforming to the disposition of the

various twigs bound into the frame. Further to these movements,

wet mud blobs are carried to the nest in the beak and fixed either to

the sides of the fabric of the initial ring or amongst the various strands

of the chamber walls. Some of these blobs were very large and

others were clearly mud-covered lumps of sodden wood. One mud

covered twiglet was also used (5-7 cm.). By this time the nest is

nearing its definitive shape and the entrance (the initial ring) has

come to lie at the side near the top. There are, however, often gaps

in the fabric which remain open and the birds occasionally enter by

them. Occasionally a bird may sit in such a gap and carry out

building and shaping movements from there exactly as if it were the

initial ring. When the framework is complete the fabric is

thickened by the addition of further strands.

The majority of observations on which this account is based were

made on 12 nests in active construction in Colony li. Since this

colony was abandoned it was not possible to see how soon after the

compietion of the first nest a male begins another. One case was,

however, observed in which a well-established ring was abandoned and

destroyed and a new one built among twigs a few inches below. The

nests were never properly completed and we cannot say how long

a nest takes to construct when building motivation is at its maximum

earlier in the season.

Females were observed titivating and shaping the nests very actively

during their ‘inspection’ visits to the colony. Often a female would

give several nests this treatment before leaving the colony. After egg

laying, females were seen bringing soft grass heads (sp. ?) to the

nests using them to line the interior. Nests obtained from Colony 11

were however not fully lined, the base of the egg chamber and the

area near the entrance having received the greatest attention. Apart

from these activities the females, as in other weavers, did not take

further part in nest construction.

FINN’S BAYA RE-DISCOVERED IN KUMAON TERAI 469

3. Polygamy |

Finn’s Baya is polygamous and evidently attracts his wives to nests

built in succession. As it was not possible to observe the whole

process, we estimate the sex ratio of adults breeding in the colony

from a few careful counts made in Colonies i and ili.

In Colony i there were 15 units of nests made up of 7 single nests,

four units of two joined nests, two units of three joined nests, and

two units of four joined nests. At two carefully observed units of

two nests each there were single males with two females each. At a

unit of four nests there were two males (one for the upper two nests,

one for the lower two in the unit) and four females. At Colony ii

single males respectively were recorded at three units of four nests

each, one unit of three nests and one of two nests all of which had

females. In a further twenty nests repeated counts revealed only

seven males. Thus at forty-five closely observed nests in the two

colonies only 16 males were present to match the 45 female occupants.

This gives us an average of 2.8 females and nests to a male. The

above observations thus suggest that while cases of single males with

only one nest and female, and of males with as many as four females

were recorded, the usuai number is probably two or three.

4. Eggs, and Clutch size

Eggs were obtained from six nests cut down from Colony iii. As

in other Indian weavers, they were of a plain white coloration. There

were four clutches of two eggs and two of three. The egg measure-

ments, taken with a vernier calliper, are given in Table I. In a

sample of 12 eggs the mean length was 20.95 mm. (maximum 23.6

mm., minimum 19.8 mm.); mean breadth 15.28 mm. (maximum

15.7 mm., minimum 14.8 mm.). Some of these eggs have been

presented to the Bombay Natural History Society together with a

group of nests.

IV. AGONISTIC AND REPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIOUR

1. Territorial Behaviour

At a colony under construction the males come and go in groups.

On arrivai the birds at once separate to their nest sites giving loud

songs in a chorus. Approach to the nest by other birds is never

tolerated and aggressive behaviour is at once shown. The defended

area is however extremely small, at no time consisting of more than

the nest site itself and, unlike most other weavers which tend to have

their nests well spaced at least at the commencement of breeding, the

470 - JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

TABLE I

Egg measurements of clutches of Ploceus megarhynchus

obtained near Kitcha on August 3, 1959

I 2 eggs 20.0 x 15.0

19.8 x 14.8

II 2 eggs 20.0 x 15.0

20.7 x 15.4

Ill 2 eggs 23.1 x 15.4

23.6.x' 15.3

IV | 2 eggs Broken

V 3 eggs 20.1 2 °1557

20.9 x 15.6

| 21.2 x 15.2

sites are so crowded as to be often within the stretching distance of

the neighbouring birds. The distance between nest sites is in fact

hardly greater than the normal ‘individual distance’ of the birds in

a flock.

Gj) The Lunging Match

The two factors, extreme crowding of nest sites and intensively

aggressive reaction to the approach of other males, produce an unusual

form of territorial defence almost all of which occurs on the nest

itself, the defenders each perched in his proper nest ring and lung- ~

ing as hard as possible at each other. These ‘Lunging Matches’, of

which variants are found in many other weaver species, have the

following form (see fig. I):

(1) The two combatants turn and face each other. ,

(2) Both raise wings above back but without at first extending

(spreading) them, and begin quivering them at considerable

speed. Sometimes the wings are simply raised, and quiver-

ing does not develop.

FINN’S BAYA RE-DISCOVERED IN KUMAON TERAi 471

(3) One bird lunges at the other in an attempt to peck the beak

or face of the opponent. The latter at once recoils its head

into its shoulders and may move the whole body backwards

pivoting on the hips. The feet do not change position.

Immediately the lunge is completed the opponent at once

retaliates with an identical pecking movement and it is now

the turn of the first bird to recoil. Alternate lungings and

recoilings occur repeatedly until the birds tire and one of

them turns sideways and titivates its nest or hops into a

different position on its nest or twigs near by. Sometimes

the match is again renewed in the changed position.

Figure I. Lunging Match between two males, the bird at right being perched in

the Initial Ring.?

(4) The degree of wing spreading and the amplitude of the

movements both increase with the intensity of the en-

counter. The movement varies from a simple wing

quivering in which the wings are raised just above the line

of the back and not spread at all, to an intense wing

beating with partial wing spreading (‘fluttering’) in which

the amplitude of the movement is greater, the wings moving

from a position well above the line of the back to just

below back level. Thus the more intense (i.e. longer and

1 All figures drawn by JHC from sketches in field notebooks.

472 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

fiercer) the encounter, the greater is the spread of the wings

and the amplitude of the flutter. The wing elevation is

also higher. Wing movements. of this kind during Lung-

ing Matches have not been recorded previously from other

Ploceine species although wing raising is given in the

context by Quelea quelea. |

(5) In the majority of Lunging Matches the combatants were

both perched in the rings or on their developing nests. In

some cases one of the birds was on a twig near its nest,

while in a few further cases both the birds were perched

on twigs near their nests.

(6) Occasionally these Lunging Matches lead to actual combat.

On these occasions the wings are fully spread and elevated

and beaten at high speed. Sometimes the birds fall from

their perches clawing and pecking at one another.

There is a good deal of variation in intensity throughout these

performances. Often the start is relatively quiet and the birds relax

and separate after a few lunges. Usually, however, there is a quick

build up to a fierce encounter. During prolonged encounters of

several minutes there are several peaks of high intensity separated by

periods of partial relaxation in which the birds may merely fixate one

another with wing quivering. One particular male would peck fiercely

at the twigs round him throughout an encounter apparently in

‘redirection’ of his pecking response. At the end of one match a

male spread his wings out at the sides momentarily. The above

account is based on detailed observation of sixteen encounters and

incidental notes on many others by JHC.

(ii) Supplanting

Males sometimes ‘supplant’ one another (ic. one bird fixates

another and flies at it normally replacing it on its perch). ‘This occurs

particularly when the males follow prospecting females around part of

the colony and thus repeatedly approach both one another and each

other’s nests. Supplanting of prospecting females is also common

(see below).

2. Mobbing

The male Finn’s Bayas at colonies with eggs and young sometimes

perform mobbing attacks on human intruders. The bird concerned

starts calling a loud skeer skeer skeer on the tree and then flies out

repeatedly over the head of the intruder repeatedly calling. We have

FINN’S BAYA RE-DISCOVERED IN KUMAON TERAI 473

no experience of other weavers’ behaving towards a human being in

this way. The behaviour resembles that of the drongos, who also had

nests in the trees concerned, though it lacks the proficiency of the

latter. The behaviour was not observed towards birds such as crows,

normally so admirably driven away by the drongos.

Once a flock of Common Babblers (Turdoides caudata), the pair of

drongos in occupation, a Redvented Bulbul (Pycnonotus cafer), and

a pair of Yellow-eyed Babblers (Chrysomma sinensis) began mobbing

a snake in a bush near the colony. During the commotion a dozen or

so Finn’s Bayas flew down into the same tree giving their mobbing

call. On the hurried departure of the snake the bayas returned to

their nests.

3. Pair formation

As in the majority of colonial weavers, courtship and pair forma-

tion are preceded by nest invitation during which the male attracts a

prospecting female to his nest, at which he later courts and finally

mates with her. From the present field observations a detailed account

of nest invitation can be presented. Unfortunately we did not observe

sufficient courtship to be sure of the actual details of the process.

The greeting behaviour of pair members during brooding was, however,

well observed and, since in other species this is often identical to

postures seen in courtship, we can suggest the probable course of

events.

Females normally first visit a colony when the nests are at an early

stage of construction (Colony i). They arrive singly or in small

groups and soon some at least fly off with the males in foraging

parties so that they accompany them back to the colony after feeding.

In any event the arrival of females in the colony occasions great ex-

citement among the males many of whom cease building and approach

the females displaying (see below).

On arrival in the colony a female hops about among the nests in

an apparently unconcerned manner although the sleeked plumage and

crouched posture indicate a strong tendency to flee. She also avoids

all males that approach her. During this exploration she hops on to

many of the developing nests and performs shaping movements and

titivation or merely examines them closely, peering about in and around

the structures. During this activity the owner is in close attendance

giving a particularly intense display (see below). Occasionally the

female may respond with a little wing quivering, but in all observa-

tions she hops out of the nest again after a few seconds and taking

no notice of the male proceeds to a further structure. Occasionally

474 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

two females approach a nest at the same time, there is then either a

brief fight or one bird supplants the other.

The male’s response to the approach of a female is an elaborate

display with several degrees of performance intensity depending on the

female’s proximity to his nest. As soon as a female alights near an

area of nests, most of the males hop down from their sites and

approach her fixating her closely all the while. They finally stop

advancing at a distance of one or two feet from her position. All the

time they are giving the ‘Wing Undulation Display’ of the following

very variable components:

(1) The bird faces the female fixating her with the body slightly

crouched or else leaning forward or upward slightly from

the hips in the direction of the female. The plumage is not

fluffed except on the crown and nape.

(2) The tail is widely spread and often slightly depressed

especially when the wing movements are fastest.

(3) The wings are undulated with a very slow and often irregular

rhythm. They are normally fully spread and well elevated

above the back. They are beaten through an are of some

forty-five degrees, between 45° and 135° to the dorso-

ventral line of the body (see fig. IV); they thus move

between a position roughly half elevated above the back

to a drooped position at the side of the body. Often

during the course of these undulations movement ceases

for several seconds and this may happen with the wings

either elevated or drooped (fig. II). Often the movements

give place to wing quivering following partial closure of

the wing. Wing quivering occurs at very low display

motivation and often precedes it. Also males just beyond

the immediate circle of displaying birds may show some

wing quivering without leaving their nest sites.

(4) Song is given (see under Vocalisation, below).

During the performance the males may shift their positions, stop

and start the display several times, and frequently change to wing

quivering. ‘There is a great deal of excitement and loud singing. The

males, having left their nest territories, now frequently pass each

other’s nests while moving towards the female and this occasions many

supplanting attacks. Further two displaying males may approach each

other in their excitement, and a brief fight then follows. Every time

the female moves there is a great commotion as the quarrelsome males

change positions and approach her again. After a time the female

flies on to.a nest. At once the owner, who has been wing undulating

Ree

FINN’S BAYA RE-DISCOVERED IN KUMAON TERAI 475

near it or among the circle of ‘admirers’ flies up to his site and

perching on the exterior near the entrance, at the side of the entrance

or on a twig near it, performs the ‘High Speed Wing Beating Display’

of the following components:

(1) Posture as in Wing Undulating.

(2) Tail widely spread and either straight or slightly depressed,

rarely slightly elevated.

‘a

__ Figure If. The Wing Undulating Display : wings shown in differing positions

with performers facing different directions. Top left and bottom right, wings well

elevated ; bottom left, wings at the side ; top right, wings drooped. See text.

(3) The wings are fully elevated above the back and beaten at

high speed (10 beats in 1.2 secs. mean of four readings,

mininum 1, maximum 1.4) through a small arc above

135° to the dorso-ventral line of the body (fig. IV).

(4) Sings loudly at the female. Occasionally at the most intense

moments of display a loud skee skee termination to the

song was heard.

These displays last a few seconds only, the male then hopping to

a fresh twig near the nest where he resumes wing quivering or un-

dulating all the while watching the female closely. After several

seconds he again flies to the nest and gives the High Speed Wing

476 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Beating Display. This alternation continues until the female leaves

the nest or until the male tires and sits near by wing quivering.

Occasionally neighbouring males also fly to a twig near the nest and

give the High Speed Wing Beating Display. They are at once

supplanted by the owner.

Figure III. The High Speed Wing Beating Display. Bottom bird displays to a

female in nest above his position.

The females are not always greeted with display; frequently a

* male may supplant females approaching his nest and occasionally

pursues them for a short distance within the colony tree. More rarely

a female lunges at an approaching male away from his nest and

forces him to retreat.

128 behaviour sequences shown by the males on the arrival of

females among their nests were observed in detail and recorded on

tape for later analysis.

FINN’S BAYA RE-DISCOVERED IN KUMAON TERAI 477

The ‘Wing Undulation’ and ‘High Speed Wing Beating’ displays are

clearly both forms of advertisement and resemble the nest invitation

displays of other weavers, particularly the Quelea which also displays

in an upright posture on a globular nest. However, the female visits

nests irrespective of the male’s display so that the display probably

functions also as part of courtship. The ‘High Speed Wing Beating’

display in particular resembles a mounting attempt complete with

the flutter of wings above the back. During display at the nest several

copulation attempts were seen, none of which were however apparently

successful, and, at the time, no solicitation by the females was

observed. Pair formation was thus never completed in the colony (ii)

and the nests never accepted.

Figure IV. Diagram showing arc and elevation of wing movements in A, Wing

Undulation and B, High Speed Wing Beating.

Comparing the two displays with those of other species, the “Wing

Undulation’ seems homologous with the many other Wing Beating

advertisement displays while ‘High Speed Wing Beating’ completes and

terminates the display in a similar manner to the ‘Wings rigid’ postures

with which it may be homologous (Crook, 1958 a, and! in preparation).

The motivation of these various postures will be further analysed (by

Crook) in a later comparative publication,

478 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

In several highly colonial weavers, for instance Ploceus cucullatus

in Africa and Ploceus philippinus in India, the performance of nest

advertisement displays is highly contagious so that if one male dis-

plays to a female a large number of birds, if not all of them, will

fly to their nests and display in the same way (i.e. social facilitation).

In the present species however this does not happen. Only the males

in the vicinity of a female display to her, and they only fly to their

nests for the performance of the ‘High Speed Wing Beating’ after her

arrival there. The female is, moreover, very rarely chased (a common

occurrence in other species) either within or beyond the colony and

as soon as she leaves one area of nests the males return to building

and titivating on them while a neighbouring group of males begins

displaying to the female. Thus when a female moves through a colony

she is always closely attended only by those males to whose nests

she is closest (4-6 birds). Males slightly peripheral to her position

merely wing quiver while the others are busy at their nests. When

several females are present in a colony at once a group of males forms

around each one and in the jostling about that follows, consequent

upon the various movements of the females around the nests, a great

deal of excited supplanting and lunging near the nest sites occurs.

The final stages of pair formation and successful copulation were

not observed. It is likely however that after visiting a large number

of nests the female finally chooses one and responds to the male’s

displays there with wing quivering and also the solicitation posture

observed later during the mutual greeting of pair members during

brooding (see below). On flying to the nest the male would then

approach the female in the entrance and, instead of giving the “High

Speed Wing Beating’ display, mount her and copulate with wings

beating in the usual ploceine manner. Following repeated sequences:

of this kind the pair bonds would be established. Further observations

are required.

4. Behaviour during brooding |

At Colony iii incubation was well advanced by the time of the

observations on 2 and 4 August. The males sat about their nests

occasionally titivating on them and bringing in new grass strands which

were added to the exterior. These fresh green strands were not

observed at nests with young inside in Colony i. The birds came and

went in groups as before, producing loud twittering choruses on arrival

and departure. The females were very active about the nests; some

were incubating and others flew to and fro transporting flowery grass

FINN’S BAYA RE-DISCOVERED IN KUMAON TERAI 479

heads into the nest. They confined their attentions now to their own

nests.

The males showed lunging behaviour only very occasionally and it

was clear that this had largely ceased. They frequently trespassed

on one another’s nests, however, but a brief supplant sufficed to remove

an intruder and no fighting was seen. The males also occasionally

supplanted females who had perched on a nest other than their

own. Usually the males welcomed females returning to their nest

groups by turning to face them and wing quivering. Only rarely were

some Wing Undulation movements seen, and there was none of the

displaying so characteristic of the pre-mating period. Sometimes when

a female had entered a nest the male flew to the entrance wing quiver-

ing and sang loudly into it. When wing quivering, a male may advance

towards a female and sing, whereupon she usually disappears into

the nest in a hurry. The males were not seen entering the nests.

On arrival at the nest unit a female usually wing quivers intensely

to the male who may be greeting her in the same manner. Both birds

then wing quiver together for a few seconds before the female passes

to her nest (cf. Quelea quelea, Crook in press). Frequently however

the female may show a posture which, through comparison with other

weavers, can only be called a ‘Solicitation Posture’. This has the

following components:

(1) Body crouched on perch.

(2) Wings are slightly spread out at the side of the body and

quivered.

(3) Tail slightly raised (circa 30° to the line of back) and tremored

in the dorso-ventral plane.

From time to time during certain of these posturings a further

more intense posture is given. This has the following further features:

(1) The body is closely squatted on the perch. The head is

suddenly raised and the bill is pointed upwards.

(2) At the same time as the bill raising and squatting, the wing

quivering suddenly ceases and the wings are spread out at

the side of the body in a slightly drooped position (figure V).

(3) The tail remains slightly raised or is yet further raised above

the back and the tremoring is continued.

This posture usually occurs during a spell of wing quivering or

ordinary solicitation, and may recur three or four times before the

female flies to the nest. Occasionally it is given without prior wing

quivering or solicitation. Some females seemed more disposed to give

the postures than others.

480 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

In other weavers this type of greeting behaviour closely resembles

sexual behaviour prior to copulation, and we thus have every reason

to suppose that these solicitation postures also occur prior to copula-

tion in this species. The particularly. intense form of the posture

probably accompanies mounting itself. During brooding the postures

probably prevent the expression of aggressive responses by the male on

the female’s approach. The male in fact: was never seen to respond to

Figure V. The female ‘ Solicitation Posture’ in the intense form with momen-

tary sideways spreading of the wings in a slightly drooped position.

these postures with any behaviour other than wing quivering, but the

occasional supplant and the approach to the nest with loud song

indicate the infrequent activation of a tendency to attack the approach-

ing bird.

5.,Care of Youne

Although both sexes feed the young in the nest and also remove

faeces, the females are the more active. The males spend much time

simply sitting near their nests singing and driving off females (other

than their own) that come near them, and in occasional supplants

against neighbouring males. When a male alights at a nest containing

young he frequently sings, and he also wing quivers (as above) when

a female alights there with food. No complex ‘greeting’ behaviour

with female solicitation was however observed during this phase, the

females merely showing occasional wing quivering on arrival with their

tails slightly raised. The food appeared to be mainly insects carried

in the beak.

After the young have left the nests they follow their parents. On

3 successive mornings a group of adults, both male and female, were

seen on a roadside, each adult followed closely by one, two, or three

full fledged young, wing-shivering and begging food. The adults were

picking seeds from the road surface and giving them to the young. At

least on these occasions regurgitation was not recorded.

FINN’S BAYA RE-DISCOVERED IN KUMAON TERAI 481

6. Behaviour of First year Juveniles

We observed many first year juveniles (males?) in company with

some adult males building nests (or perhaps merely ‘doodling’?) in

rushes and reeds at two different night roosting sites. The nests were

all at a very early stage in construction being either rings or partially

developed. chambers, or just formless tangles. The birds were seen

bending down leaves of rush and tying their ends into the structure.

The standing reed stems are tied together with grass strands transported

to the site by the builders. As in the definitive tree-top colonies the

nests were often only a few inches apart and Lunging Matches were

seen at the sites. The whole behaviour was however irregular with

individuals frequently building actively on several nest sites, and at

any one site several birds may come and build. No females were seen

visiting these nests. This type of irregular building activity together

‘with failure to complete the nests and an absence of clearly defined

ownership and territorial defence is characteristic of reproductive

behaviour at low motivation in several weaver species. In particular

it has been recorded for Quelea at a midday roosting site in the

Senegal in the month preceding actual breeding (Crook, in press). First

year juveniles of Ploceus cucullatus and Ploceus philippinus while yet

in ‘sparrowy’ plumage also build nests, that are inadequately completed

and never occupied by females. Whether actual breeding colonies of

P. megarhynchus here are also sited among reed beds, as recorded from

the Duars, remains to be ascertained.

7. Vocalisation

The voice of Finn’s Baya is louder, harsher, and more ‘nutty’ than

that of Ploceus philippinus. We heard the following cries uttered,

some of which have been recorded on tape for further analysis:

(i) A twittering cry given on take-off and alighting. This is

particularly noticeable during group flights and appears to

play a role in flock integration.

(ii) The skeer skeer (or tseer tseer) mobbing calls. (p. 472)

(iii) A high pitched alarm note.

(iv) The song given by the male during Wing Undulation,

High Speed Wing Beating displays, and Lunging Matches,

and also when sitting still in the territory. The majority

of birds utter the song as a continuation of the twittering

upon arrival in the colony during nest construction

(Colony ii), and thereafter it recurs in sporadic choruses, the

song of one bird starting the others singing. The song

482 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

may be rendered: twit-twit-tit-t-t-t-t-trrrrr wheeze whee

wee we. The complete phrase is not always given.

Occasionally a high pitched seep seep either followed the

song or occurred during the High Speed Wing Beating

displays.

V. SUMMARY

Due to lack of knowledge about its ecology and habits since first

described in 1869, Ploceus megarhynchus was hitherto considered one

of the rarest Indian birds, a notion that now proves to be erroneous.

Previous quests for it had failed mainly because of the false scent laid

by the published type locality ‘Kaladoongee’ which is actually situated

in the forested country of the Kumaon bhabar at the base of the W.

Himalayan foothills, whereas the bird is restricted to the vast swampy .

grasslands of the terai at a lower elevation. The present investigation

first discovered the bird’s true habitat by accident, thus removing the

major obstacle in its field study. Paucity of correct information may

also be due in part to the difficulty of distinguishing this species in the

field from the Common Baya in non-breeding plumage.

Unlike all other Indian members of the genus, Ploceus megarhynchus

builds untidy coarsely woven globular nests in colonies among the

topmost twigs of Silk Cotton (Salmalia) and other trees which are

deliberately denuded of foliage. Incomplete nests were also found

among marshy reed beds. In form and details of progressive con-

struction the nests resemble those of Quelea quelea of Africa.

Ploceus megarhynchus differs from other Indian Ploceinae also in

the fact that the female, in addition to the male, is seasonally dimorphic

and acquires a distinct yellow breeding dress, but which is less bright

than the male’s.

Its general breeding biology resembles that of the Common Baya, .

Ploceus philippinus. The males, wholly responsible for nest building,

are successively polygamous having from 1 to 4 females each. The

eggs are white, and two or three constitute a normal clutch. Both

parents, but chiefly the female, feed the young in the nest and later

outside.

Some incomplete observations are recorded on voice, courtship,

pair formation, and other behaviour.

FINN’S BAYA RE-DISCOVERED IN KUMAON TERAI

483

REFERENCES

Abdulali. Humayun (1952): Finn’s

Baya (Ploceus megarhynchus Hume).

JBNHS 51 : 200-204.

——— (1954) : More notes on Finn’s

Baya (Ploceus megarhynchus). JBNHS

52 : 599-601. |

Ali, Salim (1931) : The Nesting Habits

of the Baya, Ploceus philippinus (L.).

JBNHS 34 : 947-964.

——— (1935): Mainly in quest of

Finn’s Baya (Ploceus megarhynchus

Hume). Indian Forester 41 : 365-374.

——— & Ambedkar, Vijaykumar C.

(1956): Notes on the Baya Weaver

Bird, Ploceus philippinus Linn. JBNHS

53 : 381-389.

_ ——— ——— (1957): Further Notes

on the Baya Weaver Bird, Ploceus philip-

pinus Linn. JBNHS 54: 491-502.

Baker, Stuart E. C. (1926): Fauna of

Brit. India, Bds.3: 66-77 (Ploceinae).

——— (1934): The Nidification of

the Birds of the Indian Empire 3: 1-13

(Ploceinae).

Crook, J. H, (1958a): Studies on the

comparative Ethology and Social Organi-

zation of the Weaver Birds. Ph. D. thesis.

Cambridge University Library.

Crook, J. H. (1958b): Etudes sur le

comportement social de Bubalornis a.

albirostris (Vieillot). Alauda 26 (3) :

162-192.

——— (in press): Studies on the

social behaviour of Quelea q. quelea

(Linn.) in French West Africa.

Finn, F. (1901) : On the Specific Vali-

dity of Ploceus megarhynchus Hume. Ibis:

29-32.

Friedmann, H. (1949): The breeding

habits of the Weaver Birds. A study in

the biology of Behaviour Patterns.

Smiths. Inst. Ann. Report : 293-316.

Hume, A. O. (1869): Jbis: 356.

Morel, G., Morel, Y., and Bourliere, F.

(1957): The Blackfaced Weaver Bird or

Dioch in West Africa. An _ ecological

study. JBNHS 54: 811-825.

Skead, C.J. (1947): A study of the

Cape Weaver (Ayphantornis capensis

olivaceus). Ostrich 18 : 1-42.

Whistler, H. & Kinnear, N. B. (1933):

The Vernay Scientific Survey of the

Eastern Ghats (Ornithological Section).

Part vi. JBNHS 36: 832-833.

The Great Indian Rhinoceros

(R. unicornis) in Nepal’

Report of a fact-finding Survey, April-May 1959

E. P. GEE, M.A., C.M.Z.S.

(With 3 plates and 3 maps)

CONTENTS

PAGE

I. INTRODUCTION ‘te ; by .. 484

II. GENERAL REVIEW AND Sonne! OF REPORT ei ~. 485

III. History OF THE RHINOCEROS AREA ue be .. 486

IV. GEOGRAPHY AND ECOLOGY he ie e .. 488

V. ADMINISTRATIVE AND POLITICAL a: ie .. 491

VI. GENERAL ACCOUNT OF THE SURVEY ; - 495

VII. Status, DISTRIBUTION, AND FUTURE OF THE RemoC eee IN Napa 504

VIII. RECOMMENDATIONS m on As .. 308

IX. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS as ot She .. 509

REFERENCES des we ue «a o10

LE INTRO DUGErON

Chitawan and neighbouring areas of Nepal have long been famous

for their abundance of big game, including the Great Indian One-

horned Rhinoceros, Rhinoceros unicornis, which is now one of the

vanishing species of the world. For many years this part of southern

central Nepal was the strictly guarded shooting preserve of the rulers

of that country; but with the advent of democracy and unsettled

political conditions in 1951, the exact status of the area and of the

rhinoceros in it has not been clear to the outside world. Reports were

in circulation of alarming slaughter by poachers in recent years,

especially in the year 1958-59; but lack of authentic information

prompted the Survival Service Commission of the International Union

for the Conservation of Nature to ask me to investigate the distribu-

tion and status of the Rhinoceros in Nepal, and to suggest measures

for the preservation of this species in Nepal.

1 The Bombay Natural History Society, as a token of its deep concern in the

reportedly serious plight of the rhinoceros in Nepal, had contributed towards the

expenses of Mr. Gee’s survey promoted by the Survival Service of the International

Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. This report, first

published in Oryx, the journal of the Fauna Preservation Society, is here reproduced

by courtesy of the editor, the IUCN, and the author.—Ebs.

THE GREAT INDIAN RHINOCEROS IN NEPAL 485

As it was not possible for me to visit the area concerned until the

end of March, 1959, which is the start of the hot weather, when dust,

heat, and flies render camping difficult, and as facilities for investi-

gating the problems were somewhat restricted due to the short

notice given, the duration of the survey was not extensive. Sufficient

time was, however, found to spend two and a half weeks in the

Rapti Valley, to traverse almost the whole area, to visit typical

localities within the rhinoceros area, both inhabited and uninhabited

by rhinoceros, and to obtain first-hand information about the admini-

strative and ecological aspects of the problem.

| Having had considerable experience of the Great Indian Rhinoceros

and its preservation in Assam and Bengal, I found it most interesting

to study the same animal and its habitat in Nepal—where conditions

turned out to be very different from those in India.

ll. GENERAL REVIEW AND SUMMARY OF REPORT

The rhinoceros area in Nepal covers approximately 1250 square

miles, comprising the valleys of the rivers Narayani, Rapti, and Reu.

Although it is dun country, it contains most of the sub-tropical

vegetation usually associated with terai country, and can roughly be

divided into (1) riverain, (2) grassland above flood level, and (3) sal

forest. The hills are almost entirely under sal (Shorea robusta), a

valuable hardwood.

During the cold weather months from November to April, the

rhinoceros live mostly in the thick tree and scrub forest of the riverain

tracts, whereas in the rainy season from June to September, many of

them move away from the partly flooded riverain tracts into grass-

land or forest. Competition between human settlers and wild life for

the grassland area has reached a critical stage, in which wild life has

retreated further and further into the unexploited parts of the area

and into the thick riverain scrub forest.

As the result of many years of being shot both by sportsmen and

poachers and of being driven by villagers from cultivated areas, the

rhinoceros of Nepal has adopted a mode of existence and a tempera-

ment different from those observed in north-east India where, during

the present century, rhinoceros have been strictly protected in their

natural habitat. In Nepal they have become nervous, frightened of

the sight of human beings, and almost entirely nocturnal. A number

of years of strict protection and the allocation of ‘living space’ in

riverain and grassland tracts are needed to enable them to settle

down to a normal and peaceful existence.

486 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Poaching remains a serious problem, although the rhinoceros

receive much protection from the thick cover, which is not their real

habitat, and from the Rhinoceros Protection Department. But a more

serious problem is that of increased and increasing influx of both

authorized and unauthorized human settlers from the hilly regions of

Nepal into the plains which form the rhinoceros area.

I consider that the position is not nearly so hopeless as recent

reports had made it out to be, and that in spite of poaching, the

number of rhinoceros is in the region of 300.

The Nepal Government has wisely constituted a national park and

has plans for a wild life sanctuary. But, unfortunately, the national

park in its present form is not an ecological unit in which the animals

would have full scope to behave normally, nor is it of sufficient area

to include a reasonable amount of rhinoceros habitat and their lines

of seasonal and local migration. Apparently the wild life sanctuary

now proposed by Government would not enjoy the permanency so

necessary for nature conservation. While immediate human needs of

land for cultivation and grazing are paramount, the essential long-term

need for water and soil conservation and for a specified area to be

set apart for the preservation of wild life in its natural habitat, as a

wise form of land-use, must not be lost sight of. It is not too late

for these very necessary steps to be taken. The area proposed in

Section VIII of this Report, to be added to the present national park,

contains the greatest possible number of rhinoceros in their natural

habitat. At the same time it is almost entirely free from human

occupation and consequently there would be a minimum of administra-

tive work.

Ill. History OF THE RHINOCEROS AREA

The present zhinoceros areas of Nepal, in fact the whole of that

country, have been up till recent times a closed book to foreigners.

Visits by outsiders were discouraged, even forbidden. Perhaps the

first foreigner to tour in the Nawalpur, Chitawan, and Reu Valley

areas was Mr. E. A. Smythies who, during World War II was Forest

Adviser to the Nepal Government. In the course of his duties

Smythies visited almost all the submontane tracts along the 500 mile

sal belts of the Nepal ferai.

There is some historical evidence that thé Rapti Valley, as

Chitawan is usually known, was once much more thickly populated

than at the beginning of this century, and it is possible that malaria

was the chief reason for any subsequent depopulation of the area.

THE GREAT INDIAN RHINOCEROS IN NEPAL 487

The Rapti Valley has remained closed even to most prospective

Nepali settlers, not only because of malaria, but because it was

strictly protected as the special shooting preserve of the rulers of

Nepal, whose huge camps and elephant beats were known the world

over. Up till recent years almost the only people living in the area

were simple ‘Plains Nepalis’—the Tharus, who appear to have become

immune to malaria and who incidentally provide practically all the

elephant drivers of that country. These people also provided the

labour required for making rough cross-country tracks in the dry

cold-weather months and for preparing shooting camps.

| A special department of armed men has existed for many years

to protect the rhinoceros, tiger, and other game. At the time of my

visit it consisted of: 1 Commander (Captain), | Assistant (Lieutenant),

4 Subedars, 24 Havildars, and 122 Rhino Guards.

_ Mi. E. A. Smythies in his book, BIG GAME SHOOTING IN NEPAL

(1942), and his wife Olive, in her TIGER LADY (1953) speak in glowing

terms of their trips to the Narayani, Rapti, and Reu valleys in the

years 1941-1945. They found that, whereas in the rest of the Nepal

terat there was practically no game left, here was still a sportsman’s

paradise, with uncounted numbers of rhinoceros and other big game,

and comparatively unspoiled habitat.

In 1951 as,a result of the political upheaval in which the

Rana regime came to an end and democracy came into being, the

area underwent a change. Poaching increased to an alarming extent—

in fact this seems to have been the peak year for illegal slaughter of

rhinoceros.

From 1951 onwards the weakening of protection in the big game

reserve meant that malaria was now the main, if not the sole,

deterrent tc settlers coming from the hills into the Rapti Valley. It

was not possible in such a mountainous country as Nepal to prohibit

indefinitely the influx of human settlers into grasslands suitable for

cultivation of crops. ‘Hills Nepalis, Gurungs, Magars, and others,

started to come down into the Rapti Valley unofficially; and officially

the Rapti Valley Multi-purpose Development Project began in 1955

to settle cultivators from the hills in the western portion of Chitawan

south of Narayangarh, at the rate of 2500 persons a year. By March,

1959, 12,000 persons had been settled on grasslands once occupied

only by rhinoceros and other species of wild life, and 524 square miles

_ had been thus opened up and developed. It is proposed to settle a

further 25,000 persons in the Rapti Valley in the near future.

A new gravelled road from Hitaura to Bharatpur and Narayangarh

has been constructed jointiy by the United States Operations Mission

488. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

and the Nepal Government, and this was completed by March 1959,

except for a bridge and the big causeway near Hitaura.. It was

claimed that recent malaria control measures had succeeded 1 in making

the valley rine ee safer for human occupation.

Besides the 12,000 persons officially settled by the R.V.M.-P.

Development a, a large unspecified number of people from the

hills have settled unofficially in various parts of the Rapti Valley

during the last few years. It is obvious that if the influx of human

settlers continues unchecked wild life will ultimately disappear from

this renowned place.

The Nepal Government has been aware of this danger, and during.

the winter of 1957-58 steps were taken to allot a part of the north

of the valley as a national park. In January, 1959, the Mahendra

Mriga Kunja (Mahendra Deer Park), or Mahendra National Park, of

68 square miles was formally opened by King Mahendra. It is

proposed that a “Wild Life Sanctuary’ (possibly for 10 years only,

after which it may revert to shooting blocks) shall be created south of

the national park to include most of the rhinoceros area as well as

cultivation and grazing areas. Another area has been allotted as

‘King’s Reserve’ and another as ‘Shooting Blocks’ (see map No. 2).

1V. GEOGRAPHY AND ECOLOGY

The present rhinoceros area comprising the valleys of the rivers

Narayani, its tributary the Rapti, and the Rapti’s tributary the Reu,

is often loosely spoken of as part of the Nepal terai. Terai in

northern India and Nepal is, strictly speaking, moist country a few

miles from the base of the Himalayas, below the bhabar, which is dry

country with a subsoil of boulders right at the foot of the Himalayas.

Chitawan, or the Rapti Valley, is a dun-—a plateau or fiat valley inside

the foothills of the Himalayas; its altitude is between 900 and 1000

feet above sea-level, and it has most of the typical vegetation of the

ferat which is usually at 350 to 600 feet.

The dun of the Rapti Valley is approximately 40 miles long from

east to west, and varies from 4 miles wide at Ramoli at the eastern

end, to about 16 miles at its widest, in the west near the Narayani

River. This is the main rhinoceros area, bounded on the north by

range upon range of the Mahabharat (Himalayas) and on the south

by the Churia Range (Siwaliks). Another area with similar vegetation

lies west of the Narayani River and down the bank of that as far

west as Tamashpur. A third area is the Reu Valley which is divided

from the Rapti Valley by a ridge of the Churia Range. The scenery,

JourRN. BomBay Nat. HIsT. Soc. PLATE I

Sal trees in the dun of the Rapti Valley, with Himalchuli (25,800 ft.) in the

distance.

The River Narayani (or Gandak) near Deoghat in the Mahendra National Park.

Photos: E. P. Gee

PLATE II

JOURN. BomBay Nat. Hist. Soc.

] grassland habitat in Nepal.

"pica

inoceros in ty

Indian rh

1 grassland habitat in Nepal.

inoceros in typica

Cow and calf rh

E. P. Gee

Photos

THE GREAT INDIAN RHINOCEROS IN NEPAL 489

climate, and vegetation of the Rapti dun is very similar to that of the

beautiful Corbett National Park of Uttar Pradesh in India.

Records of rainfall for this area are scanty, and have only been

kept during the past three years. It appears that 65-70 inches, falling

mainly between June and September, is the normal rainfall of

Bharatpur at the western end of Chitawan.

The terrain of these three valleys can be conveniently divided into

riverain, grassland, and timber forest:

l. Riverain, comprising all the low-lying strips along the river

beds as well as the islands in the river beds.

2. Grassland, above flood level, most of which is either being

or is about to be occupied, cultivated, and grazed by human settlers.

3. Timber forest, mainly on the higher undulating portions

of the dun, and covering most of the hills of the area.

Riverain

The Narayani (or Gandak) is a huge river, and occasionally

washes a live rhinoceros down into India. In this area it widens out

to a mile or two and has islands (tapvos). To get over it one often

has to cross three, four, or five channels as well as the islands in

between, and this takes about half a day. In addition to this mile

or more of channels and islands, there runs along each bank a strip

of riverain forest and savannah which varies in width up to a mile

or more. The low lying islands in the river, which could be classed

as sand banks, become flooded during most of the rainy season,

June to September. The higher islands and most of the low-lying

strips of forest and savannah along the banks get flooded during peak

floods of the monsoon. All this area is excellent rhinoceros habitat,

containing the water, grasses, reeds, and forest cover they need—

particularly during the dry weather, November to May.

The Rapti River is small compared with the Narayani, and in the

dry weather can be crossed by jeep at many places where its

shingly bed widens out, It too has islands, particularly in its lower

reaches, and strips of riverain forest and savannah on either bank,

varying in width from a furlong to a mile or so. The Reu, main

tributary of the Rapti, is much the same as the Rapti but very much

smaller, and the valley very much narrower.

The vegetation of the riverain tracts consists of tree forest and

savannah.

Tree Forest.—The trees are mainly of flood resisting species such

as simul (Salmalia malabarica), sheesham (Dalbergia sissoo), and

490 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

khair (Acacia catechu). There is a tangled mass of undergrowth,

much of which is evergreen and much of which is also thorny, afford-

ing the fullest shelter for rhinoceros during the day time, especially

in the dry weather.

Savannah.—The vegetation of the savannah varies a great deal.

according to whether it is above or below the river level of normal

rains. It consists mainly of the reeds and grasses usually found in

this part of the world, viz. ekra (Erianthus spp.), khagri (Phragmites

Karaka), nal (Arundi donax), and thatch (Imperata cylindrica). Fre-

quently there is an intermingling of forest and savannah, forming

dense scrub thickets with plenty of cover.

Nearly all the savannah areas of the riverain tracts are burnt off

annually by the local villagers to improve the grazing for their cattle

~-and incidentally,- for the wild herbivorous animals. This has been

taking place, at least to some extent, for thousands of years, and has

become part of the ecological pattern.

Whenever a small stream, known locally as a khola, flows out

of the hills, or through grassland into a river, there is to be found

a small riverain tract usually thickly forested, of varying width

according to the size of the tributary. These kholas provide corridors

for movement of game away from the main rivers as well as thick

cover during day time.

Hardly any of the riverain tracts of the three rivers contain

houses or even cultivation, as they are liable to flooding during the

monsoon months. Practically all of them are made use of by villagers

for firewood-cutting, thatch-cutting, and grazing. The thickest of the

tree forest and scrub forest areas are seldom interfered with, due to

thorns and impenetrability.

Grassiand

On leaving the low-lying riverain tracts one finds flat grasslands

above flood level stretching for a furlong or two in the Reu Valley,

for a mile or two on the west bank of the Narayani River at Sandhna,

and for anything up to seven or eight miles in the dun north of the

Rapti River. These grasslands contain the same reeds and grasses

as: the savannahs of the riverain tracts, with the addition of other

high-ground vegetation which is not flood resistant. The soil is

richer and more suitable for the growing of crops at the eastern end

than at the western end, where it is lighter and more sandy in com-

position. 3

Nearly all the grasslands of the whole rhinoceros area have either

been occupied by human settlers for cultivation or grazing, or are —

Pee ia,

THE GREAT INDIAN RHINOCEROS IN NEPAL 49]

just about to be, with the notable exception of the south bank of the

Rapti from Jaimangala village westwards past Darbar (a disused

shooting lodge built for King George V when he visited Nepal in

i911) towards the junction of the Reu River and southwards to the

Churia range. This is so far mostly unspoiled by human settlers.

Of the grasslands which have for some time been occupied by

_ settlers, in some places the effects of continuous annual burning, over-

grazing, cattle-tread, and exposure to increased evaporation, are

becoming evident from decreased fertility and increased desiccation.

Timber Forest

In this area the sub-montane timber forest is mainly sal, which

is to be found growing on some of the well-drained higher. grassland,

as well as on most of the surrounding hills. It is a tree of great

beauty of form and colour, and contributes much to the aesthetic

enjoyment of the place, especially when the snows of the Himalayas

some 50-80 miles: away are visible. The sul forests of the area are

mostly virgin and contain some of the best trees of this species in the

world, rising to 160 feet, especially in the north of the Rapti Valley,

in what is now the Mahendra National Park. The sal is being

exploited by the Forest Department only in the east towards Hitaura.

At present there is no exploitation west of Debichor, except some

cutting by new settlers.

Most if not all of the sal forests are under the jurisdiction of the

Forest Department, and are regarded as Reserved Forests. Un-

fortunately, however, it appears that the boundaries of some of these

Reserved Forests have not been clearly demarcated, and unauthorized

persons are said to be settling in parts of them with the usual

accompaniment of felling and burning for cultivation and grazing.

If this is true, it deserves the urgent attention of the authorities,

especially as there are so many parts of these forested hills which,

forming the catchments of the streams and rivers, need careful conser-

vation in order to avoid soil erosion and desiccation.

V. ADMINISTRATIVE AND POLITICAL

Administration will be considered only as far as the rhinoceros and

its preservation are concerned. Three different divisions of the Forest

Department are invoived. The Rapti Valley is under the Divisional

Forest Officer of Chitawan residing at Hitaura; the Nawalpur area

(west of the Narayani River) is under the D.F.O of that district residing

at Parasi, a journey of some distance from the rhinoceros area with

492 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

no roads for travelling; the Reu Valley is under the D.F.O. of Birganj.

From the rhinoceros preservation aspect it is unfortunate that this area

of Nepal should fall under the jurisdiction of three different D.F.Os.,

under two separate Circle Conservators, with no means of communica-

tion between them except via Kathmandu. The D.F.O., Chitawan,

residing at Hitaura, is in charge of the whole Rhinoceros Protection

Department which operates in all the three areas; but he is unable

Officially to visit the Nawalpur or the Reu Valley areas except by

arrangement with the D.F.O. of the district concerned. All this is not

a criticism of the Forest Department: it merely states the position as

it happens to be today. The Narayani River is possibly too great a

physical barrier for both sides of it to be under one D.F.O.

Poaching of Rhinoceros

The Rhinoceros Protection Department, the personnel of which has

already been given, mans 42 chowkis (posts), 26 in the Chitawan area,

nine in the Reu Valley, and seven in Nawalpur. Poaching, as has

been said, was probably at its peak during 1951. Accounts differ as

to the intensity of poaching during the years 1952-58: some people

informed me that the position was static, becoming no better and no

worse, while others said that during the last three years there has

been a slight improvement. Probably official statistics do not give a

true picture of the actual amount of poaching during any particular

year.

I was told that in 1958, 60 rhinoceros were officially listed as

poached: 52 in Chitawan, 6 in Reu Valley, and 2 in Nawalpur. Of

these 60 rhinoceros killed by poachers, 24 horns were recovered, and

13. persons arrested and gaoled. In 1959, twelve cases had been

detected by the end of March—Chitawan 6, Reu Valley 2, and

Nawalpur 4. Of these eight horns had been recovered and seven men

arrested.

I had discussion with many people, particularly with the Divisional

Forest Officer of Chitawan, who had been for four years in charge of

that division, and with Captain Gyan Bahadur Basnayt -who had been

for two years in charge of the Rhinoceros Protection Department, and

there appears to be no evidence of any real organization behind the

poachers. Most-of the poachers of the Nawalpur area are said to

come from the hills, while many of the poachers of Reu Valley and

Chitawan come from the south, including India. Some of the poachers

are also said to be new settlers from the hills in the Rapti Valley,

Magars, Gurungs, and others. The Tharus, ‘plains Nepalis’, and

origina] inhabitants of this area, are mostly simple and innocent folk,

JouRN. BomBaAy Nat. Hist. Soc. PLATE III

Rhino guard stands near the carcase of a rhinoceros killed by poachers. (Note

the skull with horn removed.)

Photos: E. P. Gee

THE GREAT INDIAN RHINOCEROS IN NEPAL 493

and are believed not to be involved to any great degree in the poach-

ing of rhinoceros.

Most of the rhinoceros poachers in Nepal take refuge first of all

in the hills, and then make their way to India, where the horns

probably pass through the port of Calcutta to the Far East, parti-

cularly to China. The possession and sale of rhinoceros produce is

illegal in India—if the place of origin is Bengal or Assam. But if the

origin is Nepal, it is probable that its transit through and export from

India would not be considered illegal under existing laws and rules.

I therefore recommended, while in Kathmandu, that the Government of

Nepal should try to effect greater co-ordination of protective measures

with the Government of India, in order to prevent this traffic. I now

suggest also that the Excise Posts on the India-Nepal border should

be kept constantly on the watch for the same purpose.

Development

The last bridges and causeways of the fine gravelled motor road

from Hitaura in the east to Bharatpur and Narayangarh in the west

are nearing completion. Apart from this there are no all-weather

roads. In the dry weather (November to May) all villagers and even

isolated houses are connected by bullock-cart tracks: which are

motorable for jeeps and other high-clearance vehicles.

Since 1955 the Rapti Valley Multi-Purpose Development Project

has opened up 534 square miles of grassland, formerly the home of

rhinoceros and other wild life, for 12,000 human settlers, mostly from

the hills (see Map No. 2). The implementation of the proposal to

settle a further 25,000 persons in the Rapti Valley, combined with the

influx of unauthorized settlers, if allowed to continue at its present

rate, would mean that hardly any part of this once famous big-game

preserve will be left for wild life.

The Mahendra National Park

In its present size and shape, this national park contains about

50 square miles of hills and almost virgin sal forest, with a few

kKholas which are dried up in their middle reaches from March till

June, and about 18 square miles of mixed evergreen and deciduous

forest and grassland with plenty of water in the kholas and swamps.

There are villagers with their houses, cultivation, and cattle at

Narayangarh, Tikoli, Jirwan, and Jurpani, who still have to move

from the national park to alternative sites, with promised assistance

from Government. The D.F.O. informed me that he was experienc-

ing some difficulty in enforcing this order. and that the matter was

494 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

urgent in view of the approaching season for seed-sowing. While I

was there the Tikoli villagers expressed their willingness to leave the

park area if they were given some of the areas to be re-settled near by.

1 duly passed on this information to the authorities on my return to

Kathmandu.

Necessary additions to the Park.—North of Narayangarh up to

Deoghat, the road runs along the river bank from which the mountain

and river scenery is very beautiful. When I was there the red-flower-

ing bush Woodfordia fioribunda was in full bloom, as were several

flowering trees; and the kusum tree, Schleichera trijuga, was in new

leaf, shimmering in pale mahogany—all these as well as the sal trees

in their transition stage from old to new foliage added to the beauty

of the scene. But the majestic and unspoiled sal-forested mountains

on the opposite bank west of the Narayani and north of the con-

fluence of the rivers Kali Gandaki and Mershiandi, although they

contain numbers of gaur, deer, and other wild life, have not been

included in the national park. As these parts are mountain and

virgin forest almost totally unoccupied by human settlers, they would

make a very fine addition to the park without the difficulty of remov-

ing human inhabitants. |

South of the park, from where the new road forms the southern

boundary at Tikoli, there is a four to six mile wide strip of com-

paratively unspoilt sal forest and grassland along the Khagri Khola

stream down to the Rapti River, where the majority of the rhinoceros

are. This strip forms a natural corridor for local seasonal migration

of rhinoceros and other animals—but it has not been included in the

park.

Without these two additions—the southward corridor for wild life

movement along the Khagri Khola to and from the Rapti, being far

the more important—the national park is not a viable ecological unit.

But if this corridor be included, then it is only one step further to

extend it southwards, to include both some of the best rhinoceros

‘country south of the Rapti River and also the upper reaches of the

Reu Valley. If this were done, a large percentage of Nepal rhinoceros

population would be included in the national park (see Map No. 3).

A further advantage of this north-south extension, fully protected

under national park rules, would be that wild life could move into it.

as the land to the east and west becomes occupied by settlers.

The ‘Wild Life Sanctuary’ which the Government of Nepal pro-

poses to establish south of the Mahendra National Park (see Map 2)

cannot be regarded as a potentially true sanctuary, for a considerable

amount of it is already under human occupation, cultivation, or

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THE GREAT INDIAN RHINOCEROS IN NEPAL 495

grazing. Moreover, it is proposed in some quarters that this area

be a sanctuary for ten years only, after which it is to be opened up

again as shooting blocks. Thus during the ten years as a ‘sanctuary’

it would merely have the dubious status of shooting blocks tem-

porarily closed to shooting. If the best and unspoilt portion of this

proposed sanctuary were added to the present national park in order

to make a viable unit, then after allowing for reasonable belts of

country on either side, as buffer belts where grazing and firewood or

thatch cutting are allowed, but in which no settlement or shooting

except bona fide crop protection is permitted, the rest of the area

might be opened as shooting blocks under strict control with full

protection for rhinoceros and other rare species.

Smeoting Blocks and King’s Reserve

The area north of the Rapti at its eastern end, which the

Government proposes should become ‘Shooting Blocks’, consists mainly

of foothills of the Mahabharat Range, and is under sal forest. The

area south of the Rapti proposed as “King’s Reserve’ is part of the

Churia Range, and also forested with sal. Both these propositions

appear reasonable (see Map No. 2). They contain a few rhinoceros

at their western extremities, under the protection of the Rhinoceros

Protection Department.

A project believed to be in the blue-print stage is to divert the

water of the Khagri Khola from a point about one mile north of

Tikoli in the Mahendra National Park, and also the water of certain

other streams in the vicinity, to irrigate part of the newly-settled

grassland south of Bharatpur. If this were done, some of the

rhinoceros area in the south of the present Mahendra National Park

would dry up. Moreover, the only stream in the ‘corridor’ needed

for extending the present park southwards to the Rapti river, would

cease to flow in the dry weather. This project is a serious threat to

nature and wild life preservation; it is to be hoped that it will be

shelved or modified.

VI. GENERAL ACCOUNT OF THE SURVEY

After a brief halt in Calcutta to discuss with Dr. Roonwal

(Director of the Zoological Survey of India and Secretary-General of

the Indian Board for Wild Life) ways of assisting Nepal to stop any

possible traffic of rhinoceros produce through India, I arrived at

Kathmandu by air on 15th March. There I spent six days before

going into camp in the rhinoceros areas, which are a day’s journey

496 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

-by road. This period was very usefully employed in making contact

with officials and non-officials, and in obtaining information of every

description. These contacts included: General Kiran, S.J.B.R.

(Shumshere Jung Bahadur Rana), who is the present authoritative and

acknowledged leader in all matters pertaining to sport and wild life

in Nepal; Field Marshal Kaiser, S.J.B.R., who, though he has not

visited the rhinoceros area since 1933, has a vast store of knowledge

of shikar and natural history; Mr. Balarama Paul Baidya, Chief Forest

Officer; Major Lok Bikram, in charge of elephants (Government and

others). Captain Te} Jung Thapa, Circle Conservator; Colonel and

Mrs. Proud of the British Embassy; Mr. N. Pal, Adviser on Forests,

India Aid Mission; and Mr. Boris Lissanevitch, of the Hotel Royal,

who knows the rhinoceros area.

This period of six days was also necessary to procure permits and

letters of introduction to officials in the rhinoceros area—-without

these it would not have been possible to proceed.

On 22nd March | motored along the Tribhuvan Raj Path, the new

road built by the Indian Army, over the Simbanjong Pass (8162 feet

above sea-level), to Hitaura at the eastern end of the area. Here [|

met Mr. Sudhir Jung Thapa, the Divisional Forest Officer in charge

of the Chitawan (Rapti Valley) Division, with whom I was to spend

most of the subsequent sixteen days touring.

The following day we jeeped westwards along the new Rapti

Valley road, with the proposed King’s Reserve on our left and the

proposed Shooting Blocks on the steep hills on our right, both mainly

under sal forest. Here in the upper reaches of the Rapti the riverain

strip is narrow. After crossing the gravelly bed of the Rapti River

at the tiny villages of Ramoli and Pratappur we made two tours into

the forest along rough forest roads used by timber contractors. This

gave me an idea of the terrain of the King’s Reserve, at the western

end of which about six rhinoceros are believed to exist. Rhinoceros

wander far afield during the monsoon months, even into the town of

Hitaura, I was told.

On 24th March we went into camp at Tikoli, which is at the

south-eastern point of the newly-constituted Mahendra National Park,

and a convenient centre for seeing the area where the rhinoceros

density is greatest--Jhawani and neighbourhood. Here we were

joind by Captain Gyan Bahadur Basnayt and Lieutenant Gaj Raj

Joshi of the Rhinoceros Protection Department. Although our food,

luggage, and camping equipment had not yet arrived, J took an

elephant out in the afternoon southwards along the Khagri Khola

stream towards the Rapti. To the east of the Khagri Khola all is

THE GREAT INDIAN RHINOCEROS IN NEPAL 497

cultivation and villages. while to the west of the stream it is mainly

unspoilt sal forest with patches of savannah. We saw tracks and

dung of rhinoceros and found two of them in a secluded wallow in

the thick scrub forest of the riverain tract of this stream. On our

approach they immediately made off into cover.

Shortly after arrival at Tikoli, I opened up a large map of the

area, and questioned the two officers of the Rhinoceros Protection

Department about the numbers of rhinoceros at each chowki (post),

sometimes at each part of each chowki. After explaining to them

that conservative figures were required, | compared their figures place

by place with those given by the D.F.O., and then reduced them in

all cases. I also obtained from them all the information I could on

the types of terrain, localities of cultivation, grazing, and unspoiled

grassland or forest. Then I was able to re-plan my tour programme

so that I could visit a sample of each rhinoceros area, and a sample

of each type of terrain. So my tour was not a ‘conducted one’-—in

fact, I often later insisted on going to a spot other than that re-

commended for finding the greatest numbers of rhinoceros.

On the morning of 25th March we went to the Chitawan hatisar

(elephant station) and took two elephants southwards to the Rapti

River, to a riverain area near Malpur and Haranhari. Here we

located six rhinoceros, including a cow and young calf, all of which

appeared very frightened. On 26th March we again went to the

hatisar and proceeded with three elephants to another area west of

Haranhari. Here we found 10 rhinoceros, including 2 cows and

young calves, also 3 young two-year-olds in a ‘school’ of their own.

Rhinoceros of this age are usually found still with their mothers, and

I presume that these three had been driven off by their mothers when

new calves were born. Nearly all these 16 rhinoceros were in dense

scrub riverain forest, which is not the real habitat of this species.

They were in thick cover even in the early morning. Although most

of the grasslands had been burnt off, and although the young shoots

were coming up—so palatable to herbivorous animals—no rhinoceros

were found grazing in the open grassy areas, as one would have found

in Kaziranga and other sanctuaries of Assam. There were also many

fewer mud or water wallows than I expected. This might have been

partly due to the sandy nature of the soil, and partly to the fact

that a wallowing rhinoceros falls an easy victim to poachers.

The rhinoceros in Nepal appeared to be very much more nocturnal

than those in Assam, and very much more shy of human beings.

Their droppings were scattered in small heaps or as single droppings

498 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

instead of the large heaps found in Assam, where they lead a more

natural and peaceful life.

As all the villagers of the area build tands (look-out towers for

frightening away crop-raiding rhinoceros) both in their fields and also

actually in their village vegetable gardens—in Assam the similar

fongis are only built in the fields near a sanctuary—and as rhinoceros

ditches are built round most vegetable gardens, it was abundantly clear

that the rhinoceros roamed far and wide over cultivated areas during

the night, and lay up in hiding during the day. This was borne out

by reports from the villagers, and from fresh rhinoceros tracks and

dung seen near the villages.

The riverain forest in places is very thick, often with thorny and

evergreen bush, providing ideal, though unnatural, cover for the

rhinoceros. Visibility was very limited. Consequently numbers of

rhinoceros we observed depended largely on the number of elephants

we could muster on each visit. An observer on a single elephant

could only find rhinoceros within a strip of country extending some-

times ten, sometimes twenty, yards on each side of him during a

traverse in such forest. A party with three elephants could naturally

traverse an area about three times as great. It is, therefore, not only

for display that the rulers of Nepal have always employed a great

number of elephants, over fifty at a time, for their shoots: a large

number of elephants is actually required to locate and drive the game

in such thick country.

Incidentally, the last of the big shoots, in January 1959, had taken

place in this very area, and over fifty clephants had driven a different

square mile on three consecutive days in order to catch rhinoceros

calves for foreign zoological gardens. They circled 5, 7, and 13

rhinoceros respectively on these three occasions. Although this year

no cow rhinoceros were shot, as has been done in previous years in order

to obtain the calf, the disturbance and fright caused to the rhinoceros

of this particular place must have been considerable.

Several participants of this shoot informed me that between 50

and 60 different rhinoceros had been counted in the area covered by

the shoot, which was spread over some 40 square miles (about 4 miles

north to south by 10 miles west to eon! between the Khagri Khola

and Kathar.

THE MAHENDRA NATIONAL PARK

While in camp at Tikoli, I was able to pay three visits to the

Mahendra National Park. In the afternoon of 25th March, we went

by jeep via Jurpani across the kholas and back by Narayangarh. The

THE GREAT INDIAN RHINOCEROS IN NEPAL 499

chowki (post) at Tandkhola was a very beautiful site with a fine view

of sal-forested hills, but there was no water in the stream. In fact,

there was no water in any of the four bouldery and sandy kholas we

crossed, although there reportedly had been during previous months.

I was informed that there was a little water higher up, and that it

runs underground at this point, to reappear again lower down in the

rhinoceros area of the national park. One oz two water-holes provide

water for gaur, sambar, chital, and other animals in this northern

portion of the park.

In the afternoon of 26th and in the morning of 27th March, I

made two extensive trips on an elephant into the south-east part of

the park, where there were reported to be 12-30 rhinoceros. Although

I found a few fresh tracks and droppings, I could find no rhinoceros

on either of these trips, but on my return to camp I was informed

that many were to be found here during the rains, though I could

get no exact information about local or seasonal migrations. As this

was ideal rhinoceros habitat. with plenty of grassland as well as water

and cover, I was puzzled as to why they should have migrated south-

wards to the Rapti, where there was less grazing and more human

interference. My elephant on these two trips had been greatly worried

by large horse-flies or gad-flies (locally known as dans), and possibly

this may at least partly provide the answer to this puzzle.

The D.F.O. assured me that the previous year he had visited the

area in the middle of April and had seen rhinoceros; and both the

lieutenant and the havildar of the Rhinoceros Protection Department

said that a considerable number of rhinoceros come here in the

monsoon months. ! therefore became convinced that a corridor for

migration of rhinoceros between the national park and the Rapti River

was urgently needed, and that the national park could well be

extended southwards to make it. An extract from my diary reads:

‘As there is forest and little or no cultivation west of the Khagri

Khola, the national park could be extended southwards in a corridor

about four miles wide, to include the Rapti area (near Jhowani).. .

and then southwards to .the Siwalik Hills, possibly to include the

rhino of the Reu Valley. As my tour progressed, i became more

and more sure that the above measure was urgently necessary if the

rhinoceros of Nepal were to be preserved.

I was disappointed with my first three visits to the national park,

but on 27th March, i visited Deoghat after visiting Mr. Malla, Chief

of the Rapti Valley Multi-Purpose Development Project. Motoring

from Narayangarh along the bank of the Narayani, I was much

500 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

impressed by the magnificent river and mountain scenery. The

kusum trees were coming into new leaf and were a blaze of pale

mahogany colour, and the bright red of the Woodfordia floribunda

was much in evidence, both adding to the beauty of the sal trees now

in their transitional stage. It then occurred to me that the forested

mountains to the west of the Narayani River and also those north of

the confluence of the two rivers at Deoghat, almost totally uninhabited

as I was told, could well be added to the national park, i also found

that the national park idea seemed to have caught on in the district,

and frequent references were made to the ‘national park’ rather than

to the ‘mriga kunja’. I think that this should be encouraged, and that

Mahendra National Park should be this park’s permanent name.

Shortly after midday the D.F.O. returned to Hitaura, and I went

with the officers south-westwards through the recently settled area

to Dadrahani, in order to cross the Narayani River to Sandhna in

Nawalpur District. Very few people ever go to this ‘remote’ and

inaccessible area. It took us half a day to cross the different channels

and islands of the river, and we reached our camp site long after

dark, having travelled by truck, dug-out boat, elephant, bullock-cart,

and on foot.

On the 29th we visited the riverain forest near Sandhna with one

elephant, and found one rhinoceros in thick cover. Then we crossed.

to Bandar Bhojaya tapoo and found 4 rhinoceros in a _ wallow,

including a cow and tiny calf. This cow charged us twice in the

thick forest. During the second charge my elephant tried to bolt and

my hat and lens hood were knocked off. After we had dismounted

to look for the lens hood, back came the irate rhinoceros for a third

charge! In the afternoon we visited more riverain forest, and saw

3 rhinoceros. None of these 8 rhinoceros had been listed by us on

the map at Tikoli. |

On 30th March plans were made for me to visit an area south-

west of camp, where they were anxious to show me a great number

of rhinoceros. After my three recent visits to riverain tract of the

Narayani, I was able to take their word for that and we visited instead

the sal forest and hills to the west, to see that kind of terrain. Here

I found tracks and droppings of rhinoceros in the kholas, and saw

one animal. In this range of hills there are patches of grassland,

kholas with water, and a belt of swampy ground all along the base

between the hills and the 14 mile wide strip of cultivation. This was

useful information, proving that these hills could and did hold

rhinoceros, and that during monsoon floods they migrated to the

higher hilly region.

THE GREAT INDIAN RHINOCEROS IN NEPAL S01

Having made a sample survey of the comparatively ‘unknown’

Nawalpur area, I re-crossed the wide Narayani River back into the

Chitawan District, to camp at Dadrahani. In the afternoon I took

an elephant into the mile-wide riverain strip on the east bank of the

Narayani, and saw tracks and droppings of rhinoceros. Six, including

two cows and calves, were said to be here. The D.F.O. had rejoined

us from Hitaura. On Ist April I went to see the area at the junction

of the Rapti and Narayani rivers, and also the tals or small lakes on

the south side of the Rapti. All round here is magnificent thick

rhinoceros habitat, and we saw fresh tracks and droppings, though

no rhinoceros. The tals turned out to be small and disappointing—-

no comparision with the bheels of Kaziranga where so many rhinoceros

and other species are to be seen grazing out in the open.

On 2nd April we jeeped through cultivated land, through a belt

of unspoilt sal forest, and through more cultivated land to camp at

Khargaul. This sal-forested portion of the dun contains some un-

spoilt country with swamp deer, chital, pig, and other animals. As

it apparently contains no rhinoceros in the dry weather, I have not

included it in my recommendations, but the Nepal Government could

well consider creating a small wild life sanctuary here.

After a night at Sandhna of unexpected and unseasonal rain, the

snows of the Himalayas were a magnificent spectacle—this was the

only day on which they were clearly visible in a cloudless and

hazeless sky. Only a tiny peak of Dhaulagiri (26,795 feet) was visible

behind a nearer range, but the whole massifs of Annapurna (26,504

feet) and Himalchuli (25,800 feet) towered in splendour before our

eyes—more than ample compensation for being washed out two

nights before.

I particularly wanted to see the country round Darbar, and also

another and larger lake called Tamortal, and the connecting corridor

through the Churia Range from the Rapti to the Reu Valley. The

riverain forest and grassland near Darbar are comparatively unspoilt

and ungrazed, but [ saw no wild life. The tal, set in the midst of

sal forest, was also disappointing, but north of the Rapti on our way

back to camp on three elephants we found 4 rhinoceros within half

a mile of our tents, a not unusual phenomenon as both in Nepal and

north-east India rhinoceros seem to prefer the vicinity of villages and

cultivation to unspoilt country.

The cart track from Darbar, past Tamortal, leads from the Rapti

Valley into the Reu Valley; and while at Tamortal we were only a

few miles from the Reu river. [ would have liked to have had the

time to visit the Reu Valley. but this could not be done. I was,

502 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol. 36 (3)

however, informed by the D.F.O. that he went there as recently as

November 1958, and saw 8 rhinoceros. He described to me all the

conditions of the place—similar to those in the Rapti and Narayani

valleys, only on a smaller scale.

The next morning we took two elephants—-one had broken loose

during the night and disappeared into the forest—and traversed some

more riverain country north of the Rapti, finding two rhinoceros. In

the afternoon I took one elephant, the ‘escaped’ one which had been

recaptured, into the riverain belt near the camp, and photographed

2 rhinoceros. |

Having seen a sample of the country round Darbar, both north

and south of the Rapti, I said I would like to drive through the

middle of the belt of sal forest and grassland that would, if approved

of by the Nepal Government, be such a useful addition as a corridor

to the Mahendra National Park. I also wanted to see the country

to the south of this corridor, south of the Rapti. Accordingly on

Ath April, we jeeped through this corridor at a point where it must

have been about 6 miles wide. It consisted of comparatively un-

spoilt sal forest with patches of grassland, swamps, water holes, and

of course the Khagri Khola on the eastern side. It proved to be

ideal habitat for rhinoceros, deer, and other animals.

Eventually we arrived at Jaimangala and camped there, in spite

of the fact that cholera and smallpox were in epidemic form near by.

In the evening we took out four elephants and within one mile of

camp found 9 rhinoceros. I personaliy saw 5, including 2 cows with

young calves, and I have no reason to doubt the veracity of the

others who saw an additional 4; for, on the following day I saw

ditferent rhinoceros on this very same spot. While trying to photo-

graph a rhinoceros cow and calf, our four elephants at one time were

encircling 4 rhinoceros, | sambar stag. 2 hog deer, and 2 bears. From

Jaimangala westwards, most of the country appeared to be unspoilt

and unoccupied by villagers, confirming my opinion that this area

should be included in a southward extension of the national park.

On the following day we explored, on three elephants, the area

westwards on the south bank of the Rapti, and returned along the

north bank through the corridor. On the way out in the early morn-

ing I inspected and photographed the carcases of 2 rhinoceros shot

this year by poachers. I was told that the poachers themselves

might have been shot had not 7 rounds of ammunition fired at them

failed to go off.

Although we had seen 9 rhinoceros near the camp on the previous

day. yet in this wilder country further away from the camp we saw

THE GREAT INDIAN RHINOCEROS IN NEPAL 503

nothing —until finally we came across a cow rhinoceros defending her

pink, newly-born calf against a tiger. Our approach apparently

frightened away the tiger, The rhinoceros with characteristic lack of

gratitude then charged my elephant two or three times. Photo-

graphy was rendered very difficult by the fact that in Nepal the

elephants are trained to charge back at a rhinoceros. In spite of this

commotion, and in spite of the waving arms of the excited and

gesticulating elephant-driver, I managed to secure some photographs

of the newly-born calf with its mother—they must be unique.

On our return along the north bank of the Rapti, we suddenly

saw, peering out of the tangle of unburnt grass, the head and horns

of a solitary bull gaur (Bos gaurus), which immediately made off.

We then searched without success for rhinoceros in two kholas, which

had water and evergreen forest suitable for these animals. When we

were near camp I dismounted from the elephant, stalked and photo-

graphed on foot 5 of the rhinoceros seen by us on the previous day,

as they lay in their wallows. There were also four sambar hinds

within a mile of the village.

In the evening I visited a riverain area north-east of the camp

with one elephant, and found 4 rhinoceros including a cow and a

young calf. Three of these were in thick grass within one furlong

of our tents. The experience of this day in this area, as in all the

other areas I visited, shows that rhinoceros and other wild animals

prefer the vicinity of villages and cultivation to the unspoilt forests

-and grasslands. The existence of thick cover in the form of evergreen

and thorny scrub forest enables them to do this. The probable

reasons are firstly and mainly a predilection for man-grown crops,

secondly a certain amount of safety from predators, both human and

feline. .

On the morning of 6th April, we struck camp and proceeded to

the house of the captain of the Rhinoceros Protection Department,

where I was shown some of the rhinoceros horns and personal

possessions recovered from poachers. Thence back to the main road

and eastwards past the proposed ‘Shooting Blocks’ and ‘King’s

Reserve’ to Hitaura. After discussions with the D.F.O., I returned

the following day over the Simbanjong Pass to Kathmandu. There

I spent three days discussing my observations in the rhinoceros area,

with the people whom I had met earlier. Finally I flew from Nepal

to India on 11th April.

504. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

VII. STATUS, DISTRIBUTION AND FUTURE OF THE RHINOCEROS

IN NEPAL

It is difficult to obtain accurate information about the former

range and distribution of rhinoceros in Nepal. W. T. Blanford, in

THE FAUNA OF BRITISH INDIA, MAMMALIA, Part II (1891), wrote of it

as being found in 1850 ‘... . along the base of the Himalayas in

Nepal and as far west as Rohilcund’ (a district of India near the

border of West Nepal). From information obtained in Kathmandu

it appears that the last rhinoceros in the Morang District of south-

eastern Nepal was shot at the turn of the present century, and that

the last rhinoceros in the area immediately east of Chitawan was killed

in 1927. It would be safe to say that about 100 years ago rhinoceros

were found all along the southern border of Nepal. Since 1930 they

have been confined to the area covered by this Report.

Referring to the rhinoceros population of Nepal in 1942, E. A.

Smythies wrote: ‘It is estimated that at present the total number is

between 300 and 400.’ In 1953 the Forest Department of Nepal

estimated that there were 1000 rhino, and in 1957, 600. Considering

the extent of the rhinoceros area and the thick cover of the riverain

tracts into which the rhinoceros can and do retreat, these estimates

are not beyond the bounds of probability. Unfortunately, however,

no serious attempt ever seems to have been made to estimate the

numbers scientifically by sample surveys, by studying seasonal migra-

(ions, and so forth. A census is not possible owing to the density of

the riverain scrub forest.

In a Miscellaneous Note published in the Journal of the Bombay

Natural History Society in August 1957, P. D. Stracey, who is

Director of Forest Education in India and had been on an official visit

to Nepal in April of that year, gives an estimate in the region of 400.

He based this figure on a brief visit to the area and on talks with

Forest Officers and others. It appears to have been a reasonable figure,

though the ‘rhinoceros area’ map supplied to him was inaccurate.

In Kathmandu, before my tour, I noted down the estimates of

rhinoceros population made by various people. These included:

General Kiran, S.J.B.R. La ... 250-300

Chief Forest Officer ee ... 300-400

Captain Tej Jung Thapa os) 320

On arrival at the rhinoceros area, I was given the following

estimates :

Divisional Forest Officer os a 320

Captain Gyan Bahadur Basnayt ah 530

Lieutenant Gaj Raj Joshi _... met 380

THE GREAT INDIAN RHINOCEROS IN NEPAL 505

On the 13 elephant trips on which I saw rhinoceros, the number

of elephants taken out averaged 2.15. This is important, as the larger

the number of elephants used in such thick country, the more chance

there is of rhinoceros being encountered. On these 13 trips I

personally counted 43 rhinoceros, of which 9 were young calves. On

the same trips, other members of the party on other elephants saw an

additional 14, bringing the total to 57 rhinoceros seen, including 12

young calves. Visibility varied from between 5 and 20 yards in the

thicker forest to between 20 and 100 yards in the more open areas;

so the actual ground covered in each traverse was not great and I do

not believe I actually saw one-tenth of the ground inhabited by

rhinoceros.

From the detailed information supplied to me by the D.F.O.,

Chitawan, and by the officers of the Rhinoceros Protection Depart-

ment and others, which I checked in sample surveys ‘on 18 elephant

trips in different parts of the rhinoceros area, I estimate that there are

now about 300 rhinoceros in Nepal. I have marked their approximate

distribution as in March-April 1959 by black dots on Maps 2 and 3,

each dot representing 3 rhinoceros. Should my figure of 300 be an

overestimate—I do not think that it is—or an underestimate, which

is quite possible, the numbers represented by each dot can be

adjusted. The pattern of distribution would remain, subject to seasonal

local migrations. |

It will be noticed that the distribution of rhinoceros when I was

there, the dry season of March and April when the burnt-off grassy

areas were beginning to appear green with young shoots, was almost

entirely in or very near the riverain tracts. This, I consider, was not

so much due to scarcity of water and grazing in other areas, as to

the thick cover provided by the evergreen and thorny scrub forest in

these tracts. It will also be seen that rhinoceros in Nepal, as in

NE. India, show a marked predilection for man-grown crops and

vegetables, and therefore choose a habitat as near as possible to

villages and cultivation. They do not object to sharing their grazing

with domestic buffaloes and cattle, though it appears that in Nepal

these common grazing grounds are grazed by domestic beasts by day

and rhinoceros by night. In Kaziranga Sanctuary of Assam also. the

regions of greatest density of rhinoceros population are nearest to the

largest areas of cultivation and villages. It is an inescapable fact

that whatever areas of unspoilt country may be set aside for rhinoceros

preservation, they will probably continue to inhabit those riverain tracts

which are nearest to cultivated land. The presence of tands (look-out

506 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

towers) and rhinoceros ditches in the fields and vegetable gardens over

the whole area considered in this Report would alone prove the

presence of rhinoceros—if such proof were needed in addition to

tracks, dung, and the animals themselves.

With regard to movements of rhinoceros, I was informed that there

has been a noticeable shift from the area now being settled by the

Rapti Vailey Multi-purpose Development Project to the Nawalpur

district and to other parts of the Rapti Valley. From all accounts,

the grasslands south-west of Bharatpur down to Salbas, along the east

bank of the Narayani River, used to be the best tracts for rhinoceros;

but they are no longer so. There is little or no information to be

had on local migrations, though this seasonal movement is bound to

take place each monsoon as the riverain tracts become partly or wholly

fiooded. The general direction of this movement would be away from

the rivers towards the grassy tracts and kholas at the foot of the sal-

forested hills. The most important line of migration, as has already

been pointed out, is along the Khagri Khola and the belt of unspoilt

country on its western bank. It is very desirable that local officers

should study these seasonal movements.

The great danger to rhinoceros from poachers, on account of the

horns which are sold and commercialized as an aphrodisiac, exists and

will continue to exist. It is being dealt with by the Rhinoceros

Protection Department which is doing good work in difficult circum-

stances. In fact, it is surprising that more rhinoceros are not shot by

poachers. The officers in charge possess no maps, and appear to have

no instructions to observe or study the habits, distribution, numbers,

or movements of rhinoceros. Many of the rhinoceros guards (sepoys)

have received no training. The service conditions of these guards,

Rs. 30 per month Nepal currency (£1 7s. Od.) with no rations, no

uniform and no accommodation, are inadequate and are below those

enjoyed by the hatisar personnel. Some of the ammunition does not

‘go off. No rewards or promotions appear to be awarded for good

work, such as the capture of poachers or recovery of horns. As the

value of these horns is very high—as much as Rs. 3135 Indian currency

(£235) was paid to a poacher for a horn obtained in the Reu Valley—

and the temptation to a lowly-paid guard very great, a system of pro-

motion and rewards would have a stimulating effect.

But a danger to the rhinoceros of Nepal greater than that from

poachers has arisen in the development and settlement of the grass-

lands of the Rapti Valley. As there is now increased competition for

THE GREAT INDIAN RHINOCEROS IN NEPAL 507

grasslands between human occupants and wild life, a decision will

have to be made by the Government as to whether settlement of

human population is going to occupy all the available land of the

Rapti Valley, or whether water and soil conservation and wild life

preservation will have their rightful place in development schemes.

It is confidently to be hoped that as a matter of wise land-use the

authorities will set apart the appropriate areas for these urgently

necessary requirements.

The habits of the rhinoceros of Nepal have been affected by two

main factors. Firstly, rhinoceros have been shot for sport as well as

by poachers for a very long time, if not since time immemorial.

Secondly, they have been pushed further and further back from their

habitat and feeding grounds, particularly during the past four years,

by the influx into the grasslands of both authorized and unauthorized

settlers. Consequently they have become more and more hunted and

persecuted, and like an outlawed political party have ‘gone under-

ground’, taking refuge in the thick scrub forest of the riverain tracts.

-They have become very scared, and if encountered in their hiding

places frequently charge before rushing away to another hiding place.

They have become very much more nocturnal than rhinoceros in

India, and are rarely if ever to be found grazing in the open during

day time. Their dung often consists of individual droppings, or very

small dung heaps instead of the large dung heaps found in Assam,

and this is probably due -to their more furtive existence. Though

Jungle Mynas (Aethiopsar fuscus) settle on rhinoceros in Nepal,

Cattle Egrets (Bubulcus ibis) are never found in their company, though

they are always so found in Assam; and this also is probably due to

the rhinoceros’ nocturnal habits and furtive existence.

The fact that so many rhinoceros cows were seen with young

calves (12 young calves out of 57 rhinoceros seen by my party) goes

to show that the rhinoceros of Nepal have become accustomed to the

new conditions in which they have to live and are actually thriving.

The average horn I saw in Nepal was very much smaller than in

Assam, and I saw no old rhinoceros. Both sportsmen and poachers

look for large horns; furthermore the older rhinoceros (often with

large horns) are the more easily shot.

At the present moment the position of the rhinoceros in Nepal is

very insecure, especially considering the impending influx of 25,000

more authorized settlers, and an unknown number of unauthorized

ones, into the Rapti Valley. An irrigation scheme also is proposed

which would lead off the water of the Khagri Khola and other streams

508 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 36 (3)

to the newly-settled area. If this is put into effect, it will drain to

a dangerously low level the rhinoceros habitat in the region of Tikoli

and southwards to the Rapti.

It is not too late even now to allocate certain areas in the

catchments of the rivers and streams for strict protection as a necessary

and urgent measure of water and soil conservation; to demarcate clearly

the boundaries of Reserved Forests and to prevent indiscriminate

cutting and burning within them; and to allocate sufficient areas for

rhinoceros and other wild life to live in safety and security alongside

human settlers.

Owing to the various pressures and peculiar circumstances affect-

ing the status of rhinoceros in Nepal it is recommended that the

policy governing the administration of the national park and wild life

preservation in general be a flexible one. While adhering as far as

possible to the principles accepted by leading nature conservationists

in the world, it is possible that certain departures from these principles

might prove advantageous for the preservation of the rhinoceros.

For instance, this species’ partiality for a habitat near villages might

indicate that a few carefully selected and strictly controlled ‘forest

villages’ inside the national park could be allowed, in which rhinoceros

guards would have assistance and protection in their operations

against poachers. Also the fact that tigers prey on very young

rhinoceros might render it advisable to control the numbers of tigers

in the rhinoceros inhabited areas, should they become excessive. Any

wild life management policy would naturally have to be based on

ecological study.

VIII. RECOMMENDATIONS (see Map 3)

The following recommendations are made:

(1) That the present Mahendra National Park be enlarged and

extended (a) southwards to include the migration routes and rhinoceros

areas as far as the Reu valley, and (b) north-westwards to include

the scenic area in the north-west. See Sections V and VI and Map 3.

And that this national park be fully protected with buffer belts where

possible.

(2) That the riverain tracts of the Narayani, Rapti, and Reu rivers |

which contain rhinoceros be designated as National Park Extension

Areas or Protected Areas, with rights of local villagers for grazing,

cutting firewood, and cutting thatch to continue as before, but to

remain free of settlement and cultivation.

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THE GREAT INDIAN RHINOCEROS IN NEPAL 509

(3) That a wild life sanctuary or national park be created in a

suitable area in the Morang District of southeast Nepal in order to

preserve the few remaining wild buffalo there; and that a few pairs of

rhinoceros be re-introduced into that area so that there will be a

second locality for the preservation of the rhinoceros in Nepal.

(4) That the Rhinoceros Protection Department be strengthened,

chiefly by reorganization and by improvement of service conditions,

as noted in Section VII. And that a suitably qualified officer be

appointed, who could assume complete charge of wild life preservation

in the rhinoceros area, including the national park.

(5) That a Nepal Board for Wild Life be constituted which would

be the authority for all matters pertaining to wild life preservation in

the country. |

(6) That education and publicity be undertaken in order to develop

consciousness among the people of the cultural and economic value

of wild life and nature conservation, and to develop tourism as an

important economic factor in support of wild life preservation.

IX. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In conclusion, I must record my deepest appreciation of the help

given to me in Nepal by officials and non-officials. First and fore-

most, to General Kiran Shumshere Jung Bahadur Rana who gave me

his fullest moral support and advice as well as much information: to

the Chief Forest Officer, Mr. Balarama Paul Baidya, who kindly made

his departmental information available to me and allotted an officer

to take me round the rhinoceros area; to Circle Officer Captain Tej

Jung Thapa, an experienced sportsman and naturalist; to Major Lok

Bikram, who helped me to obtain elephants in the Rapti Valley: to

Mr. K. B. Malla, Chief of the Rapti Valley Multi-Purpose

Project, who kindly allowed me camping facilities and transport

to Dadrahani; to Mr. Boris Lissanevitch, of the Hotel Royal in

Kathmandu, who very kindly made available to me some camping equip-

ment as well as much information; to Colonel and Mrs. Proud of the

British Embassy, Mr. Sen of the Indian Embassy, and Mr. N. Pal of

the India Aid Mission, all of whom showed much interest in my

mission. :

In particular I want to offer my thanks and appreciation to Mr.

Sudhir Jung Thapa, Divisional Forest Officer of Chitawan, who

accompanied me during most of my tour in the rhinoceros areas, and —

without whose patient help and never-failing supply of information

my work could not have been successful. To Captain Gyan Bahadur

510 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Basnayt and Lieutenant Gaj Raj Joshi, officers in charge of the

Rhinoceros Protection Department, I owe my gratitude for making all

the local arrangements, including camping, elephant trips, etc.

REFERENCES

BLANFORD, W. T. (1891) : The Fauna SmyTHigs, E. A. (1942): Big Game

of British India, Mammalia, Part II. Shooting in Nepal.

SHEBBEARE, E. O. (1953) : Status of SMYTHIES, Olive (1953) : Tiger Lady.

the Three Asiatic Rhinoceros. Oryx STRACEY, P. D. (1957): The Status

2 (3) : 141-9. of the Great Indian Rhinoceros (R. uni-

cornis) in Nepal. JBNHS 54 : 763-6.

Biology and Ecology of Oriental

Termites (Isoptera)

No. 4.* The Dry-wood Termite, Copiotermes heim:

(Wasm.), in India.

M. L. ROONWAL

Director, Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta

(With 3 Plates)

CONTENTS

PAGE

I. INTRODUCTION 3: Baste at ee OL]

II. GEOGRAPHICAL eriBorioN x 5" ine ee LS

III. HOST-MATERIAL, ETC. a oe .. 314

IV. EcOoNomMiIc IMPORTANCE AND Neues OF Byten ar suet DLO

V. SWARMING .. oe on a »» 316

VI. NESTS AND THEIR STeCTOnE ee ie me ee 9

VII. SOME OTHER BIOLOGICAL DATA wy a aS nie S21

VIII. SUMMARY % EF a ee ie ee a4

TX. REFERENCES .. Sy s* 5 m sacags

I. INTRODUCTION

Coptotermes heimi (Wasmann) (synonym: C. parvulus Holmgren)

(Fam. Rhinotermitidae, Subfam. Coptotermitinae) is one of the three

species of termites which are most destructive to timber in houses and

elsewhere in India, the other two species being Heterotermes indicola

(Wasmann) and Odontotermes feae (Wasmann).

It is interesting to note that although Coptotermes heimi is a species

occurring commonly throughout the Indian region, it is not (except in

Lahore, West Pakistan) the common species to be found attacking the

experimental pieces of timber buried in the ground (vide Beeson, 1934,

p. 3). Beeson stated that the species occurring in the experimental wood-

cubes treated with wood-preservatives and buried in the ground in Lahore

was C. heimi, but in corresponding tests done elsewhere in India and

*Earlier numbers are as follows:

No. 1. JBNHS (1954), 52 (2 & 3): 459-462, 1 pl.

No. 2. ibid., (1954), 52 (2 & 3): 463-467, 1, pl.

No. 3. ibid., (1955), 53.(2) : 234-239, 2 pls.

a2 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Ceylon the species were different, thus: at Pusa (Bihar), Microtermes

obesi Holmg. [=M. anandi Holmg.]; at Calcutta, Odontotermes feae

(Wasm.); at Bangalore (S. India), O. horni (Wasm.); at Dehra Dun

(U.P.), O. bangalorensis Holmg.; and in Ceylon, O. horni (Wasm.), O.

(Hypotermes) obscuriceps (Wasm.), O. redemanni (Wasm.), and Coptoter-

mes ceylonicus Wasm.

Information on the biology of Coptotermes heimi is limited and widely

scattered. Some new information on its biology is presented here, and

the existing knowledge summarised for easy reference.

In the course of a systematic revision of the Indian species of genus

Coptotermes Wasmann, a large amount of material, consisting of over 63

lots and nearly 150 separate vials, was examined from all over India (in-

cluding a few from the western Punjab, in West Pakistan). This material

contained the original data of the collectors relating to dates and time of

swarming, the names of the hosts attacked, and other valuable infor-

mation on the biology of the species. The data are summarised below.

Some of these specimens, e.g. from Calcutta, Kharagpur, and Allahabad,

collected during 1907-1910, bore previous but wrong determination

labels as Coptotermes travians (Haviland), and it is likely that they may

have been referred to in the literature under that name. Besides this

material, some data on nests became available during recent field sur-

veys, and from other sources.

The data discussed here concern the following particulars: Geograph-

ical distribution; host-material; nature of damage; swarming; nests;

duration of life; etc. The limited information available in the published

literature on the species has also been discussed. Authors in whose

papers information on biology and ecology is available are the following:

Annandale (1923): Swarming; nest construction, etc. |

Assmuth (1913): Nature of damage to wood; nest-structure;

swarming. (Accounts of C. heimi and C. parvulus were mixed

up and not mentioned separately; most of the remarks refer to

*Coptotermes”.)

Beeson (1934): Nature of damage.

Beeson (1941) : Summary of biology.

Holmgren, K. & Holmgren, N. (1917): Swarming.

Holmgren, N. (1912): Swarming.

Margabandhu (1934): Summary of known information.

Rattan Lal & Menon (1953): Literature on biology and syste-

matics. [Mixed with C. travians (Haviland), with which they

synonymise C. heimi (Wasm.)|

Roonwal (1954): Ecology.

Besides these, Assmuth (1915), Silvestri (1923), Dover (1931), and Dover

& Mathur (1934) make casual mention of C. heimi.

The nomenclative position of the species is summarised below:

BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY OF ORIENTAL TERMITES (ISOPTERA) 513

Coptotermes heimi (Wasmann, 1902)

(Synonym: Coptotermes parvulus Holmgren, 1913)

1902. <Arrhinotermes heimi Wasmann, Zool. Jb. (Syst.), Jena, 17 (1), p. 104, Pl. 4,

Fig. 1. (India: Wallon, Ahmadnagar Dist., Bombay State).

1911. Coptotermes heimi, N. Holmgren, K. Sy. Vet. Akad. Handl., Stockholm,

46 (6), p. 73.

1913. Coptotermes parvulus N. Holmgren, J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., Bombay,

22 (1), p. 104; and K. Sv. Vet. Akad. Handl., Stockholm, 50 (2), p. 73.

(In both cases: Anand and Vadtal, Bombay State.)

1953. Coptotermes travians (Havil.), Rattanlal & Menon, Catal. Indian Ins.,

No. 27, Isoptera, Delhi, p. 27. (Erroneously synonymise C. heimi

(Wasmann) with C. travians Haviland.)

Bugnion (1910, Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr., Paris, 79, p. 137) also wrongly determined C.

heimi specimens as C. travians.

Where no source is mentioned, the data given in the following account

are original.

I am indebted to Shri M. Srinivasan, Curator, Industrial Section,

Botanical Survey of India, Calcutta, for kindly checking the correct

botanical names of the host-plants.

II. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION

Coptotermes heimi occurs all over India and parts of West Pakistan

(Punjab). The present material studied by me is from the following

localities:

INDIA

Andhra Pradesh: Adoni.

Assam: Gauhati.

Bihar: Ankura (Saranda Div.); Pusa.

Bombay State: Bombay city and environs.

Madhya Pradesh: Khandwa; Sillari (near Nagpur); Balaghat.

Mysore State: Dharwar; Sidapur (Coorg); Bellahunisi, Kottur; Siri-

guppa.

Orissa: Barkuda Is. (Chilka Lake); Angul; Sambalpur; Balukhand

(Puri Dist.).

Punjab: Hoshiarpur; Sri Hargobindapur (Gurdaspur Dist.); Jullander.

Rajasthan: Bariganga near Jodhpur.

Uttar Pradesh: Dehra Dun and vicinity (alt. ca. 610 m.); Kalsi (Dehra

_ Dun Dist.); Chakrata (alt. ca. 2100 m.); Kanpur; Allahabad:

Mirzapur; Rampur; Gopalnagar (Bijnor Dist.); Pathargarh (Naji-

babad Dist.); Lucknow; Biharigarh (Saharanpur Dist.); Haldwani.

West Bengal: Calcutta and environs; the 24-Parganas (the Sundar-

bans); Bankura; Kharagpur; Sam Sing.

514 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

WEST PAKISTAN

W. Punjab: Chichawatni; Lahore.

‘C. parvulus Holmg.’ has been recorded from India and West Pakistan

as follows:

Anand and Vadtal in Bombay State. (type localities.) (Holm-

gren, 1913 a, b.)

Barkuda Is. (Chilka Lake, Orissa.) (Annandale, 1923; Silvestri,

1923.)

Karachi (Sind, W. Pakistan). (Assmuth, 1913.)

III. HOST-MATERIAL, ETC.

Coptotermes heimi appears to be polyphagous and occurs in dead

wood and under bark of numerous host-plants as well as in construc-

tional timber in houses, railway coaches, bobbins, packing cases, old

sleepers, and in insulated electric wire. It has also been recorded from

‘mud tunnels’ (apparently cemented excreta tunnels) on walls, and in

one case ‘ex mound’ (Angul, Orissa) but it is not clear whether the mound

was built by the Coptotermes itself or by some other species—species of

Coptotermes are not known to be mound-builders in India, though an

Australian species, C. lacteus (Frogg.), does build mounds. In another

case it was recorded ‘ex nest in a tree’, and here again it is not clear

whether it was a nest of the Coptotermes itself or of some other termite

or even an ant.

1; List of Host-pilamnts

About 35 different species, belonging to a wide assortment of families,

have been recorded as hosts, as follows: :

Acacia arabica Willd., Babul, Fam. Leguminosae. (From rotten

log).

Acacia sp., Fam. Leguminosae. (From dead plant).

Albizzia sp., Fam. Leguminosae. (Under bark).

Avicennia sp. (A. alba Linn. or A. officinalis Linn.), Baen, Fam.

Verbenaceae. (Nest found in dead log).

Bamboo, Fam. Gramineae, Tribe Bambuseae. (From dry splints).

Bauhinia vahlii W. & A., Fam. Leguminosae. (From dead log).

Boswellia serrata Roxb., Salai, Fam. Burseraceae.

Cactus sp., Fam. Cactaceae.

Carica papaya Linn., Papaya, papita, Fam. Caricaceae.

Casuarina equisetifolia Forst., Fam. Casuarinaceae. (Under bark).

Cedrela toona Roxb., Toon, Fam. Meliaceae. (From dead portion

of green standing tree; and dead stump).

Euphorbia nivulia Ham,, Thor, Fam. Euphorbiaceae.

BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY OF ORIENTAL TERMITES (ISOPTERA) 515

Excaecaria agallocha Linn., Fam. Euphorbiaceae. (From pole).

Ficus benghalensis Linn., Banyan, Fam. Urticaceae (Moraceae

according to some authors). (From dead stump. Nests also

found in dead trunks). .

Garuga pinnata Roxb., Fam. Burseraceae.

Heritiera fomes Buch.-Ham. (synonym: H. minor Roxb.), Sundri,

Fam. Sterculiaceae. (From pole).

Jatropha curcas Linn., Fam. Euphorbiaceae.

Lagerstroemia parviflora Roxb., Fam. Lythraceae. (From half-

dead tree).

Lannea coromandelica (Houtt.) Merr. [synonyms: Lannea grandis

(Dennst.) Engl. and Odina wodier Roxb.], Fam. Anacardiaceae.

(From pole in soil).

Mangifera indica Linn., Mango, Fam. Anacardiaceae. (From

rotten stump; roots; and under bark).

Moringa pterygosperma Gaertn. [synonym: M. oleifera Lamk.],

Fam. Moringaceae.

Morus alba Linn., White mulberry, Fam. Moraceae. (From fallen

logs).

Palm leaves, Fam. Palmae.

Pinus longifolia Roxb., Chir Pine, Fam. Pinaceae. (Sometimes

wrongly referred to as P. roxburghii Sarg.).

Prunus persica Bth. & Hook., Peach, Fam. Rosaceae.

Pterocymbium tinctorium Merr. [synonym: Heritiera tinctoria

Blanco], Fam. Sterculiaceae.

Rhizophora conjugata Linn., Fam. Rhizophoraceae. (From rafters).

Salmalia malabarica Schott & Endl. [synonym : Bombax malabari-

cum DC.], Simal, Silk Cotton tree, Fam. Malvaceae.

Shorea robusta Gaertn. f., Sal, Fam. Dipterocarpaceae. (From

pole; and under bark).

Saccharum officinarum Linn., Sugarcane, Fam. Gramineae.

(From stump and crushed pieces). |

Swietenia floribunda Griff., Fam. Meliaceae.

Tamarindus indica Linn., Imli, Fam. Leguminosae. (From stump;

and packing case).

Tamarix gallica Linn., Fam. Tamaricaceae.

Tectona grandis Linn., Teak, Fam. Verbenaceae. (From dead

portion of green standing tree; and log).

Xylocarpus gangeticus Parkin. [synonym: Carapa moluccensis vat.

gangeticus Prain], Fam. Meliaceae. (From pole).

2. Other Material

Besides the host-plants listed above, C. heimi has also been recorded

as infesting the following materials:

516 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. $6 (3)

Paper and books; wood-work in houses; wooden packing cases;

wooden floor; wooden barrels; chemically treated wood blocks (‘grave-

yard cubes’); pipe line and wood casing containing electrical wire; in-

sulated electric wire; old wooden sleepers; wood-work of railway coaches;

‘feeding on bobbin having cotton thread’; and below cow dung.

IV. ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE AND NATURE OF DAMAGE

As stated above, Coptotermes heimi is economically one of the three

most important termites which infest the wood-work of buildings in India.

Apart from buildings, it attacks wood-work in railway coaches, wooden

packing cases, stored timber, wooden sleepers, and papers and books.

There are records of it having been taken from ‘insulated electric wire’

and ‘pipe line and wood casing containing electric wire’, this damage

sometimes leading to the leakage of electric current.

The ‘feeding pattern’ is characteristic (Pl. 1, fig. 1). The termite

eats away the softer parts of the wood along the fibres, leaving the outer

surfaces of constructional timber intact. The harder parts of the wood,

such as the heartwood, knots, etc., are generally not destroyed, but may

be tunnelled through when necessary. Thus, longish, narrow oval cells

are constructed whose long axis is along the similar axis of the wood-

fibres. The thin partition walls are plastered with excrement. The

cavities so formed are filled with a tough, mottled brown to bluish-black

deposit (Pl. 1, fig. 2), the so-called ‘fillings’ of Assmuth (1913), ‘formed

in an irregular spongy or stringy network resembling superficially fungus

combs’ of certain termites (Beeson, 1941, p. 543). Assmuth (1913)

believed that such plastering was done on all surfaces, including the sur-

faces of glass bottles, in order to facilitate walking. According to Annan-

dale (1923), however, the plastering with excrement, which is done by

the workers during nest-construction also, is for the strengthening of the

thin partition walls. |

A similar feeding pattern occurs in Heterotermes indicola (Wasm.),

another important dry-wood termite of India (PI. 1, fig. 3).

V. SWARMING

Swarming of Coptotermes heimi was observed in India in Uttar

Pradesh (various parts), West Bengal (Calcutta), Orissa (Barkuda Is.,

Chilka Lake), and Bombay city.

1. Season of swarming

The following are the recorded dates, years, and locality of swarming,

arranged chronologically under each month: sin!

PLATE |

JourN. BomBAy Nat. Hist. Soc.

peeve Sap

Spat ea Ss

ete

SSP ape

. Enlarged.

the wood damaged by Coptotermes he

) damaged by Heterotermes indicola (Wasm.)

TMi

) damaged by Coptotermes he

ir pine

The pattern of damage to wood caused by Coptotermes heimi (Wasm.) and Heterotermes indicola (Wasm.).

Fig. 1.—A piece of softwood (ch

Enlarged.

vil.

ies in

Fig. 2.—The ‘fillings’ which fill the cav

Fig. 3.—A piece of softwood (ch

ir pine

thin ek

uate Weve

at: Ne

2 ,

pas} a

‘ *

‘

fa .

ay ;

cee - ”

BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY OF ORIENTAL TERMITES (ISOPTERA) 517

‘January to March’

Beeson (1941, p. 544) stated: ‘C. heimi swarms at sunset during the

dry season and especially in January to March.’ This statement needs

confirmation with regard to January.

February

2m A,

March

20. 11

1912.

i. 1910.

li. 1908.

re CME

910.

No record.

13° V.

25.-V.

8. vi.

11. vi.

12 i,

15. vi.

16. vi.

19. vi.

21. - Vi.

July

tlk i Jes eae

August

Vil.

Vii.

Vil.

1923.

1907.

1911.

1955:

1950.

1953.

1950.

1940.

153.

1907.

1941.

1955.

ID SL:

1935.

Coimbatore.

Calcutta.

Bombay. (Same material as in Holmgren, 1912,

pp. 777-778.)

Calcutta.

Barkuda Is. (Chilka Lake, Orissa).

Kharagpur (West Bengal).

Pusa (Bihar). (Holmgren & Holmgren, 1917, pp. 144-

145.)

Dehra Dun (U.P.), alt. ca. 610 m.

—do.—

Allahabad (U.P.).

Dehra Dun and Kanpur (U.P.).

Dehra Dun (U.P.).

Kalsi (Dehra Dun Dist., U.P.), alt. ca. 800 m.

Dehra Dun (U.P.), alt. ca. 610 m.

TS,

6. viii. 1930. Dehra Dun (U.P.), (Only one imago collected.)

From these data it appears that swarming generally occurs from early

March to early August. It seems to happen in the spring and early

summer (March-May) in the warm and more humid parts of the country

518 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

(West Bengal, Orissa, Bombay), and during the monsoon (June to August)

in the drier parts (Uttar Pradesh). There is no record of swarming in

April. Beeson’s (1941, p. 544) general statement of swarming in the

winter, ‘January to March’, needs confirmation; Beeson does not mention

the localities.

From his observations on the Barkuda Island (Chilka Lake, Orissa)

during 1920-22, Annandale (1923, p. 234) stated as follows :

‘Swarms earlier in the dry season [i.e. earlier than June 20]. Winged

adults and a female which had just cast its wiles were found in a nest on

April 29th in 1922.’

He further wrote :

‘The communites are comparatively small, only a few winged adults

are produced at a time, and they probably issue forth singly or in small

patties.’

2. Time of swarmaae

Swarming was observed at various times, e.g. in the evening, and at

7.30 p.m., 8 p.m., and 10 p.m. Other records merely stated : ‘At dusk’,

‘in light trap,’ or ‘caught by lamplight’. It would thus appear that swarm-

ing occurs at and after dusk in the early part of the night.

3; Other particulars

C. heimi apparently breeds in dead wood of a number of species, below

as well as above the ground, as the following records would indicate,

and winged adults may thus swarm out of holes in the ground, from logs

lying on the ground or from dead standing trees and stumps.

Dehra Dun (U.P.) :

‘Adults coming out of a hole in a ground near a pole of Lannea

grandis Engl.*; soldiers from the pole’.

‘Swarming out of a small dead portion of a green standing tree, at

about 7.30 p.m.’

‘Swarming out of a dead stump of Cedrela toona Roxb. tree.’

‘Swarming out of a dead portion of a green standing Tectona grandis

Linn.’

Winged adults ‘Ex rotten mango stump’.

One observation, as follows, indicates that swarming may occur even

during a light shower of rain :—Barkuda Is. (Chilka Lake, Orissa),

13. v. 1923: ‘At light during slight shower of rain’.

*The current name is Lannea coromandelica (Houtt.) Merr. [synonyms: L. grandis

(Dennst.) Engl. and Odina wodier Roxb. ]

JouRN. BomMBAy Nat. Hist. Soc, PLATE II

Nest of the termite Coptotermes heimi (Wasmann), found between wooden boards

in a railway carriage in north-western India.

‘ Figs. 1, 2,3. Portions of the nest.

*ySQU OY} JO SoodId OM} OWLS 9Y} JO MOIA IOUUT ‘OIG ‘p pue ¢€ ‘SSIZ

“SoATey OA} UL ND UI0q SPY YSIYM Jsou OY} JO MIA JOINO “7 pur | “SBI

(pS-I-p/€U “ON “TIOO) ‘“pSel Arenuee Yrp “[]OO joMuooy *T"W “punoys oy} UO BurAT

‘(evaovuaqi9A Apiue.s) ‘ds viutaoiA py 6901) Useq, 94} JO SO] & UI puNos “(UOISIAIG: JSe1O4 SUBQIepUNg ‘osuRY solo vULYYWRN “OseyIIA

InduevkeseNn) vIpuy ‘[esusg 3SdAA “JOLIISIG] SeULSIeg-p7 ‘SULgIePpUNY oy} Wo “(UULUUSe AA) MIaYy SaUtajojdo IU} 9Y} JO ISON

WI dV Ig ‘208 ‘“LSIE| “LVN AVaWOg ‘Nuoof

a he

BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY OF ORIENTAL TERMITES USOPTERA) 519

VI. NESTS AND THEIR STRUCTURES

(Plates 2 and 3)

Coptotermes heimi nests in dead logs of wood (Annandale, 1923,

pp. 250-251; and Roonwal, present account), as well as in the soil

(Beeson, 1941, p. 544). A nest has also been found between the wooden

boards of a railway carriage in north-western India (Pl. 2). Either nests

er swarming (vide above) of winged adults (which indicates breeding)

have been recorded from logs or dead standing trees of the following

species :

Avicennia sp.—Nest found (vide infra).

Cedrela toona Roxb.—Swarming from dead stump.

Ficus benghalensis Linn.—Nests in dead trunks (Annandale, 1923).

Lannea coromandelica (Houtt.) Merr. [synonyms: JL. grandis

(Dennst.) Engl. and Odina wodier Roxb.].—Probably nesting.

(Swarming from hole in ground near pole of Lannea; soldiers

taken from the pole).

Mangifera indica Linn.—Swarming from rotten mango stump.

Tectona grandis Linn.—Swarming from dead portion of green

standing tree. |

Annandale (1923, Pl. V, figs. 5 and 5a) reproduced photographs of

small portions of a nest collected in the Barkuda Island (Chilka Lake,

Orissa). I reproduce here photographs of two complete nests: (i)

A nest found between the wooden boards of a railway carriage in north-

western India (Pl. 2), (ii) A nest found in a dead log of ‘baen’ tree,

Avicennia sp. (Fam. Verbenaceae) found on the ground in the Sundar-

bans, West Bengal (PI. 3).

The nest usually consists of a somewhat flattened, porous structure

of dark grey-brown colour, and composed of a network of strands, pro-

bably made partly of the harder wood-fibres left over during the process

of eating away the wood and partly of the termite excrement cemented

together by the insect and plastered over the wood fibres. There are

irregular chambers of varying sizes, and the whole nest presents an ap-

pearance rather like the fungus combs of a mound-building termite such as

Odontotermes obesus but with the chambers more flattened. The central

portion of the nest is rather more compact than the superficial parts,

where the chambers are larger. No royal chamber could be found.

The West Bengal nest was about 30 cm. in maximum length, 15 cm.

in maximum width, and 12.5 cm. in maximum height. It was found in

a log of “baen’ 60 cm. long and 30 cm. in diameter lying on the ground;

the log itself showed no external indication of damage inside. The

railway carriage nest was about 40 cm. in length and 15 c.m. in the large

diameter.

520 | JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

For ‘C. parvulus’ (which is a synonym of C. heimi, see above) Beeson,

1941, p. 544 wrote as follows: ‘Coptotermes parvulus makes a simple

nest of small extent underground whence it tunnels into logs on the ground

and ascends the trunks of trees in the bark in galleries covered in with

earth,’

The only other observations on the nest of C. heimi are those

of Annandale (1923, pp. 250-251) made on the Barkuda Island, Chilka

Lake. The nests were found in the moist portions of logs and trunks

of the banian, Ficus benghalensis. Several nests may occur in a single

log and are confined to those parts of it that remain damp. During

the hot weather the insects retire to the heart of the trunk, but in the

rains they may be found immediately under the bark. The nest- structure

has a superficial resemblance to the spongy excretory and woody material

(the ‘fillings’ of Assmuth, 1913) with which the termite fills the cavities

it creates inside the wood it feeds on, but can be distinguished from the

latter by its more fragile and papery structure. According to Annandale :

‘The chambers in this nest are eaten out from the wood by little bodies of

workers, which crowd together for the purpose and are apparently so

intent on their work that they can be dissipated only by violence. As

they eat away the wood they secrete some substance that dyes it black

to a depth of about a millimetre. Possibly this substance may guide

another body working independently from the other side of the partition,

by means of some flavour or of a peculiar consistency it imparts to the

wood. The excrement must be spread on the walls in a liquid or semi-

liquid condition after they are co The flattened pellets can be

distinguished by the naked eye.’

Assmuth (1913) stated that the workers of C. heimi spread their excre-

ment on any body including glass surfaces, over which they crawl, and

that this layer may form an easy pathway for the workers. Annandale

(1923), however, was of the opinion that the real function of this layer of

excrement is to strengthen the walls of the cells of the nest etc., for ‘the

partitions between the cells are often so fragile, especially where the wood

is rotten, that they would collapse unless strengthened’.

‘In a nest opened in April, Annandale found some of the cells, always

at a considerable distance from those occupied by living individuals,

filled with the dead and shrivelled bodies of workers and soldiers. No

particular royal chamber could be distinguished. The occupied cells

always contain large numbers of soldiers and oe including 1 immature

individuals. -

- Annandale further noticed that the nests of Microcerotermes an-

nandalei seem-to be precisely like those of Coptotermes heimi, and he

considered it possible that the former species merely occupies deserted

nests of the latter.

BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY OF ORIENTAL TERMITES (ISOPTERA) 521

VII. SOME OTHER BIOLOGICAL DATA

Ee Dutation of life

From observations in the Barkuda Island (Chilka Lake), Annandale

(1923, p. 237) concluded that in Coptotermes heimi the individuals in a

colony die early and probably do not live beyond a year. He wrote:

*,.. the sexual individuals of those species in which the winged adults

are small live for a shorter period than those in which they are large, and,

indeed, probably survive for only one year. I base this conclusion on

the fact that in Capritermes obtusus, Coptotermes heimi and Eurytermes

assmuthi only very young wingless males and females were found in nests

examined shortly after swarming time. In all these species it is probable

that more than one pair of adults inhabits each nest.’

For workers and soldiers, he stated: ‘That many die off in the latter

part of the dry season I have no doubt... Ina nest of Coptotermes

heimi opened in April I found many dead and shrivelled corpses of workers

and soldiers in chambers somewhat remote from those occupied by living

individuals.’ :

maaroporvion of the vatiouws Castes

The only observations are those of Roonwal (1954, p. 465) who stated

that in Sillari, Madhya Pradesh, the soldiers constituted about 33 per

cent of a soldier-worker population in a dead tree of ‘salai’, Boswellia

serrata.

7 Beological Adjustment with other Speciés

of Ter mi t os

Coptotermes heimi seems to live in peaceful ecological adjustment

with several other species of termites. Thus, on the Barkuda Is. (Chilka

Lake) Annandale (1923, p. 250) found that in a dead trunk of the banyan

tree, Ficus benghalensis, no less than five species of termite were living:

Odontotermes feae, Odontotermes obesus, Microcerotermes annandalei,

Microtermes anandi, and Coptotermes heimi. Similarly, in the Sillari

forest in the Nagpur-Wardha .Forest Division in the Bombay State

(formerly in Madhya Pradesh) Roonwal (1954) found that in a recently

dead standing tree of the ‘salai’, Boswellia serrata Roxb. (Fam. Burser-

aceae), two species, namely Coptotermes heimi and Odontotermes rede-

manni (Wasm.), were living. O. redemanni fed on the surface of the

sapwood not going deeper than about one centimetre from the surface

both on the bole and the root stock, while C. heimi was confined to the

core of bole which it had completely hollowed out and filled with a hard

spongy whitish excretory material.

522 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY; Vol. 56 (3)

4. Secretiom of, Whitish.F liad: byys ohdwe e-

The soldiers of C. heimi share with other members of the genus Copto-

termes the habit of ejecting a whitish milky fluid in the form of a droplet

from the opening of the fontanelle on the dorsum of the head. The fluid,

which on exposure to air quickly hardens to a gummy solid, is secreted

by a large gland which extends from the head into the abdomen.

VIII. SUMMARY

1. Coptotermes heimi (Wasmann) (lsoptera, Rhinotermitidae, Copto-

termitinae) [synonym C. parvulus Holmgren] is one of the three termite

species which are most destructive to timber in houses and elsewhere in

India.

2. The available data on its biology and ecology are limited

and widely scattered. In the present paper, while providing new biological

data on swarming, nest-structure, host-material, etc., the existing data are

summarised for ready use.

3.. The nomenclative position of the species is briefly given, and C.

parvulus Holmgren is regarded as a synonym of it. Some authors have,

without justification, synonymised C. heimi (Wasm.) with C. travians

(Haviland).

4. Geographical distribution. The species has been recorded from

all over India and parts of W. Pakistan (W. Punjab). It does not occur

in Ceylon.

5. Host-plants, etc. The species is polyphagous and feeds on dry

constructional timber as well as on dead and semi-rotten wood, logs, and

trunks of dead standing trees of a large number of host-plants. About

35 such species, belonging to a wide assortment of families, have been

recorded. In addition, it has been recorded as damaging packing cases,

wooden sleepers, papers, books, and woodwork in electrical installations,

ete:

6. The economic importance of the species and the nature of damage

it causes, i.e. its ‘feeding pattern’ in the wood, is discussed.

7. Swarming. Swarming occurs from March to August, at dusk

or in the early part of the night. Statements of winter swarming (January

and February) need confirmation. 3

8. Nests, etc. Nesting occurs in small colonies in logs of wood of

several species (at least six such species have been recorded), in soil in

the ground, and between the wooden boards of railway carriages.

Several nests may occur in the same trunk. The nest made by the workers

is a flat suboval structure, about 30 cm. in length and 15 cm. in the long

diameter, composed of a network of narrow, flattened, suboval cells,

constructed out of the wood left after eating, and with the walls plastered

with termite excrement. | | )

BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY OF ORIENTAL TERMITES USOPTERA)

525

9. Some other biological data, such as the duration of life, the pro-

portion of individuals of the various castes, ecological adjustments with

other termite species, and the secretion by the soldiers of a whitish milky

fluid from the dorsum of the head, are discussed. :

IX. REFERENCES

ANNANDALE, N. (1923): The habits of

the termites of Barkuda. Rec. Indian

Mus. 25 (2) : 233-251.

ASSMUTH, J. (1913): Wood-destroy-

ing white ants of the Bombay Presidency.

JBNHS 22 (2) : 372-384, 4 pls.

(1915): Indian wood-

destroying white ants. (Second contri-

bution). JBNHS 23 (4) : 690-694.

BEESON, C. F. C. (1934): Introduction

Pp. 1-3 [inC. Dover & R.N. MATHUR:

Methods of testing the susceptibility of

timbers to termite attack. J/ndian For.

Rec. (Ent.) 20(7) : 1-20}

— — — (1941): The Ecology

and Control of the Forest Insects of

India and the Neighbouring Countries.-—

2+ i1+ 1007 pp., 202 figs. (several on

whole pages). Dehra Dun..

Dover, C. (1931): Some methods of

testing the comparative durability of

Indian timbers in relation to termite

attack. Indian Forester 57 (7) : 341-351.

— — & MatTuHor, R. N. (1934):

Methods of testing the susceptibility

of timbers to termite attack. (With

an Introduction by C. F. C. Beeson,

pp. 1-3.)—Jndian For. Rec. (Ent.)

20 (7) : 1-20.

HOLMGREN, K. & HOLMGREN, N. (1917):

Report on a_ collection of termites

from India.—Mem. Dept. Agric. India

(Ent.) 5 (3) : 137-171.

HoOLMGREN, N. (1912): Termites from

British India (Bombay) collected by Dr.

J. Assmuth. JBNHS 21 (3): 774-793.

(1913a): Termites from

British India (near Bombay, in Gujarat

—s Os

and Bangalore) collected by Erie sa:

Assmuth, s.J. JBNHS 22 (1) : 101-117,

3 pls.

HoLmMGREN, N. (19135): Termitens-

tudien. 4. Versuch einer Systematischen

Monographie der Termiten der Orienta-

lischen Region,—K. Sv. Vet. Akad.

Hadl., Stockholm & Uppsala, 50 (2):

1-276, 8 pls.

MARGABANDHU, V. (1934): An anno-

tated list of Indo-Ceylonese termites.

JBNHS 37 (3): 700-714.

RATANLAL & MENON, R. D. (1953):

Catalogue of Indian Insects. 27. Isop-

tera. 4 + 94 pp., Delhi (Govt. of India).

ROONWAL, M. L. (1954): Biology

and ecology of oriental termites (Isop-

tera). No. 2. On ecological adjust-

ment in nature between two species of

termites, namely, Coptotermes heimi

(Wasmann) and Odontotermes _ rede-

manni (Wasmann) in Madhya Pradesh,

Tete JBNHS 52 (2 & 3): 463-467,

1 pl.

— — — & CHHOTANI, O. B. (1960):

Monograph on the Indian _ species

of the termite genus Coptotermes Was-

mann (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae).

Indian Counc. Agric. Res., Delhi. In

press.)

SILVESTRI, F. (1923): The fauna of an

island in the Chilka Lake. Part II.

No. 1. The termites of Barkuda Island.

Rec. Indian Mus. 25 (2): 221-232.

VisHNo!, H. S. (1957): The swarming

of termites in Delhi. JBNHS 54 (3):

792-793.

A Study of the Vegetation of Ajit

Sagar Bundh, Rajasthan

N. C. NAR & K. C. KANNODIA

Department of Botany, Birla College, Pilani, India

(With a sketch map)

INTRODUCTION

The present work deals with the vegetation of Ajit Sagar Bundh and

the surrounding hills covering an area of about eighteen sq. miles. The

work was undertaken because there is no information about the vege-

tation of the area. Another purpose of the study was to evaluate the

suggestions of Drude, supported by Blatter and Hallberg (1918-1921)

and Biswas and Rao (1953), that the line of demarcation between the

Indo-malayan and Perso-arabian flora ranges from the Gulf of Cambay

northwards along the Aravallis.

The study was commenced in December 1956 and was spread over

eighteen months. The time at our disposal was very short. However,

to make the study intensive, the area was visited at least twice a month

which helped to give a preliminary knowledge of the phenology of each

plant, the life cycle of herbaceous plants, and the relative abundance

and distribution of such species in different parts of the year. Fresh

specimens were brought to the laboratory for identification, which was

confirmed by comparison with specimens in the Herbarium of The Forest

Research Institute, Dehra Dun. The sheets are deposited in the Her-

barium of Birla College, Pilani.

TOPOGRAPHY AND PHYSICAL FEATURES

Ajit Sagar Bundh (27°60/N., 75°51’W.) is about 8 miles north-east

of Khetri town (see map). The Bundh was founded by C. K. M. Walter

in 1859 and was named after Ajit Singh, the ruler of the time. It is

situated at an elevation of 1200 ft. above sea-level close to the villages

Dhada, Fatehpura, and Tonda on the Khetri-Nizampur road. The

unique position of the lake, fringed on all sides by hills (except the south-

east where it is almost level ground), adds to its beauty and grandeur.

The highest hill in the surroundings is Rojhra (2009 ft.).

VEGETATION OF AJIT SAGAR BUNDH, RAJASTHAN 25

One of the important physiographic factors on the hills is the gully

erosion. Rain water flows down the slopes making small channels,

as a result of which the rocky substratum has become exposed. The

rains erode the surface of the hills and consequently the surface remains

SCALE IN MILES S

Rs, MAP SHOWING LOCATION OF

AJIT SAGAR

BOUN DA RY LINE

RAIL WAY LINE

et WES

AREA STUDIED

MAONDA

rocky and bouldery with deposits of sand here and there. These hills,

which are a part of the Aravalli system, represent an ancient crystalline

complex and have contributed several metallic minerals, the most import-

ant among them being copper and iron.

There is a good orchard close by (4 mile) irrigated by water from

the lake, which is conducted through a narrow channel paved with stones

for more than one-third of its length. Due to improper levelling, there

526 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

are a number of puddles on either side of the narrow irrigation canal

and a large marshy area of about 100 sq. yds.

CLIMATIC FACTORS

No climatic data directly connected with the Ajit Sagar Bundh area

could be procured. What we give below actually relates to Khetri

and was obtained from the Revenue Record Office, and the Dispensary

there. The data given cover the period 1954-1957.

Rainfall: The rainfall in the area fluctuates widely from year

to year being as low as three-fourths or as high as one and a half times

the mean figure. The following table gives the total annual, and the

average monthly figures for the four years:

TABLE [|

Total annual rainfall 1954-1957 Average monthly rainfall 1954-1957

| Rainfall | Rainfall

Year Remarks | Month | : Remarks |

inches cm. | | | inches | cm.

ic eee m3 Mes aes

1954 | 18.20 | 46.28 | Minimum | January 0.685 | 1.74

| February ah 1.82

1955 | 24.60 | 62.48 _ March 0.300 | 0.76

1956 | 31.61 | 80.29 | Maximum | April 0.000 0.00 No rain

| | | May | 0.175 | 0.44.

1957 | 24.96 | 63.41 | June 2.440 | 6.20 |

| | July 9.020 | 22.86 Maximum

| _ August 5.670 | 14.40 |

| | September | 2.865 | 7.28 |

| | October 2.890 7.34 |

| November | 0.225 | 0.57 |

| December | 0.040 | 0.10 | Minimum

The highest rainfall in a day was 3.25” (8.25 cm.) on 21st July 1956.

The highest rainfall in a month was 14.68” (37.28 cm.) in July 1956.

The average annual rainfall for the period was 24.84” (63.09 cm.).

Temperature: The highest temperature recorded during the

period. 1954-1957 is 112°F. (44.4°C.) on 26th May 1954; the lowest

46.00°F. (7.78°C.) on January 1955. The range of daily temperature

for the summer months was 12.0°F. (6.7°C.) and for winter 16.0°F.

(8.9°C.). The following table gives the mean monthly maximum and

minimum temperatures in F. and C,:

VEGETATION OF AJIT SAGAR BUNDH, RAJASTHAN 527

TABLE II

Mean monthly maximum and minimum temperature in °F. and °C.

}

| Mean maximum ae Mean minimum |

Month ee Laer | du | Remarks

OF, 15 ea. 1 Ga

a a ae = =

| | {

January 629 21.0. 3); 54.9 | S207)

February Mem sh DS Aurea se | en lage see

March | 87.9 31.0 70.1 ; 21.2 Mean yearly temperature

| | | | St OB, (27.2°C.)

April SPR SRS) 35.3 SES. sl e277 |

May — 104.7 40.4 91.7 3302

June | 103.8 39.9 | 90.7 32.6 |

July 94.7 S40B |e SSK 28.6 | Mean maximum temp. 87.4°

| F.g G0.8°C.)

August sn93..5 34 D> 182.5 28.1

September | 90.2 32.3 )|. 81.7 27.6

October nie es 27.6 124 226

November 76.5 30.3 | Ost | hel ore pees es T4.7°F.

December vee gS Sa 2S |) DS O9 13.3

The water ne in the surrounding areas seems to be only 30-40

feet deep. This is in contrast to other parts of Rajasthan where the

water table is very much deeper. The water holding capacity of the

rocky surrounding hills is very limited and the major portion of the

rain water drains off into the lake where a depth of 25-30 feet is always

present in the deeper spots.

Soil: A few spots in the Nizampur road have loose sandy soil

but they do not form the rippled dunes characteristic of adjacent places.

Table III gives a survey of the soil samples of the area. The soil is fairly

rich in silt and humus in the sloping banks of the lake. The hillocks

are gritty, and the soil is thin. Due to human agency the soil is very

rich in the garden area. In the plain ground the soil is sandy but stable

and fertile.

BIOTIC FACTORS

The biotic factors disturbing the vegetation here are the same as

in other hilly parts of Rajasthan, namely the grazing and browsing by

sheep, cattle, hares, and other mammals, and the felling of trees and

bushes, and scraping up of ground vegetation by humans. The indirect

effect of all this on the habitat is highly devastating.

VEGETATION

1. Vegetation along the road leading to the lake.

During the hot months the plants found along the roadside are

mostly hardy perennial shrubs and trees indigenous to the area. These

JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

528

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VEGETATION OF AJIT SAGAR BUNDH, RAJASTHAN 529

include Prosopis spicigera, Calotropis procera, Zizyphus spp., Grewia

populifolia, Sida veronicaefolia, and S. grewioides. Among introduced

species, the following are found on either side of the road: Prosopis

juliflora, Albizzia lebbeck, Lawsonia sp., Punica granatum, Kigelia pinnata

etc. During the rainy season there is a luxuriant growth of herbaceous

plants, such as Tribulus terrestris, Cleome viscosa, Vernonia cinerea.

Cassia tora, Phyllanthus niruri, Tridax procumbens, Boerhavia diffusa,

Trianthema pentandra, Indigofera spp., Tephrosia purpurea, etc. The

plants seen in the cold months are Justicia spp., Cnicus wallichii, Arge-

mone mexicana, and Indigoferaspp. Pergularia daemia and Merua arenaria

are climbers found generally on Acacia arabica, A. senegal, and Euphorbia

nivulia.

2. Vegetation in the plains.

The vegetation in open stabilized soil, soon after the rains, is abun-

dant in grasses and other species of Polycarpaea, Euphorbia, Leucas,

Justicia, Indigofera, Tridax, Borreria, Digera, Mollugo, Boerhavia, Tri-

hulus, etc. Under the shade of shrubs and trees are found Commelina

benghalensis, Corchorus spp., Pupalia lappacea, Achyranthes aspera,

Riccia spp., and mosses. A few fungal species such as Agaricus, Lycoper-

don, and Ravenalia were observed. Ravenalia was found to be in an

epidemic form on Albizzia. Most of the above plants die away in winter

and a few new plants such as Solanum nigrum, Psamogeton biternatum,

Argemone mexicana, Justicia spp., Cnicus wallichii, Launaea spp., ete

come up. The ground is barren in summer except for a few plants such

as Phyllanthus niruri, Solanum xanthocarpum, Corchorus spp., etc. The

trees and shrubs that constitute the permanent vegetation are distinguished

into the following associations :

(a) Prosopis-Capparis association.—This is the principal association

of the area. The elements present are: Prosopis spicigera (d)', Cap-

paris decidua (c), Gymnosporia spinosa (t), Balanites aegyptiaca (r),

Ephedra foliata (rt), Acacia senegal (rt), A. leucophloea (r), Mimosa

hamata (tr), Tecomella undulata (r), Zizyphus spp. (c), and Clerodendrum

phlomidis («).

(b) Acacia-Salvadora-Prosopis association.—This is the second

prominent association of the area and is constituted by Acacia arabica

(d), A. senegal (c), Prosopis spicigera (c), Salvadora oleoides (f), S.

persica (rt), Balanites aegyptiaca (rt), Securinega leucopyrus (r), Lycium

europeum (t), Zizyphus spp. (c), Gymnosporia spinosa (r), Coccinia cor-

difolia (c), and Saccharum munja (1). |

than the above two associations and occurs only at two spots. The

1q dominant, c common, f frequent, r rare,

530 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

constituents are: Acacia senegal (d), Balanites aegyptiaca (c), Cap-

paris decidua (c), Salvadora oleoides (rt), Anogeisus pendula (r), Clero-

dendrum phlomidis (rt), Zizyphus xylopyra (c), Saccharum munja (t),

Gymnosporia spinosa (t), Coccinia cordifolia (c), Ephedra foliata (r),

and Securinega leucopyrus (r).

(d) Capparis-Gymnosporia-Clerodendrum association.—This asso-

ciation comprises Capparis decidua (c), Gymnosporia spinosa (d), Zizy-

phus spp. (rt), Clerodendrum phlomidis (c), Grewia tenax (t), Calotropis

procera (c), and Boerhavia verticillata (t).

Near temporary ponds tree species such as Anogeisus pendula, Acacia

arabica, Salvadora oleoides, etc. were found to be very vigorous. On

the slopes of these ponds an association of grasses such as: spp. of Cench-

rus, Dactvloctenium, Cynodon and species of Cyperus, Phyllanthus, Poly-

gonum, Glinus, Heliotropium, Amaranthus, Euphorbia, etc. is found.

When the ponds dry up Polygonum plebejum and Glinus lotoides are

found in abundance. In loose sandy areas has been found an asso-

ciation of Calligonum polygonoides, Saccharum munja, etc.

3. Vegetation of the lake area.

(a) Inside the lake. A large number of algae, mostly filamentous,

are collected in the lake soon after the rains and as the climate becomes

hotter they decay and produce a very foul smell. The phanerogamic

hydrophytes found in the lake include Vallisneria spiralis, Hydrilla

verticillata, Potamogeton indicus, etc. As the water margin recedes, in

the hotter months, these plants are forced to deeper zones while those

on the margin die away and add to the silt after shedding seeds. This

process may be regarded to be a very important factor in raising the sub-

stratum of the lake. By the onset of rains regeneration of the plants

takes place.

(b) On the water margin. The vegetation on the bank of the lake

close to the water margin shows a well-marked seasonal succession. As

soon as the monsoon sets in the water margin shows a luxuriant growth

of Dentella repens, Coldenia procumbens, Glinus lotoides, G. oppositi-

folius, Cynodon dactylon, Eclipta prostrata, Alternanthera triandra, Phyla

nodiflora, and Verbascum coromandalinum. At places pure associations

of Dentella and Coldenia in the form of thick carpets are also found.

The aerial parts of the above mentioned plants assume a reed swamp

stage, the underground parts spreading, anchoring the plants in the

extremely mobile substratum, and contributing towards the stabiliza-

tion of silt. By October all these plants except Eclipta, Alternanthera,

and Cynodon, which flourish throughout the year, complete their life

cycle and may perish or perennate by hardy root stocks. As the water

level recedes in the hotter months the perennial ones encroach on the

VEGETATION OF AJIT SAGAR BUNDH, RAJASTHAN S3il

deeper regions of the lake. Coronopus didymus and Potentilla supina

found in abundance during the colder months perish by the onset of

summer.

are found the following associations :

(i) Prosopis-Securinega association.—This is found on_ the

- gravelly slopes. The plants that constitute this association are: Pro-

sopis spicigera (d), Securinega leucopyrus (c), Grewia tenax (f), Zizy-

phus xylopyra (rt), Cordia dichotoma (rt), Gymnosporia spinosa (t), Calo-

tropis procera (rt), Dipteracanthus patulus (r), etc. The ground vegetation

is abundant in Vernonia cinerea, Heliotropium supinum, Glinus lotoides,

Celosia spp.. Indigofera spp., Tephrosia purpurea, and species of Cyperus,

Cynodon, Cenchrus, etc. Most of the above plants except Vernonia,

Glinus, and Heliotropium are found throughout the year. At one or

two places, where silt has accumulated, a few trees of Acacia arabica

were found to grow luxuriantly. During the rainy season when the lake

is full these trees have more than one-third of their body under water.

(ii) Saccharum-Grewia association.—This association is found

on the bundh side. The top of the levelled muddy bundh is almost dry

throughout the year. The members constituting this association are :

Saccharum munja (d), Grewia tenax (c), Calotropis procera (f), Securi-

nega leucopyrus (t), Rhus mysorensis (t), Pavonia zeylanica (r), Hibis-

cus micranthus (rt), Sida grewoides (c), Capparis decidua (r), ete.

4. Vegetation of the irrigation canal.

There is a permanent flow of water from the lake through the narrow

and shallow canal. On the banks of the canal are found Polygonum

barbatum, Saccharum munja, Sida spp., Glinus lotoides, Cyperus spp..,

Ficus glomerata, Prosopis juliflora, Typha angustata, Bacopa monnieri, etc.

5. Vegetation in marshy puddles.

The vegetation in puddles is almost a pure association of Typha

ungustata. On the banks of these marshes close to the water margin

are found Bacopa monnieri, Cyperus eleusinoides, C. arenarius, Fim-

bristylis diphylla, Panicum spp., and Zeuxine sulcata in different seasons

of the year. In puddles. were observed Aydrilla, Vallisneria, Potamo-

geton, Aponogeton, and Chara.

6.. Vegetation on the hills and hillocks.

During the dry months the herbage of the hills is almost incon-

spicuous and the rocky boulder-strewn slopes appear barren to a casual

observer. On closer scrutiny, small trees, mostly or completely devoid

of foliage, are seen to be scattered on the hill-sides. By the onset of

2)3)% JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

monsoon there is a grand flush of plant growth and innumerable number

of plants formerly dry becomes recognizable while others not distinct

before spring up. The small trees that dot the stony hills and were devoid

of leaves become green and conspicuous. The most remarkable changes

are seen in the annual and perennial herbaceous plants, the most domi-

nating of them being Cardiospermum halicacabum, Orygia decumbens,

species of Indigofera, Tephrosia, and Justicia. The whole hill-side be-

comes green. These herbaceous plants grow in the pockets and crevices

of rocks where some soil has accumulated.

On the steep slopes, where run-off is excessive and soil erosion is at

a maximum, the vegetation is very sparse and shuws pure association of

Euphorbia nivulia, Opuntia dillenii, and Rhus mysorensis. Striga ges-

neroides grows invariably on the roots of Euphorbia nivulia. On the

gently sloping sides, where there are greater opportunities for soil accu-

mulation, relatively thick growth occurs and the following associations

have been distinguished :

(a) Euphorbia-Grewia association.—Euphorbia nivulia (d), Grewia

tenax (c), Cocculus laeba (c), Dipteracanthus patulus (c), Barleria prio-

nitis (r), Securinega leucopyrus (r), Sida grewioides (r), Abrus precator-

ius (C).

(b) Acacia-Prosopis association.—Acacia senegal (c), A. arabica

(d), Prosopis spicigera (c), Gymnosporia spinosa (t), Capparis decidua (rt),

Balanites aegyptiaca (t), Euphorbia nivulia (r).

aegyptiaca (c), Capparis decidua (c), Grewia tenax (t), Securinega leuco-

pyrus (c), Anogeisus pendula (r), Cocculus laeba (1).

(d) Rhus-Gymnosporia association.—Rhus mysorensis (c), Gymnos-

poria spinosa (d), Calotropis procera (c), Grewia tenax (r), Euphorbia

nivulia (rt), Barleria prionites (r), Dipteracanthus patulus (c), Orygia

decumbens (tr).

LIST OF PLANTS

(The name given after the botanical name and author is the vernacular

name. The number in parenthesis is the number of the hebarium sheet.)

ANONACEAE

|. Anona squamosa Linn. Cultivated.

2. Polyalthia longifolia B. & H. Ashok. Planted. Bark used in

medicine. é

MENISPERMACEAE

3. Cocculus pendulus (Forst.) Diels.=C. leaeba DC. (2,3,229).

Common.

VEGETATION OF AJIT SAGAR BUNDH, RAJASTHAN 333

_ 4, Tinospora cordifolia Miers. Said to be flowering in the hot months

but we have not seen the flowers. Root and stem used as an antidote for

snake bite.

PAPAVERACEAE

5. Argemone mexicana Linn. Satyanashi. (7). Common. Fils. Jan.-

May. Sometimes found even in Sept. near temporary ponds.

CRUCIFERAE

_ 6. Coronopus didymus (Linn.) Sm.=Senebiera pinnatifida Dey in

cold season.

7. Capsella bursa-pastoris Medick. A weed of cultivated places.

Fls. Dec.-Feb.

The following plants are cultivated: 8. Brassica oleracea L. var.

botrytis. 9. B. caulorapa Forsk. 10. B. campestris Linn. 11. B.

juncea Hf. & T. 12. B. rapa Linn. 13. B. oleracea var. capitata L.

14. Raphanus sativus Linn. 15. Iberis umbellata Linn.

CAPPARIDACEAE

16. Cleome viscosa Linn. (135,136). Common in the plains after

the rainy season. Fis. Jul.-Nov.

17. C. brachycarpa DC. (307). Similar except pubescence and in

having six stamens. Very rare.

18. Capparis decidua (Forsk.) Pax. Fils. Oct-Nov. and March-

April. Common in plains and hillocks. Near temporary ponds it forms

pure associations.

19. Merua arenaria Hk. f. (330). A perennial woody climber with

leathery leaves. Fils. greenish white. Dec.-Feb.

VIOLACEAE

20. Viola (stocksii Boiss.?) (160). A small puberulous herb branched

from root-stock. Dehiscence of the fruit, white seeds, apetalous flower,

and scarious stipules are characteristic. ls. Sept.-Nov. Very rare on

hills.

21. Viola (cinerea Boiss.?) (164,224). Perennial herb of about |

ft. Branching dichotomously. Flowers violet, polypetalous. Calyx

hairy. Fls. Oct.-Nov.

534 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Note: The above sheets could not be compared with any of the

sheets in F.R.I. herbarium.

POLY GALA CESAE

22. Polygala erioptera DC. (132,173). A common herb with margins

of keel and wing yellow. Fils. Jan.-Mar.

CARYOPHYLLACEAE

23. Spergula pentandra Linn. (13). A common herb of winter in

the plains, has fleshy leaves which are not grooved as in S. arvensis.

24. Polycarpaea corymbosa Lamk. (267,268). Common in_ open

places. Fis. Sep.-Jan.

PORTULACGCACEAE

25. Portulaca oleracea Linn. (343). A fleshy annual with yellow

flowers opening in the morning. Fils. Sept.-Dec.

26. P. quadrifida Linn. (342). Differs in the prostrate habit and long

stipular hairs. Flowers bigger.

27. P. grandiflora Linn. Cultivated.

TAMARICACEAE

28. Tamarix dioica Roxb. Farans. As plantations.

MALVACEAE

29. Sida grewioides Guill. & Perr. Kharenti. (245). A perennial under

shrub. Fils. Sept.-Jan. |

Note: Blatter and Hallberg reported white flowers also from W.

Rajasthan. The flowers observed by us were all yellow.

30. S. veronicaefolia Lamk. (93). A shade-loving low herb of the

plains.. Fls. Sept.-Jan.

31. S. cordifolia Linn. (92). A hairy undershrub. Fils. Aug.-Sept

Rare.

32. Abutilon bidentatum A. Rich. (204). An erect downy shrub of

about 4-5 feet. Leaves leathery. Pedicels shorter than the petiole.

Ovary contains about 15 carpels. On slopes of hills. Fils. Oct.-Jan.

33. A. fructicosum Guill. & Perr. (31,32). Similar except in being

woody and hairy, and having leathery leaves and lesser number of carpels

(10 or less). Fils. Oct.-Dec. Common.

34, Pavonia zeylanica Cav. (14,203). A tall herb with pink flowers.

Common after the rainy season.

besa:

VEGETATION OF AJIT SAGAR BUNDH, RAJASTHAN 535

. 35. Hibiscus micranthus Linn. (195,280,290,110,111). A small under-

shrub with rosy flowers. Common in stony and rocky places. Fils.

Jul.-Dec.

36. H. gibsonii Stocks. (169,188). A trailing herb with palmately

lobed leaves and long coiled epicalyx. Rare during monsoon.

37. H. (lobatus O. Ktze. = H. solandra L. ?). (92). An erect herb with

pale hairy, serrate, cordate leaves. Corolla yellow. Fls. Aug.-Nov.

Only one-plant could be seen in the area surveyed.

38. Malvastrum tricuspidatum A. Grey. (109). A hairy undershrub.

Fls. Sept.-Dec. Weed of cultivated and moist places.

39. Abelmoschus esculentus (Linn.)= Hibiscus esculentus Linn. Moench.

Cultivated.

40. Salmalia malabarica (DC.) Schott. & Endi.=Bombax malabari-

cum DC. Plantations. Fils. Jan.-Mar..

TILIACEAE

41. Grewia tenax (Forsk.) Fiori.=G. populifolia Vahl. Common.

Fls. Aug.-Nov.

42. G. oppositifolia Roxb. A small tree cultivated for fruits.

43. Triumfetta cana Bl. (50). A small undershrub. Fruit oval,

spiny. Fis. Aug.-Dec. Very rare.

44, T. bartramia Linn.=T. rhomboidea Jacq. (193). An undershrub,

leaves variable and bigger than in the above species. Frequent. Fils.

Aug.-Nov.

45. T. pentandra A. Rich.=T. neglecta W. & A. (195). Differs from

the above species in having rugose, oval, acute leaves. Frt. oval with

armed hooks. Rare, in higher altitudes. Fls. Sept.-Nov.

46. Corchorus depressus (Linn.) Stocks.=C. antichorus Roeusch. (201)

Perennial prostrate undershrub forming carpet on the gravelly and hard

ground. Fls. and frt. Sept.-Jan. :

47. C. tridens Linn. (210). An annual herb, capsule 1-2” long,

common in plains. Fils. and frt. Sept.-Dec.

48. C. aestuans. Linn.=C. acutangulus. (208,247). Capsules 1” long,

broader and winged, three-ridged. ls. and frt. Aug.-Dec. In hard

ground.

49. C. trilocularis Linn. (209). Stouter herb. Capsules 2-3” long,

cylindrical with short erect beaks. Fils. and frt. Aug.-Nov.

ig!

536 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

ZYGOPHYLLACEAE

50. Tribulus terrestris Linn. Gokhru. (28,122,123). A common

plant of the plains during the rainy season. Frt. Dec. oe

51. Fagonia cretica Linn.=F. arabica Linn. (219,176). A spiny

perennial herb. Flowers all round the year but more profusely in cold

season.

GERANIACEAE

52. Oxalis corniculata Linn. (37,228). A yellow-flowered herb of

shady moist places. Fils. and frt. Aug.-Feb.

53. Averrhoa carambola Linn. Kamrach. Cultivated.

R UT AIG-E ACE

The following plants are cultivated: 54. Citrus aurantium Linn. 55.

C. sinensis. 56. C. medica var. media. 57. C. medica var. acida Roxb.

58. C. medica var. limonum Wall. 59. C. medica var. limetta DC. 60.

C. decumana Linn. 61. Feronia limonia (Linn.) Swingle.=F. elephan-

tum Correa. 62. Aegle marmelos Correa. Bel.

SIMAROUBACEAE

63. Balanites aegyptiaca Linn.=B. roxburghii Planch. (308). Fils.

March-April. The greasy pulp of the fruit is used medicinally.

64. Ailanthus excelsa Roxb. Cultivated.

BURSERACEAE

65. Commiphora mukul (Hook. ex Stocks.) Engl. Gugul. Fils. Sept.-

~Dec. Common on the dry Maonda Hills. Gum is used medicinally.

| MELIACEAE |

As plantations: 66. Melia azedarach Linn. 67. Azadirachta indica

Juss.

CELASTRACEAE

68. Gymnosporia spinosa (Forsk.) Fiori.=G. montana Benth. (27,240).

Common. Fils. and frt. Oct.-Feb.

RHAMNACEAE

_ 69. Zizyphus nummularia W. & A.=Z. rotundifolia Lamk. (121). A

common bush. Fis. and ft. Aug.-Dec.

70. Z. xylopyra Willd. (269,270). Amedium-sized tree. Leaves and

fruits bigger. Fls. and frt. Aug.-Dec. |

71. Z. mauritiana Lamk.=Z. jujuba Lamk. non Mill. Cultivated.

VEGETATION OF AJIT SAGAR BUNDH, RAJASTHAN 537

VITACEAE

72, Cayratia carnosa Gagnep.=Vitis trifolia L. A twiner. Fis.

and frt. Sept.-Oct.

SAPINDACEAE

73. Cardiospermum halicacabum Linn. Balloon vine. (27). Common

herbaceous climber of the bushes. Fls. and frt. Sept.-Dec.

74. Dodonaea viscosa Linn. Common hedge plant.

ANACARDIACEAE

75. Rhus mysorensis Heyne. Dansar. (172,309). A spiny shrub. Fs.

Aug.-Sep.

76. Mangifera indica Linn. Cultivated. Fils. April.

MORINGACEAE

77. Moringa oleifera Lamk.=M. pterigosperma Gaertn. Sainjna.

Cultivated.

LEGUMINOSAE

78. Crotalaria medicaginea Lamk. (205,206). Undershrub. Fis.

Oct.-Jan.

79. C. burhia Hamilt. (310). A diffuse erect herb with slender

branches. Common in plains only. This plant was never seen to fruit.

Fls. Sept.-Oct. Stray flowers are seen throughout the year.

80. Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (Linn.) Taub.=C. psoralioides DC.

Guar. (116). Commonly cultivated, but as an escape at many places.

81. Indigofera linifolia Retz. (231,232). A small prostrate herb.

Leaves lanceolate. Fis. and frt. Sept.-Feb.

Note: Leaves in our specimens were broader than those found at

Pilani.

82. I. cordifolia Heyne. (118,141). Broader leaves with more pube-

scence. Common increvices of rocks. Fls. and frt. July.-Nov. and Feb.-

March.

83. J. enneaphyila Linn. (243,260). Diffusely branched prostrate herb.

Leaves 5-9 foliate. Common in plain ground. Fils. and frt. Sept.-Feb.

84. I. argentea (non Linn.) Burm. (281). An undershrub with yellow-

ish flowers. Leaves 5-7 foliate. Rare; fis. and frt. Sept.-Jan.

85. I. tinctoria Linn. (225,254). Bigger shrub. Leaves 11 foliate

frequent all over the area. Fils. and frt. Sept.-Feb.

86. Rhynchosia minima DC. (175,256,273). A common climber with

3-4 seeded pods. Fis. and frt. Sept.-Feb.

538 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL AIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

87. Tephrosia purpurea Pers. oe Has a good number of varia-

tions. Fls. Aug.-Feb.

88. T. pumila Pers.=7. purpurea var. pumila Pers. (191). Rare.

89. T. petrosa Blatt. & Hall.=7. spinosa Pers. (120,88). Fils. solitary,

axillary, from Jul.-Dec.

90. T. paucifiora Grah.=7. purpurea var. | pauciflora Grah. (185).

Frequent.

91. T. candida DC. (150,279). Flowers white. Racemes 15 cm.

long. Frequent on the hills. Pods 6-7 cms. long.

92. T. multiflora Blatt. & Hall.=T7. senticosa Pers. (322). Rare.

93. T. incana Grah.=T. villosa Pers. var. incana. (49). Diffused under-

shrub. Common in rainy season.

94. Abrus precatorius Linn. Chimri. A rare climber on bushes.

95. Sesbania sesban (Linn.) Merr. var. picta Santapau=S. aegyptiaca

var. picta Prain. (223). A common shrub of waste places. Leaves 25-

30 cm. long. Corolla with black dots. Fils. and frt. Sept.-Dec.

96. Alysicarpus vaginalis DC. (161,283). A small herb with hairy

leaves. Upper leaves lanceolate, lower roundish. Fls. red, frt. jointed

and 8-chambered. Fis. July-Feb.

97. Phaseolus trilobus Ait. (71,283). Fils. Sept.

98. Zornia diphylla Pers. (189). Common. Fils. and frt. Aug.-March.

99. Dalbergia sissoo Roxb. Sisom. A _ roadside plantation. Some

times self sown.

100. Butea monosperma (Lamk.) Taub. Palas. Very rare. We have not

seen this plant in flowering state.

The following are cultivated: 101. Pisum sativum Linn. 102. Tri-

-gonella foenum-graecum Linn. Often runs wild. 103. Cicer arietinum

Linn. 104. Phaseolus mungo var. radiatus Linn. 105. P. aconiti-

folius Jacq. Mott.

106. Cassia occidentalis Linn. (140). In barren places. Fls. Aug.-Jan.

107. C. tora Linn. (65). A small shrub. Fils. Aug.-Dec.

108. C. pumila Lamk. (187). Prostrate herb with flat pods. Fils. Jul.-

Dee

109. Parkinsonia aculeata Linn. Introduced, almost naturalized.

110. Tamarindus indica Linn. Cultivated.

111. Delonix regia Boj.=Poinciana regia Boj. In gardens.

~ VEGETATION OF AJIT SAGAR BUNDH, RAJASTHAN 539

_ 112. Prosopis spicigera Linn. Common. Fls. May. Frt. stored and

eaten. | 1

113. P. juliflora DC. An Australian tree almost naturalized.

114, Mimosa hamata Willd. (26,311). A straggling shrub. Pod flat,

5 cms., recurved sutures, prickly; heads globose, axillary, pink turning

white. Fls. and frt. Aug.-Feb. Common in plains. re

115. Acacia arabica Willd. A common tall tree of the area. Pod

medicinal.

_ 116. A. senegal Willd. Khair. (159,264). A small tree of the area.

Spines hooked in threes, abundant on the hills; pod much flattened, 2-3

chambered. Fils. Oct.-Dec.

117. A. leucophloea Willd. A small rare tree with terminal inflore-

scence and long spines. Fils. white, Aug.-Nov.

118. Albizzia lebbeck Benth. A roadside plantation, often infected

by Ravenalia sessilis during Dec.-Jan.

ROSACEAE

119. Potentilla supina Linn. (346). A prostrate herb of winter, near

water margin of the lake. Leaflets 5, deeply lobed. Fis. solitary, axill-

ary, minute, yellow, from Jan.-March. The only other report of the

plant in Rajasthan is from Mt. Abu.

120. Rosa indica Linn., 121. Prunus communis Linn., and 122.

Quisqualis indica L. are cultivated.

COMBRETACEAE

123. Anogeissus pendula Edgw. Dhau. (57,177). A tall tree, branches

pendulous. Common particularly near ponds and on the hills. Fis.

Aug.-Jan.

124. Terminalia arjuna Bedd. Fis. April-May. Probably planted.

Rare. _o

MYR A CHAE

The following species are cultivated: 125. Psidium guajaya Linn.

126. Syzygium cumini (Linn) Skeels.= Eugenia jambolana Lamk. 127.

Eucalyptus sp.

LYTHRACEAE

128. Ammannia baccifera Linn. (99). A small decumbent herb with

red solitary axillary flowers. Fils. and frt. Oct.-Feb.

129. Nesaea lanceolata Koehn. (36). A small herb with minute

flowers in Nov.-Dec. This is a new record for Rajasthan.

540 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

The following are cultivated: 130. Punica granatum Linn. 131.

Lagerstroemia indica Linn. (15). 132. Lawsonia inermis Linn. (147).

ONAGRACEAE

133. Trapa bispinosa Roxb. Singhara. Cultivated.

CARICACEAE

134. Carica papaya Linn. Cultivated. May be dioecious or poly-

gamous.

CUCURBITACEAE

135. Momordica dioica Roxb. A climbing herb, dioecious. FIs.

after rains.

136. M. balsamina Linn. (340). Common climber on bushes. Fils.

Aug.-Jan.

137. Cucumis callosus (Rottl.) Cogn.=C. trigonus Roxb. Common

in bushes.

138. Citrullus colocynthis Schrad. Tumba. (178). A common herb.

139. Blastania fimbristipula (Fenzl). Kotschy. & Perr.=Ctenolepis

cerassiformis Naud. (207,220,278). A monoecious climber with stipuli-

form bracts. Fils. and frt. Jul.-Dec.

140. Melothria maderaspatana Cogn. (226). Common during rainy

season.

141. Coccinia cordifolia (Linn.) Cogn.=Coccinia indica W. & A. A

climber with tuberous roots and large white flowers. Fruit edible.

The following species are cultivated: 142. Momordica charantia

Linn. 143. Lagenaria vulgaris Ser. 144. Cucurbita moschata Duch.

145. C. maxima Duchesne. 146. Cucumis melo Linn. 147. C, sativus

Linn. 148. Luffa cylindrica (Linn). Roem.=L. aegyptiaca Mill. 149.

L. acutangula var. amara Clarke. 150. Citrullus vulgaris Schrad. 151.

C. vulgaris var. fistulosus Stocks.

CACTACEAE

152. Opuntia dillenii Haw. (333). A common plant on gravel. Fils.

Nov.-Dec.

VEGETATION OF AJIT SAGAR BUNDH, RAJASTHAN 541

MOLLUGINEAE

153. Trianthema portulacastrum Linn.==7. monogyna Linn. (171).

Procumbent annual herb. Carpel single. Stamens 15. Fils. red, Aug.-Dec.

154. T. decandra Linn. (325). Carpels 2, fis. white.

155. T. triquetra Willd. ex Rottl.=7. crystallina Vahl. (313). Carpel 1,

stamens 5, a rare plant in plains only. Fls. July-Oct.

156. Mollugo cerviana Ser. (259). On sandy soil. Fls. and frt. Oct.-

Feb.

157. M. nudicaulis Lamk. (261). Common in open places.

158. Glinus oppositifolia (L.) DC.=Mollugo oppositifolia Linn. (170).

A prostrate glabrous herb. Flowers greenish. Common.

159. G. lotoides Linn.=Mollugo hirta Thunb. (331). A stellate, woolly

herb very common in winter and spring. Stamens 10.

160. Orygia decumbens Forsk.=O. triantha Vicary. (17,18). Fs.

Sept.-Dec.

UMBELLIFERAE

161. Psamogeton biternatum Edgw. (320). A small herb with much

dissected leaves. Umbels of silvery pink flowers. Rare, fis. Feb.-

March.

The following are cultivated: 162. Foeniculum vulgare Mill. 163.

Coriandrum sativum Linn. 164. Trachyspermum ammi (Linn.) Sprague.

=Carum copticum Benth. 165. Cuminum cyminum Linn. 166. Daucus

- carota Linn.

RUBIACEAE

167. Dentella repens Forsk. (142,143). A small prostrate herb rooting

at nodes. Flowers solitary, axillary, white. According to Hooker

(F.B.I.) the flowers are 1X12” only but in our collection they were 4”

long. Fils. and frt. Sept.-Dec. This plant is a new record for Rajasthan.

168. Oldenlandia corymbosa Linn. (169) Common after rains.

169. Borreria hispida (L.) Schum. = Spermacoce hispida Linn. 214,286).

An erect or prostrate annual herb. Fils. and frt. Sept.-Feb.

170. B. stricta (L.) Schum.=Spermacoce stricta Linn. (67), Fils. Aug.

Nov.

542 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL AIST, SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

COMPOSITAE

171. Erigeron canadensis Linn. (238). An annual herb with ribbed

stem. Fils. all tubular, dirty white, Oct.-Jan. Common on hillocks.

172, Vernonia cinerea Less.=V. patulaW. & A. (61,242). Very com-

mon herb with pinkish heads.

173. V. conyzoides Wight.==V. candolleana W. & A. (55). A bigger

plant very variable for its leaf and colour of the flower. Fils. Aug.-Jan.

174. Pulicaria crispa Benth. (130). A small pubescent herb. Heads

minute, leaves toothed. Fils. Dec.-April.

175. P. wightiana Clarke. (263). Profusely branched herb, fis. through-

out the year.

176. Eclipta prostrata Linn.=E£. alba (L.) Hassk. Common. Fils. July-

Jan.

177. Blainyillea acmella (Linn. f.) Philipson.=B. rhomboidea Cass.=

B. latifolia L. (66,155). A common herb on the banks of the lake

Leaves very variable. Fils. during rainy season.

178. Glossocardia bosvallea DC.=G. linearifolia Cass. (179). A small

prostrate annual herb with much dissected leaves. Fils. Sept.-Nov.

Rare.

179. Bidens biternata (Lour.) Merr. & Sherff.=B. pilosa Linn.=B.

wallichi DC. (70). An erect herb with much-lobed leaves. Fils. Aug.-

Dec.

180. Tridax procumbens Linn. (4,58). Fils. throughout the year.

181. Sonchus asper Hill. (53). Fis. Nov.-Dec.

182. Launaea nudicaulis Hk. f. (219). A perennial undershrub. Fis.

Sept.-Feb.

183. Cnicus wallichii DC. (73,334). A common spiny herb on the

slopes of the hills. Head a cottony ball of 1-14” diam. Fls. Dec.-May.

PRIMULACEAE |

184. Anagallis arvensis Linn. (29). A small herb with fleshy leaves.

Fls. Jan.-Apr.

OLEACEAE

185. Jasminum multiflorum (Burm. f.) Andr.=J. pubescens Willd.

Ornamental.

VEGETATION. OF AJIT SAGAR BUNDH, RAJASTHAN 543

SAPOTACEAE

186. Achras sapota Linn. Chikku. Cultivated.

SALVADORACEAE

187. Salvadora persica Linn. Fls. March-June. Rare.

188. S. oleoides Decne. Fis. Feb.-June.

APOCYNACEAE

189. Lochnera pusilla K. Schum.=Vinca pusilla Murr. (62,63,287).

A small herb with white hypocrateriform corolla. Fils. Aug.-Sept.

Very rare.

190. L. rosea Reichb.= Vinca rosea var. alba Linn. Ornamental, runs

wild.

191. Nerium indicum Mill. In gardens. <A few plants were observed

near marshy locality. Appears to be self sown.

Other cultivated species include, 192. Thevetia peruviana (Pers.)

K. Schum. 193. Plumeria rubra Linn. forma acutifolia (Poir.) Woodson.

194. Carissa carandas Linn. 195. Ervatamia coronaria Staf.

ASCLEPIADACEAE

196. Calotropis procera R. Br. Common.

197, Pergularia daemia (Forsk.) Chiov.=Daemia extensa R. Br. (335).

A perennial climber. Flowers yellowish green, tinged pink at base.

Oct.-Feb.

198. Leptadenia pyrotechnica (Forsk.) Decne.=L. spartium Wight.

Khimp. Common. |

199. Ceropegia bulbosa Roxb. (183). Common. Fls. Sept.-Feb.

200. Cryptostegia grandiflora R. Br. Common.

BORAGINACEAE

201. Cordia dichotoma Forsk. f.=C. myxa Linn. (38,44).

A small

tree with white clustered flowers Aug.-Dec. On gravelly soil.

202. C. rothii Roem. Goyandi. (339). Planted. Fis. hot season.

Frt. edible.

544 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL AIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

203. Coldenia procumbens Linn. (14,16). An annual grey, hairy

herb, procumbent, close to water margin of the lake. Fils. from July-

Sept.

Note: Nairne (1894) described it to be common weed of the cold

season in western India. But in the area under consideration they are

abundant in rainy season. In cold season they die away.

204. Heliotropium subulatum Hochst. (237). An erect annual his-

pid herb. Leaves sessile, lanceolate, 2” long spike, branched. Fis.

sessile, Oct.-Nov.

205. H. paniculatum R. Br. (129). An erect herb, leaves 14” long,

linear. Fils. pedicellate. Spikes 2” long terminal.

206. H. strigosum Willd. (128). A small procumbent, hispid herb.

Leaves minute, 4” long, linear. Fls. shortly pedicellate; nutlets 4, hairy.

207. H. eichwaldii Steud. (172). An erect herb, branching from

base. Leaves oval thick. Spikes 2” long, helicoid, terminal.

208. H. supinum Linn. (332). A villous herb, spreading, densely

clothed with soft hairs. Flowers in short, axillary silky spikes; on the

sloping banks of the lake. Fils. Jan.-Mar.

209. Trichodesma indicum R. Br. (59). Much-branched erect herb.

Flowers pale blue. Leaves gland-dotted.

210. T. amplexicaule Roxb. (60). A smaller herb with brownish

white flowers and longer lanceolate thicker leaves. Fls. Aug.-Oct.

CONVOLVULACEAE

211. Cuscuta reflexa Roxb. (42). A common parasite of Adhatoda.

Fls. Sept.-Jan.

212. C. hyalina Roth. (113,115). Parasatic on Tephrosia, Trian-

thema, Tribulus, Amaranthus, Acalypha, and Commelina. Common after

the rains.

213. Evolvulus alsinoides Linn. (105,106). A diffused perennial

herb, branches many, villous. Fils. blue. Corolla subrotate. Fis.

Aug.-Dec.

214. Convolvulus pluricaulis Chois. var. macra Clarke (304). A

diffused hairy herb, branches suberect, densely silky. Fils. solitary or

in groups of threes, white with rosy tinge. Fils. twice a year.

215. Ipomoea pilosa Sweet. (152). A hairy climber; flowers pink,

VEGETATION OF AJIT SAGAR BUNDH, RAJASTHAN 545

the lower surface of the leaf white and upper brown and silky. Fls.

Sept.-Oct. x

216. I. nil (Linn.) Roth. J.=J/. hederacea auct. non. Jacq. (151). A

twining herb sparsely hairy. Leaves deeply 3-lobed. Peduncle 1-

flowered. Fils. blue tinted pink.

217. I. pes-tigridis Linn. (215). Twining pubescent herb. Frt. en-

closed in densely hairy calyx. Leaves deeply five-lobed. Common

after rainy season. FIs. white.

218. I. rumicifolia Chois. (217). Suberect herb, leaves hastate, petio-

les 2” long, Corolla campanulate 4” or some times more in diameter.

The cultivated members include, 219. I. pes-caprae (Linn.) Sweet.=

I, biloba Forsk. 220. I. batatas Poir. 221. Argyreia sp.

SOLANACEAE

222. Solanum xanthocarpum S. & W. (26,140,227).

Spiny shrub

with purple corolla, stamens yellow.

223. S. nigrum Linn. Makoi. (323). A common weed. Fils. white,

Dec.-Mar.

224. Physalis minima Linn. (157). Common in rainy season.

225. Datura metel Linn. var. alba Clarke. A common shrub.

226. Lycium europaeum Linn. (249,251). A thorny shrub, 8-10 ft.

Fls. Oct.-Dec.

227. Withania somnifera Dunal. Aswagandh. A common _ under-

shrub. Fils. almost throughout the year.

The following species are cultivated: 228. Lycopersicum esculen-

tum Mill. 229. Nicotiana tabacum L. 230. Capsicum frutescens L.

231. Solanum melongena L. 232. Cestrum nocturnum L. 233, Petunia

sp.

SCROPHULARIACEAE

234. Anticharis linearis Hochst. (264). A small herb, appears to be

perennial, fls. purple, in Aug.-Oct. and Feb.-March.

235. Verbascum coromandalinum (Vahl.) Ktze.—Celsia coroman-

dalina Vahl. (174,236). An annual shrub with yellow, spurred flowers.

Common on the bank of the lake and moist places during the rainy

season.

546 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

236. Striga gesneroides (Willd.) Vatke.=S. orobanchoides Benth.

(74). A root parasite on Euphorbia nivulia. Common after the rains

up to Dec.

237. Kickxia ramosissima (Wall.) Janchen.=Linaria ramosissima

Wall. (137). A prostrate herb. Common in crevices of rocks. Fls.

Nov.-Jan.

238. Lindenbergia indica (L.) Ktze.=L. urticaefolia Lehm. (89,90).

In gravelly ground and old mud walls of the villages. Flowers during

rainy season; very rare in cold months.

239. L. machrostachya Benth. (91). A small herb, branching from

the rootstock. Leaves reddish and smaller than the previous species.

Fls. Aug.

240. Bacopa monnieri (L.) Pennel.—Herpestris monniera Benth. (205,

206). Succulent herb near water-logged areas. Fils. Jul.-Dec. rarely

Feb.-Mar.

BIGNONIACEAE

241. Tecoma undulata G. Don=Tecomella undulata Seem. Fis.

March-Apr.

242. Kigelia pinnata DC. and 243. Millingtonia hortensis Linn. are

cultivated.

PEDA'ILIACEAE

244. Martinia annua Linn.—M. diandra Glox. (146,148). A shrub

known for its characteristic fruit. Leaves very large, more than a foot

in length. Generally found on rubbish heaps. Fils. Aug.-Sept.

245. Sesamum indicum DC. (68,69). A common herb. Fls. and

frt. Aug.-Oct. Cultivated and wild.

ACANTHACEAE

246. Dipteracanthus patulus (Jacq) Nees.=Ruellia patula Jacq. (11,

47). A small shrub on gravelly soil. Common. Fls. Aug.-Dec.

247. D. prostratus (Poir.) Nees=Ruellia prostrata Poir. var. dejecta

Clarke. (144). An undershrub with longer internodes. Fis. Aug.-Dec.

248. Andrographis echioides Nees. (163). Fls. Jul-Nov.

249. Barleria prionitis Linn. (98,183). A spiny undershrub with

long internodes and yellow flowers. Common in gravelly places, road

sides, and hills. Fils. Sept.-Feb.

VEGETATION OF AJIT SAGAR BUNDH, RAJASTHAN 547

250. B. acanthoides Vahl. (336). Smaller herb with short internodes

and broad oval leaves. Fils. Dec.-Jan.

251. Lepidagathis hamiltoniana Wall. (143). A spiny undershrub

with spherical heads at lower nodes. Fils. Nov.-Jan.

252. Justicia simplex D. Don. (21). An erect herb with small linear

leaves. ls. Sept.-March.

253. J. diffusa Willd. (22,75,76). Common after the rainy season.

254. Peristrophe bicalyculata Nees. (43). A shrubby weed. Com-

mon after the rainy season. Fls. Oct.-Dec.

255. Adhatoda vasica Nees=Justicia adhatoda L. (6). Common in

hills. Fls. Nov.-March. Generally attacked by Cuscuta reflexa.

VERBENACEAE

256. Phyla nodiflora (Linn.) Greene.=Lippia nodiflora Mich. (18,

139). A diffusely branched prostrate herb, rooting at nodes. Heads

globose. Abundant on the water margin. Fls. Oct.-Jan.

257. Lantana indica Roxb. (329). Fils. Jan.-Feb. Rare, on hills.

258. Clerodendrum phlomidis Linn. A rare plant. We could not

find this plant in flowering.

LABIATAE

259. Ocimum basilicum Linn. Marva. (337). Ornamental.

260. O. sanctum Linn. Cultivated and self-sown.

261. O. americanum Linn.=O. canum Sims. Bapchi. (104,124,125).

An undershrub. Most common on the slopes of the hills, after the rainy

season.

262. Leucas urticaefolia R. Br. (194,196). A small annual herb.

Leaves 1” broad, toothed. Fls. Sept.-Dec.

_ 263. L. cephalotes Spreng. (199). Diffusely branched herb. Leaves

longer 3”. Flower head bigger; on slopes of hills.

264. L. ciliata Benth. (200). A small hairy herb with woody base.

265. L. aspera Spreng. (197). Leaves linear, 2” long. Bracts pro-

vided with bristles. Common in plains. |

548 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

266. Salvia aegyptiaca Linn. (97,171). A small undershrub.

Aug.-Jan.

NYCTAGINACEAE

267. Boerhavia diffusa Linn. (12,154). Fls. Aug.-March.

268. B. repanda Willd. (277,282). A glabrous herb. Rare.

269. B. verticillata Poir. (153). A decumbent sometimes climbing

shrub, leaves broader than the above two species. Perianth white. —

FIs. Sept.-Jan.

The garden plants include: 270. Mirabilis jalapa Linn. 271. Bouga-

invillea spectabilis Willd.

AMARANTHACEAE

272. Celosia argentea Linn. (20,22). Spikes very variable.

273. Digera muricata (L.) Mart.=D. arvensis Forsk. (244). Rare.

274. Amaranthus spinosus Linn. Common in waste places and near

ponds.

275. A. gangeticus Linn. An erect stout herb. Stem grooved. Bracts

membranous exceeding perianth. Stamens three only.

276. A. viridis Linn. (235). A much-branched glabrous herb. Leaves

notched at the apex. Bracts shorter than the perianth. A common

weed. Leaves eaten.

277. A. polygamus Linn. var. angustifolia. (16). Common pros-

trate weed, leaves 2-lobed at the apex, rigid, stamens 3. Frt. ovoid.

Fils. Nov.-March.

278. Aerua javanica (Burm. f.) Spreng.=A. tomentosa Forsk. (234).

Common.

279. Achyranthes aspera Linn. (23). A common monsoon weed

in bushes. Fils. after rainy season.

280. Alternanthera triandra Lamk.=A. sessilis (L.) R. Br. (52,56).

Common on the water margin.

281. Pupalia lappacea Mog. (25). Common in bushes. Fils. Aug.-

Jan.

CHENOPODIACEAE

282. Chenopodium album Linn. Bathua. (13). Common herb of

winter.

VEGETATION OF AJIT SAGAR BUNDH, RAJASTHAN 549

283. C. murale Linn. (15). Common in cold season. Spikes shor-

ter,

284. Beta vulgaris Linn. 285. Spinacia oleracea Linn. and 286.

Basella rubra Linn. are cultivated.

POLYGONACEAE

287. Calligonum polygonoides Linn. Phog. A common leafless shrub

of the plain ground. The bushes are covered with pinkish-white flowers

in April.

288. Polygonum plebejum R. Br. var. brevifolia (10). A _ prostrate

herb. Rootstock woody, branches grooved. Internodes very short

concealed by leaves and stipules. Flowers sessile, Jan.-May.

289. P. indicum Heyne=plebejum var. indica (54). Branches spread-

ing all round. Internodes shorter than the leaves, 2-3 flowers in the

axils.

290. P. effusum Meissn.—P. plebejum var. effusa (9). A_ slender

herb, internodes longer, fils. pedicellate, Dec.-Feb. Common near

ponds.

291. P. barbatum Linn. (38,39). A stout annual herb. Stipules

strigose, mouth with cilia exceeding the tube. Common in marshes

and ditches.

292. Antigonon leptopus Hook. and 293. Rumex hastatus D. Don.

are cultivated.

ARISROLOCHIACEAE

294. Aristolochia bracteata Retz, (134,202). A decumbent or very

rarely climbing glabrous herb. Fils. solitary. Perianth tube cylindric

with trumpet mouth, dark purple. Common in bushes. Fils. Aug.-Nov.

EUPHORBIACEAE

295. Euphorbia parviflora Linn.=£E. hypericifolia L. var. parviflora

Prain. (119,257). A decumbent herb, branching at base. Leaves

glabrous on both sides. Fis. Aug.-Nov. and Feb.-Apr.

296. E. hirta Linn.=£. pilulifera L. (41,130). A common ascend-

ing herb clothed with yellowish hairs. Stem 4-angled, leaves dark green

above, pale beneath. Flowers greater part of the year.

Note: Blatter, McCann, & Sabnis (1929) listed FE. hirta and E.

pilulifera as two separate species.

550 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

297. E. thymifolia Linn. (17). A small prostrate hispid herb with a

copper-tinged stem. Leaves obtuse, near each other. Common in

gravel. :

298. E. microphylla Heyne. (343). Stems spreading from the root

and dichotomously branched; pale and brittle. Leaves as long as broad

stipules minute styles deeply bifid. :

299. E. clarkeana Hk. f. (325). Leaves longer, stipules larger, seeds

rugose pale brown. Common.

300. E. nivulia Buch.-Ham. A large shrub. Branches fleshy and

cylindrical with pairs of sharp spines. Common. Fls. Feb.-March.

301. Phylanthus niruri Linn. (218). An erect glabrous herb. Stems

angular, leaves sub-sessile, flower axillary. Common weed of cultivated

places.

302. P. urinaria Linn. (13,19). A weed herb. Branches very few

at the top; leaves sessile, pale beneath. Rare.

303. Emblica officinalis Gaertn. =PhAyllanthus emblica Linn. Cultivated.

304. Securinega leucopyrus Willd. Flueggea leucopyrus Willd.=

Securinega obovata (Willd.) Pax & Hoffm. (265). Common. Fls. Sept.-Nov.

305. Acalypha ciliata Forsk. (1,115). A stout herb. Branches

few, leaves finely serrate, petiole longer than blade, bracts crowded.

Fls. Aug.-Oct.

306. Ricinus communis Linn. Cultivated and wild.

MORACEAE

307. Ficus glomerata Rox. Gular.

308. Morus alba Linn., 309. Ficus benghalensis Linn., 310. F. reli-

giosa Linn., 311. F. carica Linn., and 312. F. krishnae C. are cultivated.

HYDROCHARITACEAE

313. Vallisneria spiralis Linn. (48,239). Common _ hydrophyte.

Leaf size very variable. Fis. Nov.-Dec. |

314. Hydrilla verticillata Presl. (33,34,101,102,108). A submerged

water plant; leaf very variable in shape and size.

VEGETATION OF AJIT SAGAR BUNDH, RAJASTHAN 551

315. Lagarosiphon roxburghii Benth. (328). Submerged herb, stem

filiform, upper branches floating. Leaves sessile, opposite. Common

in lake.

ORCHIDACEAE

316. Zeuxine sulcata Lindl. (327,328). An erect fleshy terrestrial

herb of marshy places, 6-8’ high, leaves sessile, linear, acuminate, 25”

long, flowers white in dense raceme, Jan.-Feb.

SCITAMINAE

317. Canna indica Linn. (35), 318. Zingiber officinale Rosc., and

319. Musa sapientum Linn. (two varieties) are cultivated.

AMARYLLIDACEAE

320. Crinum asiaticum Linn., and 321. Agave spp. are cultivated.

DIOSCOREACEAE

322. Dioscorea bulbifera Linn. Cultivated.

LILIACEAE

323. Asparagus racemosus Willd. Satavar. (133). On hills. Fis. hot

months.

324. Asphodelus tenuifolius Cav. Fls. Feb.-March.

325. Allium cepa Linn., 326. A. sativum Linn., and 327. Aloe bar-

badensis Mill.=A. vera Linn. are cultivated.

COMMELINACEAE

328. Commelina benghalensis Linn. (149,258). A glabrous herb.

Fls. Sept.-Nov.

329. C. obliqua Buch.-Ham. (61,288).

330. C. wightii Raizada=C. glabra Clarke. (85,284). Narrow

lanceolate leaves, fis. solitary, axillary, pale brown. Aug.-Sept.

331. C. suffructicosa Bl. (86). Very rare.

332. C. salicifolia Roxb. (285). Becomes dark brown on drying.

Fls. Sept.-Dec. .

333. C. nudiffora Linn. (180,230,274). Frequent.

334. Cyanotis axillaris Schult. (158). Leaves pink, fis. solitary

axillary.

3 1b

552 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

PALMAE

335. Phoenix sylvestris Roxb. Cultivated.

PANDANACEAE

336. Pandanus tectorius Soland. ex Parkinson=P. odoratissimus

Roxb. Cultivated.

TY PHACEAE

337. Typha angustata Chaub. (127). A herb 5-6 feet, nearly half

beneath water. Monoecious; catkins very large, upper bigger half male

yellowish, lower half female brownish. Abundant in marshy places

and irrigation canals. |

ARACEAE

338. Pistia stratiotes Linn. A few plants floating in ponds and

puddles, leaves broadly rounded retuse. In cold months they were

found decaying; flowers could not be observed.

339. Colocasia sp. Cultivated.

NAIADACEAE

340. Potamogeton indicus Roxb. Common in lake and puddles.

341. Aponogeton monostachyon Linn. Rare.

CYPERACEAE

342. Cyperus arenarius Retz. (82). A small sub-erect herb of plains

and moist places, branching from the rootstock: Fls. Dec.-Feb.

343. C. niveus Retz. (126). Many white spikes gathered in the form

of a star on a one foot long peduncle. Common around lake.

344. C. eleusinoides Kunth. (84,289). 14-2 ft. high stem arising from

a perennial rootstock, 3-angled. Many axillary spikes arise at the top.

Abundant in marshy places along with 7ypha. Fils. Aug.-Dec.

345. C. rotundus Linn.

346. C. compressus Linn. (331). A small herb in the form of tufts.

In moist places. Fils. Dec.

347. Fimbristylis diphylla Vahl var. annua Clarke. (211,306). Herb

1 ft. high. Spikes 4”, red, oval. Fils. Aug.-Oct.

348. F.:squarrosa Vahl. (349). Annual. Leaves about half the length

of the stem, ligule squarrose. Style 2-fid, base with many long hairs...

VEGETATION OF AJIT SAGAR BUNDH, RAJASTHAN 55

349. Kylinga triceps Roxb. (77). A sub-erect herb, 6”, many stems

arising from a bulbous rootstock. Inflorescence 3-lobed, with 3 linear

leaves.

GRAMINEAE

350. Bothriochloa pertusa (Linn.) A. Camus= Andropogon pertusus

Willd. var. insculptus. (338). An erect annual grass, nodes bearded, 3-4

purple spikes in a spathe silky. Awn of 4 glumes 4” long.

351. Cenchrus setigerus Vahl= C. biflorus Roxb. (81). An erect grass

6” long. Inner bristles of the flower short. Common in plains.

352. C. barbatus Schum.=C. catharticus Del. A tufted grass, leaf

sheath inflated, inner bristles long and spinescent.

353. C. prieurii (Kunth.) Maire.=Pennisetum prieurii Kunth. (346).

Spikes short, similar to P. cenchroides but leaves long with filiform tip.

354. Setaria verticillata Beauv. (72). An annual grass.

355. Paspalum paspaloides Camus.=Panicum paspaloides Pers. A

tall grass, rachis flat. Spikelets biseriate, glabrous. Spikes longer

than internodes. | ;

356. Bracharia ramosa (L.) Stapf.=Panicum ramosum Linn. (75).

Stem ascending from a creeping base. Rachis narrow, first glume

shorter than the 3rd, five-nerved. |

357. B. reptans (L.) Gard. & Hubbard=Panicum prostratum Lamk.

(75). Similar, with shorter leaves, Ist glume only 4 of the third glume.

Stems branching at most of the nodes.

358. Paspalidium punctatum (Burm. f.) A. Camus = Panicum punctatum

Burm. (321). Perennial erect grass. Inflorescence 6-12” long, spikes

20, fls. ovoid, pale. Common in wet places.

359. P. antidotale Retz. Tall branching panicle large, spikelets short

ovoid, clustered. |

360. Rhynchelytrum villosum Chior.==7richolaena teneriffae Par-

lat. (78). Leaves convolute rigid, spikes open, spikelets 4”, purplish white,

silky with spreading hairs.

361. Digitaria sanguinalis Scop. (339). Rare annual. First glume

ciliate.

362. Melanocenchrus royleana Nees var. plumosa Raizada & Jain.

(83). A tufted annual grass, spikelets 2-flowered. Fls. Dec.-Feb.

554 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

363. Cynodon dactylon Pers. (342). Common.

364. Chloris inflata Link.=Chloris barbata Sw. (319). A common

perennial grass. Stem stout tufted leafy at the base. 10-15 sessile spikes

25” long.

365. Dactyloctenium scindicum Boiss.=Eleusine aristata Ehr. (241).

A common grass of the plains, 6-10” high, spikes 3-4 ($”). Fils. Aug.-

Feb.

366. D. aegypticum Willd.=Eleusine aegyptiaca Desf. (345). Stem

longer than the above species, nodes swollen, spikes 4-6, longer 1-14”.

367. Aristida mutabilis T. & R. (80). Annual. Common spikelets

4”, Ist and 2nd glumes shortly awned, 3rd has long awn.

368. A. setacea Retz. (317). Perennial. Spikelets 4”, Ist and 2nd

glumes long awned.

369. Eragrostis tremula Hochst. (248). Panicle diffused, spikelets

pinkish white. Common.

370. E. tenella R. & S. var. plumosa Stapf. Stem prostrate, spikes

long. Spikelets 3-5 flowered. Common.

371. Erianthus munja Roxb. Jesweit= Saccharum munja Roxb.

Common.

The following species are cultivated: 372. Saccharum spontaneum

Linn. 373. S. officinale Linn. 374. Bambusa spp. 375. Sorghum

vulgare Pers. 376. Pennisetum typhoideum Rich. 377. Zea mays Linn.

378. Hordeum vulgare Vill.

EPHEDRACEAE

380. Ephedra foliata Boiss. var. ciliata (C. A. May) Stapf.

PTERIDOPHYTES

381. Actinopteris dichotoma Bedd. (213). On hills in crevices of

rocks. |

382. Adiantum sp.

BRYOPHYTES

383. Riccia robusta

384. R. crystallina

VEGETATION OF AJIT SAGAR BUNDH, RAJASTHAN 555

GENERAL CONCLUSION

The vegetation of the hill presents a very striking life form consis-

ting of spiny Euphorbia nivulia and other thorny plants such as Balanites

aegyptiaca, Acacia senegal, Gymnosporia spinosa, Zizyphus spp., Bar-

leria spp., etc. Therefore this may be called a thorny scrub.

The vegetation on steep slopes of the hills is very sparse, whereas

on the gentler slopes it is rich. This marked difference in the nature of

the vegetation of the hills emphasises the importance of edaphic (soil

depth) and topographical factors. Based on the rainfall Biswas and

Rao (1953) divided Rajputana into three zones: the desert zone, the

arid zone, and the semi-arid zone. The Aravalli ranges with their com-

paratively dense vegetation, when compared with the rest of Rajasthan,

fall in the semi-arid zone. Mt. Abu, the highest peak in the Aravallis,

receives a higher rainfall (62.49” =158.72 cms.) than the rest of Rajas-

than and the vegetation is richer in both density and number of species

than western Rajasthan (cf. Blatter & Hallberg, 1918-1921; Mahabale

& Kharadi, 1946), Harsh Nath (Nair & Nathawat, 1957), and the hills

at Ajit Sagar. Mt. Abu with its high altitude favours the growth of

some of the Himalayan species of the families Rosaceae, Salicaceae,

Berberidaceae, and Ranunculaceae. These elements and the species

characteristic of peninsular India, found at Mt. Abu, such as species

of Diospyros, Sterculia, Holarrhena, Plumbago, Spondias, etc. are not

found in Harsh Nath and the area under consideration. However the

vegetation in Harsh Nath is much denser than Ajit Sagar. The differ-

ence may be attributed to several factors, primarily the water-supplying

capacity of the soil. Where a shallow soil cover lies over a porous and

strong substratum drought is felt almost all round the year and if the rain-

fall is low a dry scrub develops as in Ajit Sagar hills which are dry almost

eight months of the year so that only those species which can withstand

drought can grow. Therefore the plants growing there develop charac-

ters designed to meet the environmental conditions and it may not be

surprising, then, that a large number of plants growing there have similar

characters that enable them to pass readily the adverse conditions.

This may account for the predominance of thorny scrub on the hills.

Where the soil is deeper and less rapidly depleted of soil moisture

or the loss of water is compensated in the form of occasional rains the

incidence of drought may be seasonal and a forest can develop as in

Mt. Abu. These considerations lead to the conclusion that the dis-

tribution of vegetation in the different parts of Aravalli ranges is con-

trolled by soil moisture, which, of course is affected by climate, soil,

and topography. They can therefore be described as edaphoclimatic

climax. The influence of biotic factors also cannot be overlooked. The

plant coverage and their gregariousness are affected by grazing and cut-

ting.

556 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

It has been considered at various quarters that the simpler vegetation

not only of the Aravallis but the whole of Rajasthan is the deterioration

product of a rich vegetation. There has been some speculations as to

whether the degradation is due to increasing climatic adversities or

operations in the past of the various factors resulting in the deteriora-

tion of richer communities. According to Wadia (1954) the whole of

Asia is undergoing dessication. He states that Rajasthan was a fertile

tract with rich vegetation about 2500 years ago. The main reason he

considers for the desertification is the change in climate leading to a

very low rainfall. Joshi (1956) considers that the luxuriant growth of

vegetation during the rainy season supports the hypothesis of Wadia.

The following observations will be of interest in this connection: (a)

The richer communities of eastern Rajasthan gradually become thinner

and thinner towards the west. (b) The simpler communities could be

derived by the elimination of a few species characteristic of complex

ones. (c) Simpler communities show occasional occurrence of species

of complex ones. (d) The vegetation of the southern region of the Aravalli

ranges is more complex than those in the north. These considerations

bear testimony to prove that the simpler associations are the deteriora-

tion product of a climatic climax vegetation.

The families having five or more genera are Malvaceae (5), Asclepia-

daceae (5), Solanaceae (5), Cucurbitaceae (6), Scrophulariaceae (6), Acan-

thaceae (7), Amaranthaceae (7), Compositae (11), Leguminosae (14),

and Gramineae (15). The last three families are the most dominating

as is also the case in Pilani, Chirawa, Harsh Nath, and western Rajas-

than. The Cyperaceae which occupy the fourth place in W. Rajas-

than are poorly represented as is also the case in E. Rajasthan. The

families having five or more species are Asclepiadaceae (5), Polygona-

ceae (5), Labiatae (6), Solanaceae (6), Cucurbitaceae (7), Scrophularia-

ceae (7), Commelinaceae (7), Mollugineae (8), Convolvulaceae (8),

Tiliaceae (9), Boraginaceae (9), Cyperaceae (8), Malvaceae (10), Acan-

thaceae (10), Amaranthaceae (10), Euphorbiaceae (10), Compositae

(13), Gramineae (22), and Leguminosae (29). The families Legumi-

nosae, Gramineae, Compositae, Euphorbiaceae, Amaranthaceae, and

Malvaceae constitute about two-fifths of the flora.

The various genera are poorly represented. The largest genera

having 5 or more species are Indigofera (5), Heliotropium (5), Cyperus (5),

Euphorbia (6), Commelina (6), and Tephrosia (7). The relatively good

representation of Commelina is remarkable.

In general 3 distinct elements, namely western (African-Persian),

eastern (Malayan), and Indian can be distinguished in the flora

of Ajit Sagar. Of the three elements western is represented by 83 and

eastern by 33 species. The eastern is a little more than one third of the

western. In western Rajasthan the eastern element is only one seventh

VEGETATION OF AJIT SAGAR BUNDH, RAJASTHAN D1

of the western. This shows the greater proportion of eastern element

in Ajit Sagar. Blatter and Hallberg (1918-1921) and Biswas and Rao

(1953) supported the suggestions of Drude that the line of demarcation

between the Indo-malayan flora and the Perso-arabian flora ranges

from the Gulf of Cambay northwards along the Aravallis. If it is true,

one would expect a mingling of western and eastern elements in equal

proportions. The dominance of western elements in Lohargal, Harsh

Nath, and Ajit Sagar indicates that the line of demarcation should be

sought more towards the east. However, more intensive studies of the

various parts of the Aravallis are necessary before a final conclusion can

be arrived at. |

SUMMARY

The various associations found around Ajit Sagar lake area are des-

cribed. The vegetation on the hills is regarded to be a thorny scrub.

The poor vegetation is attributed to the limited water supplying capacity

of the soil, and the existing vegetation is considered to be the deteriora-

tion product of a climatic climax vegetation.

Of the 384 plants listed, 379 are angiosperms which include 126 cul-

tivated and 253 indigenous plants. Leguminosae, Compositae, and

Gramineae are the most dominating families. The largest genera in-

clude Indigofera, Helliotropium, Cyperus, Euphorbia, Commelina, and

Tephrosia.

Three elements, western, eastern, and Indian, can be distinguished

in the flora. The western element predominates over the eastern ele-

ment. The eastern type is only a little more than one-third of the

western.

We are thankful to Professors Rev. Fr. H. Santapau for kindly going

through the manuscript and suggesting several improvements, M. B.

Raizada for herbarium facilities, and B. N. Mulay for encouragement

and facilities. The senior author is thankful to his colleagues who have

helped in the completion of the work.

REFERENCES

Biswas, K. & Rao, R. S. (1953): Bikaner and its adjacent areas in com-

Rajputana desert vegetation. Proc. Nat. parison with rest of western Rajasthan.

Inst. Sci. India 19 : 411-421. J. Indian Bot. Soc. 35 : 495.

Blatter, E. & Hallberg, F. E. (1918-

1921): The flora of the Indian desert.

JBNHS 26: 210-246, 525-531, 811-818;

27 : 40-47, 270-279, 507-519.

— —, McCann, C., & Sabnis, T. S.

(1929): The Flora of Indus Delta.

Indian Bot. Soc. Madras.

*Drude, O. (1890) : Handbuch der

Pflanzen Geographie. Stuttgart.

— — —, (1913): Die Oekologie der

Pflanzen. Brunswick.

Hooker, J. D. (1875-1897) : Flora of

British India I-VII. London.

Joshi, M. C. (1956) : Plant ecology of

Mahabale, T. S. & Kharadi, A.

(1946) : Some ecological features of the

vegetation of Mount Abu. Proc. nat.

Acad. Sci. India 16 : 13-23.

INainesNe C. “& oNathawats G. S.

(1952): Vegetation of Harsh Nath,

Aravalli Hills. JBNHS 54 : 281-301.

Nairne, A. K. (1894): The Flowering

Plants of Western India. Bombay and

London.

*Wadia, D. N. (1954): Deserts of

Asia—their origin and growth in the late

pleistocene time. Birbal Sahni Inst.

Paleobotany 1-10.

*Not seen in original, —

On the Parakeet Psittacula intermedia

(Rothschild)

[Aves : Psittacidae] 39

BISWAMOY BISWAS

Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta

Psittacula intermedia was described by Rothschild (1895) on a single

trade skin shipped to him from Bombay. He accepted it as an Indian

bird. Later, he obtained six more specimens from one Mr. Dunstall,

a plumassier of London. Hartert (1924, p. 126) in his account of

these specimens stated that these six skins were selected from a

greater number of these birds.

Owing probably to the rarity and uncertain locality Psittacula

intermedia did not receive the attention it deserves in Indian orni-

thology. Both Rothschild’s and Hartert’s papers had apparently been

overlooked by subsequent workers on Indian ornithology, and the

species found no place in any work of such eminent ornithologists as

Blanford, Stuart Baker, Ticehurst, and Whistler. Nevertheless, we

find it resuscitated, without locality, by Peters (1937, p. 246).

The problems created by this bird are many and somewhat intri-

guing. I have made an attempt here to determine its status, its

affinities, and the possible place of its occurrence.

Rothschild (loc. cit.) pointed out that Ps. intermedia is some-

what intermediate between Ps. schisticeps (=himalayana') and Ps.

cyanocephala*. There appear then two possibilities as to its status:

(1) that it is a hybrid between Ps. himalayana/Ps. finschi and

Ps. cyanocephala/Ps. roseata, produced by nature or by

man; and

(2) that it is a genuine species wild at some unknown locality.

Regarding the possibility of its being hybrid, Rothschild (loc. cit.)

has expressed the opinion that it is not a hybrid, and Hartert (loc. cit.)

has stated: ‘If it were a hybrid, so many specimens would not very

1 Psittacula himalayana, as hitherto understood, has recently been shown by Husain

(1959) to be composed of two separate species, Ps. himalayana and Ps. finschi.

2 Psittacula cyanocephala has subsequently been shown by Biswas (1951, pp. 1-6)

to be composed of two species, Ps. cyanocephala and Ps. roseata.

ON THE PARAKEET PSITTACULA INTERMEDIA (ROTHSCHILD) 559

likely have come at the same time, and one would expect them to

vary, but they are all alike.’ Indeed, I have independently come to

the same conclusion after an examination of all these specimens.

Besides, if they were man-made hybrids, they would necessarily have

been cage birds. But the character of their toes does not indicate this.

Psittacula intermedia may, therefore, be regarded as a genuine wild

species.

It is necessary to record here a few words about the known

specimens of Ps. intermedia. Including the type only seven specimens

of the species are believed to exist, and they are all housed in the

Rothschild Collections of the American Museum of Natural History,

New York. None of the specimens is sexed but, from coloration, six

of them appear to be exceedingly similar adult males, while the seventh

(A.M.N.H. No. 621545) is an immature specimen, being green all over,

and its sex cannot be guessed. Incidentally, it may be added that this

specimen has as long a wing as that of the longest-winged male

specimen, and it matches well with immature examples of Ps.

himalayana, both in coloration and in size. I am thus led to consider

it an immature specimen of Ps. himalayana, which brings down the

total number of known specimens of Ps. intermedia from seven to six.

All the specimens are in more or less fresh plumage. In one

(A.M.N.H. No. 621544) the central tail feathers still show the sheaths

at their bases. The post-juvenile moult in another specimen (A.M.N.H.

No. 621542) is almost finished. Its body feathers are all very fresh,

its wings and tail are in moult, and its head has new red and blue

feathers with some greenish towards their centres. A third specimen

(No. 621543) is a trifle different from the other specimens in having

very little yellow on the tips of its central rectrices, and more green

than verdigris on the rump.

As has already been stated by Rothschild and by Hartert, Ps.

intermedia is intermediate between Ps. himalayana/Ps. finschi and

Ps. cyanocephala/Ps. roseata. A careful comparison of the five species

shows that Ps. intermedia shares characters with the four other

species as presented in Table 1. It would appear from the above that

if coloration alone is considered Ps. intermedia is closer to Ps.

cyanocephala/Ps. roseata than to Ps. himalayana/Ps. finschi (contra

Rothschild). However, taking into consideration the size factor

(Table 2) also, I am inclined to agree with Rothschild that Ps.

intermedia is nearer Ps. himalayana/Fs. finschi. Furthermore, the

conglomeration of characters among the five species, as presented in

Table 1, suggests that they are genetically related.

JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

560

~ | *(1) ]Pews ‘({) 93Ie] : ozIs

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ON THE PARAKEET PSITTACULA INTERMEDIA (ROTHSCHILD) 561

As to the place of occurrence of Ps. intermedia, nobody knows for

certain where it occurs. Nor has any ornithologist ever seen this bird

alive in nature. Rothschild thought that it occurs somewhere in the

‘Western Provinces’ of India, meaning western Himalayas, because

TABLE 2.—MEASUREMENTS IN MILLIMETRES OF Psittacula roseata, Ps. cyanocephala,

Bill

| ‘Mine Tail from cere

Ps. roseata 30 ¢ 135-150 152-198 16--20

Sikkim, northern Bengal, (142.3) (178.5) (18.4)

Assam, Burma (except Tena-

sserim) 21-9 132-143 140-179 16-18.5

: (138.0) (157.7) (18.0)

Ps. cyanocephala | Bye 143-150 195-253 18-19

Himalayas from the Punjab to \(146.0) (218.7) (18.4)

northern Bengal

13 Q 139.5-144 190-200 17-18

(143.2) (196.3) (17.6)

Ps. intermedia

“India. Nat. Skim.’ TYPE 1 (2) 5/7 — 20.5

‘‘India.”” Other specimens 5 (3) 148, 155, 185, 202, 19, 20,.20,

155+ 156, 158 DOA we

Ps. himalayana 23 6 162-174 172-270 21-23.5

(167.1) (232.5) (22.2)

Himalayas from Kashmir to

Nepal. ORD 155-166 175-231 20.5-22.5

(162.2) (202.0) (21.3)

Ps. finschi 16 ¢ 148-156 244-270 22-23

(153.0) (256.5) (22.3)

Assam, upper Burma 5) Ae 143-149 225-251 21.5- 23

(145.5) (240.1) (221)

Figures in parentheses represent average measurements.

along with the type ‘came two skins of P. schisticeps’ (=himalayana).

Hartert believed that it ‘evidently came from some pari of the

Himalayas, as it was accompanied by other Himalayan birds’, and

hinted at the possibility of its occurrence in the western Himalayas.

On the label (Rothschild’s Tring Museum label) of the type specimen,

however, we read: ‘India Nat. Skim.’ This may be a slip meaning

either ‘native skin (a skin collected by a native) from India’, or ‘India,

Native Sikim’—as present Sikkim used to be called by the British

authorities in olden days to distinguish it from British Sikkim=

Darjeeling district. In the latter case, it is impossible to know now

whether the change in the locality of the type label was merely a

562 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

clerical error or written under instruction. It is possible that either

Rothschild or Hartert, or both, had reasons to change their earlier

Opinion on the probable place of occurrence of the bird, but there

does not appear to be any published account to corroborate this

assumption. The labels of the other specimens simply bear ‘India’ as

the locality.

Four species of Psittacula, namely Ps. eupatria, Ps. krameri, Ps.

cyanocephala, and Ps. himalayana, occur in the western Himalayas

(west of Kumaon), while as many as seven species, i.e. the four above-

named species plus Ps. roseata, Ps. finschi, and Ps. alexandri, are found

in the eastern Himalayas (Kumaon eastward). Competition among

the species of Psittacula would, therefore, seem to be greater in the

eastern Himalayas. However, the fact that the wing, tail, and bill are

larger in Ps. intermedia than in Ps. cyanocephala and Ps. roseata may

perhaps indicate that the former ranges to an altitude higher than the

latter, and nearly as high as Ps. himalayana/Ps. finschi. Along the —

whole length of the Himalayas, in the altitudinal zone of approximately

1800-2400 metres, the only species of Psittacula known to occur are

Ps. himalayana and Ps. finschi. Possibly, Ps. intermedia co-exists

with either or both of them in this altitudinal belt where obviously

competition among them is expected to be comparatively less than it is

elsewhere. It is likely that the species has escaped the notice of

ornithologists so far because of its probable localized distribution.

Furthermore, great portions of the Himalayas, particularly the Assam

Himalayas, remain yet to be faunistically explored.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am indebted to the authorities of the American Museum of

Natural History, the British Museum (Natural History), and the

Bombay Natural History Society for giving me facilities to study their

material. I am grateful to Professor Ernst Mayr, Professor J. L.

Bhaduri, Dr. SA4lim Ali, and Dr. K. K. Tiwari, who read an earlier draft

of the manuscript of this paper, discussed the problems with me, and

gave me the benefit of their mature advice on one point or the other:

and to Dr. Dean Amadon who re-examined a specimen at my request

and sent me his report.

REFERENCES

Biswas, B. (1951) : Revisions of Indian of the Burmese slaty-headed parakeet.

birds. Amer. Mus. Novit., No. 1500: Ibis 101 : 249-250.

1-12: Peters, J. L. (1937) : Check-list of birds

Hartert, E. (1924) : Types of birds in of the World, Cambridge, Mass. 3: 246.

the Tring Museum. Novit. Zool. 31: Rothschild, W. (1895): On a new

112-134. parrot. Novit. Zool. 2 : 492.

Husain, K.Z.(1959): Taxonomic status

Some New Isopod Parasites on

Fishes

D. V. BAL AND U. N. JOSHI

Department of Zoology, Institute of Science, Bombay

(With two plates)

INTRODUCTION

In a preliminary investigation on the Isopod fauna of Bombay,

the presence of three new species of parasitic Isopods was noted.

A detailed description of their morphological features with suitable

illustrations is given below.

1. Argathona mureneae sp. n.

Family: Corrallinidae.

Genus: Argathona Stebbing.

Host: Murena tessellata.

Date: August 1956.

Collection: 9 females.

DESCRIPTION

Body ovate. Colour violet. Surface setose. Thoracic segments

without any tubercles. Convex along the mid-dorsal line. Less than

half as broad as long.

Gephalon andcits appendages: (PI. I, Fig. .1).. The

cephalon is more or less a triangular plate, though slightly broader

than long. The base of the cephalon is comparatively straight while

the lateral sides are broadly rounded and meet anteriorly in a very small

rostral projection covering the base of the antennae. The surface of

the cephalic segment is setose but not as thickly as the other body

regions. Moderate eyes situated wide apart at the postero-lateral sides

of the head. .

Antennae (Pl. I, Figs. 2 and 3) are well developed. The first pair

(Pl. I, Fig. 2) is extensible as far as the posterior margin of the first

564. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

thoracic segment. Its peduncle is well defined with three segments,

and the flagellum with eleven to thirteen segments. Each segment of

the flagellum carries a pencil of brush setae along the mid-anterior

margin on the ventral aspect. The terminal segment, however, bears

brush setae at its apex.

The second antenna (PI. I, Fig. 3) is long and slender. It extends

to the posterior margin of the third segment of the thorax. The

peduncle and flagellum of the second antenna are well defined. First

two joints of the peduncle are small, the third slightly longer but

atrophied on the inner side, thus giving it a triangular appearance.

The fourth and fifth articles are as long as the combined length of

the first three articles and are more or less sub-equal to each other.

The flagellum of the second antenna consists of thirty to thirty-four

articles or segments. Each segment bears a thin pencil of setae on the

ventral side. The terminal segment bears setae at the apex.

Mandibles (P\. |, Fig. 4 a and 4 b) are strong, and their cutting

edges thickly chitinised, retaining their brown colour even in _per-

manent preparations. Left mandible (Fig. 4 a) is represented by a

thin blade-like projection which is not serrate.

First maxilla (Pl. I, Fig. 5) has the outer joint strong, chitinised

unguis, and a hook-like spine at the base.

Second maxilla (Pl. I, Fig. 6) is simple, short and lobe-like.

Maxillipeds (P|. J, Fig. 7) with the last two joints setose along their

inner margin towards the apex.

Thorax and its appendages: (Pll Mies Ah ooo):

Thorax is long and broad. Its surface is uniformly setose. The

first thoracic segment is the longest of all. The second, third, and

_fourth segments are sub-equal and slightly shorter than the first. The

fifth, sixth and seventh are shorter, the seventh being the shortest.

The breadth of the thoracic segments goes on increasing up to the

fourth thoracic segment which is broadest. Succeeding segments are

slightly narrower.

Epimeral expansions of the thoracic segments are well defined,

excepting those of the first one. The second and third segments

have their epimera developed but not as much as in the succeeding

segments.

First thoracic leg exhibits a dentate dactylus' on the inner side, in

addition to a strong terminal spine (PI. IV, Fig. 8). The succeeding

two legs are also dentate but on a smaller scale. Others are strong

and thickly setose (Pl. IV, Fig. 9).

Abdomen and its appendages: (Pl. I, Fig. 1). Due

to the bent nature of the body, the first abdominal segment is totally

JourN. Bompay Nat. Hist. Soc.

FIG40—

SHIRGRONKAR

: Argathona muraeneae sp. n.

Fig. 1: Adult female. Fi

g.2: First antenna, fi—flagellum, pd—peduncle. Fig. 3 : Second

antenna, fl—flagellum, pd—peduncle. Fig. 4a 4b plp—plp : Left and right mandibles, ins—

incisor, mol—molar. Fig. 5: First maxilla, ol—outer lobe. Fig. 6: Second maxilla. Fig. 7:

aa ela Fig. 8: First thoracic leg. Fig. 9 : Second thoracic leg. Fig. 10: Seventh

oracic leg.

Journ. BomBay Nat. Hist. Soc. hh Ce TA TMC ag ome

FIG.4

FIG.2

SRIRGAONKAR

ESS TIT TLR TSE RTE TEE

rrr rer reer er ET TAS AS

FIGAO

FIG.7

2rdyaye , 13€ g993¢

1G.

at IGG

SHIRES BONAR,

Cymothoa cinerea sp. n.

Fig. 1 : Adult female—cph—cephalon, p/t—pleotelson. Fig. 2: Maxilliped,

mxp—maxilliped. Fig. 3: First thoracic leg. Fig. 4: Second thoracic leg.

Fig. 5 : Seventh thoracic leg.

Nerocila pigmentata sp. n.

Fig. 6: Adult female, cph—cephalon, pd—peduncle, ur—uropod. Fig. 7:

Right mandible, mnd—mandible. Fig. 8: Ist mx—First maxilla. Fig. 9: 2nd.

mx—Second maxilla. Fig. 10 : mxp—Maxilliped. ve

SOME NEW ISOPOD PARASITES ON FISHES 565

covered by the seventh segment of the thorax. Likewise, the second

abdominal segment is also partially covered. The third is nearly as

broad as the seventh thoracic segment. The fourth, which is equally

broad, covers the fifth segment laterally. Excepting the first and the

covered portion of the second, all the abdominal segments are setose.

Epimeral expansions of the abdominal segments are not defined

but they can be recognised by their backward projections on the

thitd and fourth segments.

The last abdominal (pleotelsonic) segment is bulged on each side

of the mid-dorsal line in the anterior region. The telsonic region is

triangular with rounded apex posteriorly. The telson is not thickly

setose. The posterior margin of the telson and of the uropods is

dentate with long and fine setae, sprouting out from the depression of

the dentary.

REMARKS .

The gills and the buccal cavity of the fish Murena tessellata was

found infested with the aforesaid species of isopods. ‘Their general

appearance and body colour resembled the description of Argathona

normani (Stebbing, 1905). However, they differed from it by their

apparent parasitic habitat and the non-tuberculate nature of the

thoracic segments and the telson. In view of this, this species is

named here as Argathona mureneae.

2. Nerocila pigmentata sp. n.

Family: Cymothoidae.

Genus: WNerocila Leach.

Host: Opithopterus turtoor (dorsal side).

Date:. May 1956.

Collection: Two ovigerous females.

DESCRIPTION

Body ovate and compact; broad (13 mm.) in the middle and

broadly converging at the ends (length 21 mm.). Body colour

beautiful yellow-grey. Presence of lateral dark violet bands running

almost throughout the length of the body; becoming faint, sparse, and

broad on the thoracic region, and deeply pigmented on the abdomen,

peduncle of uropod, and its outer-ramus.

Cephalon (PI. H, Fig. 6). Cephalon or head is broader than

long and. subquadrate. Its anterior margin is broadly rounded and

566 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

posterior trilobed. The median lobe is large and rounded and

the side ones are small and angled. Eyes, situated in the postero-

lateral angles of the head, are small. First pair of antennae does not

reach the middle of the first thoracic segment and the second extends

to the middle of the segment. Mandibles, maxillae and maxillipeds

show the characteristic structure of the genus Nerocila (Richardson,

1905) (Pl. II, Figs. 8, 9, 10).

Thorax (Pl. U, Fig. 6). The length of the thorax is almost

equal to its breadth at the 6th segment. First thoracic segment is

24 times broader than long. Its anterior margin is trisinuate and

posterior uniformly curved. The postero-lateral angles of this segment

are very prominent and extend nearly to the posterior margin of the

second segment. Epimera of the first segment are not visible. The

second, third, and fourth segments are subequal in length but narrower

than the first. The posterior margin of these segments is broadly

rounded in a convex manner. The postero-lateral angles of the

second segment are abruptly short as compared to those of the first,

and gradually elongated in posterior segments. The epimeral ex-

pansions of the second segment are slender, acute, and extend almost

to the posterior extremity of the third segment. Those of the third

and fourth are also slender but slightly more elongated. The fifth

segment of the thorax is broad and long. At the sides, it exhibits

anteriorly a pair of sutures demarcating the anterior portion, from

which the epimeral expansions arise. Its posterior portion extends

laterally backwards, to form well-developed postero-lateral angles of

the segment. The epimera of the fifth segment are well developed,

with a broad base, sloping into a fine acute point, reaching the lateral

sutures of the succeeding segment. The sixth and seventh segments

are broad, the former being the broadest. They are also longer than

the rest but are subequal. The posterior margin of the 6th segment

is almost straight, and of the seventh concave. The lateral sutures of

these segments are prominent. Their epimeral expansions are robust

and long. Postero-lateral angles of these segments are very well

developed.

The first five thoracic legs are prehensile and closely situated. The

sixth is slightly posterior to the middle of the body and wide apart

from the fifth. The seventh leg is also situated far off from the sixth.

All the legs are similar to each other in structure but they increase

in length abruptly in the posterior pairs, the seventh being the longest.

Abdomen (Pl. Il, Fig. 6). The abdomen is slightly immersed —

in the thorax. Its five free segments are well defined. The lateral

eee

SOME NEW ISOPOD PARASITES ON FISHES 567

angles of the first four segments are well developed and elongated.

The epimera of the first two abdominal segments are slender, acute,

elongated, reaching the distal end of the peduncle of the uropod.

Epimera of the other segments are not visible. The pleotelson is

more or less a rectangular plate, with its angles broadly rounded, the

inner margin of which is almost straight as compared to the outer.

The peduncle of uropod is distinct. The outer distal angle of the

uropod is extended. Peduncle and outer ramus of the uropod are

deeply coloured. Both the rami of the uropod are elongate, terete,

slender, and acute. The outer ramus is double the length of the

inner, and is darkly pigmented. The inner ramus has a slightly

broader base.

REMARKS

The significant features like long acute arrow-like epimeral ex-

pansions of the posterior segments of the thorax, broadly rounded

telson, the presence of beautiful dark violet bands on the sides on the

body and the long slender uropod region make this species strik-

ingly different from the other known species of the genus Nerocila

(Richardson, 1905; Barnard, 1940). Therefore, the species is named

as Nerocila pigmentata owing to its dark pigmentation of the sides

of the body and uropods.

3. Cymothoa cinerea sp. n.

Family: Cymothoidae.

Genus: Cymothoa Fabricius.

Host: Stromateus cinereus (in the buccal cavity).

Date: September 1956.

Collection: Two females.

DESCRIPTION

Body stout oblong 44 mm. long and 19 mm. broad at 4th thoracic

segment. Colour brown-yellow. Thoracic segments punctate. Abdo-

minal segments not smooth.

Cephalon and its appendages: (Pl. Ul, Figs. | and 2).

Cephalon (Pl. Il, Fig. 1 cph.) is large with its posterior margin

straight. Lateraily, the posterior angles are straightly curved into a

rounded margin.. The lateral margins of the cephalon are also

straight but not parallel to each other: instead they slope anteriorly

568 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol. 36 (3)

to meet the anterior truncate margin. This gives. the cephalon a

trapezoidal appearance. The anterior half of the trapezoidal cephalic

plate is slightly depressed in the middle. Small, more or less rounded

eves are placed a little behind the middle of the head or cephalon. |

First antenna is smooth and robust with nine articles. The apical

articles are slenderer than the basal. It reaches the projected latero-

anterior angles of the first thoracic segment. — 7

Second antenna is smooth but much more slender than the first.

It consists of eight articles and almost touches the posterior lateral

angles of the first thoracic segment when stretched. sb

Maxillipeds possess. cilia-like projections on the inner border of

basal segment (PI. II, Fig. 2).

Thorax and its appendages: (Pl. iL Fes.

The first thoracic segment is the longest and the fifth the broadest.

‘The antero-lateral angles of the first thoracic segment nearly extend

up to-the middle of the cephalon. The second, third, fourth, and fifth

thoracic segments are equal in length, while the length of the succeed-

ing two segments is less, the last being the shortest. The anterior

margin. of the first segment is emarginate and that of the succeeding

segments is covered by the preceding segments. The posterior margin

-of all the thoracic segments is not straight but is projected - mid-

dorsally into a small curved protrusion. This curved projection is

more prominent in the fourth and fifth segments.

The lateral epimeral plates of. the thoracic segments are not

attached to the entire length of the segment, but are attached only to

the anterior half. In the posterior segments this attachment can be

easily distinguished by the presence of a prominent’ transverse notch

in the middle of the segment. The first three pairs of thoracic legs

(Pl. li, Figs. 3, 4) have long strong dactyli nearly as long as those

of the following pairs. The last four pairs have strongly developed

carinae on the femora. The femur of the seventh pair is (PI. II, Fig. 5)

broad and long. |

Jb do memvain d«its bap prem diag és -a4PR I, Fig. 1).

The abdomen is nearly 4 the length of the body and is con-

spicuously immersed in the thorax. The fifth abdominai segment. is

broader than the preceding ones. Each of the abdominal segments

has four to five smali tubercles on the anterior half, arranged in an

inconspicuous row. The remaining portion of the segment is smooth.

The pleo-telson: (Pl. H, Fig. 1, pit.) is broader than long. The

anterior margin “has irregular tubercles on the top. Its anterior side

has conspicuous. depression on the mid-dorsal region. The postero-

SOME NEW ISOPOD PARASITES ON FISHES 569

lateral margins are broadly rounded. The posterior margin has a

wide notch on the mid-dorsal line.

REMARKS

The presence of such a large specimen in the buccal cavity of

Stromateus cinereus is very interesting. Its study shows a close

resemblance of shape and body form to that of the Known parasite

Cymothoa stromatea, parasitic on Parastromateus niger (Pillai, 1954).

However, the present species differs from C. stromatea in possessing

longer thorax, shorter and tuberculated abdomen, and slightly punctate

sides of the body. Hence it is named after its host.

REFERENCES

Barnard, K. E. (1940) : Ann. S. Afri. Richardson, H. (1905) : A monograph

Mus. 32 : 381. of the Isopods of North America. Bull.

Pillai, N. K. (1954): Bull. Central U.S. Nat. Mus. No. 54.

Research Inst. Univ. Travancore, Trivan- Stebbing, T. (1905): Ceylon pearl

drum. Ser. (C), 3 (I): 1. oyster fishery Reports, 4. Suppl. Rep. 1.

An Ornithologist revisits West Nepal

(March 21-25, 1959)

ROBERT L. FLEMING

After an interval of seven years, we found ourselves again at

Sanauli, the check-post north of Gorakhpur on the Nepal border.

Nothing much had changed—motor lorries were all older. In 1949

we knew nothing of the bird life but collected there twice (1949, .

1951). Armed only with binoculars, note-book, and some local

ornithological experience, we now had a good chance to check again

on birds along the road to Tansen and around Pokhara.

The bus apparently would be delayed for some time, so we ranged

out from the station. There were several common birds about—

House Crows, Common Mynas, Black Drongos on a dead tree. A

Crimsonbreasted Barbet called from a mango grove. Out in cut-over

grain fields were many Pied Mynas, more plentiful here than in any

other place we have visited in Nepal. Indian Rollers sat on bounds

between fields; this species became less frequent or not seen at all

until we reached Pokhara where they were positively numerous. A

frequent roadside bird was the pink-legged Indian Pipit with its

speckled breast. From a large almost leafless tree came the metallic

chirp of the Yellowthroated Sparrow. Two of these occupied a

special branch which was apparently an ‘apartment’. J had only found

this sparrow twice before. A Grey Partridge called from a distant

hedge. Jungle Crows here may have been either the Indian or

Himalayan race. There was a species of dove, identity undetermined.

No sign of the departure of any bus, therefore we set out on foot

to observe what we could before being overtaken. The road ran

westward with large, white boundary posts at intervals on our left. A

pair of Ashycrowned Finch-Larks crouched in the dust of the road.

The male fiew upward for five or six wing-beats, then plummeted

down a short distance on folded wings only to rise again and repeat

the performance to the accompaniment of a sweet little song. Large

white egrets stood near a distant pond. We have collected Egretta

alba modesta (Gray) but are still looking for the smaller bird, E.

intermedia. Overhead wheeled a number of birds like martins—black

above, white below with light gray, almost whitish throats. On a

AN ORNITHOLOGIST REVISITS WEST NEPAL SH

bound of a field rested a White-eyed Buzzard which turned its head

and blinked its eyes. When we tossed a clod in its direction, it flew

low over the ground, then suddenly ascended into a low tree. An

Indian Bush Chat sat on the top of a shrub on the far side of the

field. q

We looked back but could see no activity at the distant check-post.

Soon we reached a stream near a camp. The Indian Pond Herons

were here as well as a pair of Redwattled Lapwings. From a mango

grove darted a Green Bee-eater showing a metallic sheen as it

flattened its wings, wheeled and glided back to the same twig. Over-

head a flight of Roseringed Parakeets flashed by, ‘clacking’ as they

went. At the water’s edge a White Wagtail, possibly Motacilla alba

dukhunensis Sykes, restlessly searched for insects. A single sand-

piper ran along the edge of the water [Actitis hypoleuca (L.) ?]. A

Blackheaded Shrike flew with heavy flight from a small tree. This

Species is common from the terai to 8000 feet and beyond. Several

days north of Kathmandu we found Lanius schach tricolor to be very

common. In May, at 7500 feet they were breeding. Colonel

Richard Proud, who went on through the Gosainkund Pass at 14,500

feet into Langtang Valley, saw only the black-headed bird on this

side, and immediately on the other side only the grey-headed race

L. s. erythronotus (Vigors). A group of Common Babblers moved

among trees above a cactus hedge. This was the first glimpse of this

common bird in Nepal. Many Redvented Bulbuls were here and in

the foothills. The Kite of this area was much darker than those at

Tansen and Pokhara.

Our bus finally caught up with us. From here to Butwal, about

twenty miles, we spotted several more familiar birds. Neophrons

circled through the air at Bhairahwa town. House Sparrows were in

holes in brick buidings, while an Indian Hoopoe with its rose-tinted

breast, dropped into a tree in front of a shop. |

Again on the road we saw a group of Cattle Egrets feeding in

company with buffaloes. Some say egrets pick ticks off animals’ backs

but careful examination of stomachs in Egypt have not confirmed

this. They apparently take insects which are stirred up by graz-

ing herds. A Wiretailed Swallow rested on a concrete bridge we

crossed—-a species we have not yet taken in Nepal. A brown vulture

with white on its back sat upright on a nest-platform in a tall tree.

A Bank Myna scurried between the legs of cattle, reminding me of

the first one I tried to collect which did the same thing. Occasional

Pied Bush Chats perched on shrubs in open meadows while the

Common Kingfisher sped over patches of water beside the road. On

S72 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

a larger stream we caught a glimpse of the Pied Kingfisher poised on

hovering wings. |

In the distance a forest of tall trees loomed up. A pair of Sarus

Cranes as well as Lesser Adjutant Storks stood in one of the last

clearings. What appeared to be a Yellowbreasted Babbler popped

out of the dry grass next to the road. As we entered the forest we

were hemmed in for the next few miles and saw nothing. Not that

the area was empty for we crossed the very stream where we found

Conover’s Green Pigeon (sp. nova) and the Great Grey Woodpecker

(Mulleripicus)-the only place we’ve ever seen it. We finally com-

pleted our twenty mile trip in a little over four hours and reached

Butwal (900 feet), at the foot of the Siwalik Range, where we stayed

over night. |

Next morning Purple Sunbirds were calling from trees heavy with

mistletoe. Here was the only Brownbacked Indian Robin we saw,

in the same place we collected it ten years before. We struck out

northward along the rocky trail which leads through a defile up the

Tinau River bed. The Whistling Thrush now became common along

the stream. Whitecapped Redstarts skimmed from rock to rock;

soon they would be nesting on mountain streams at 12,000 feet. The

too-lee, too-lee of the Tailor Bird now followed us much of our way.

Here we heard the loud, metallic cluk of the Indian Grackle. ‘This

species is very common farther east where, at Hitaura and Amlekhganj

below Kathmandu, young birds are sold in the bazaar for a rupee or

two. A hunting party in the taller trees contained several willow

warblers, the Chestnutbellied Nuthatch, and a small pied woodpecker,

possibly Dendrocopos canicapillus mitchelii (Malherbe). Near a

village was a small dove about the size of the little Red Turtle Dove.

The Whitecheeked Bulbul as well as the little White-eye with its

plaintive teer became frequent.

The road, a series of stone ledges, now wound through a forest

with a ravine on our right choked with creepers and shrubs. I didn’t

see the Green Magpie, Redheaded Trogon, nor Red Junglefowl of

other years, but the Brownbacked Pied Shrikes were in their place,

flitting from limb to limb, and also the Greyneaded Flycatcher with its

cheery notes. Bulbuls like each other’s company for the Blackheaded

Yellow, the Black (really grey with a black crest and coral beak), and

the Browneared, which we call ‘the musical bulbul’, were all together.

The little Bronzed Drongo hawked insects from a dead branch in the

same tree where he had been before.

Rani Bas, ‘the place where the Queen sat’, was the spot on the way

to Tansen which was ‘bursting’ with birds. The Green Pigeon there

- AN ORNITHOLOGIST REVISITS WEST NEPAL F158)

may have been the thick-billed species. The first class songster of the

ravine was the Indian Shama. And the first class mimic, in almost

every tree was the Orangebellied Chloropsis. The Blackbreasted

Sunbird was in the same sunny nook next to the village near some

dark green Willow Warblers. A bit higher the forest was full of

barbet calls. ‘There was the Bluethroated, the two-note whe-—lp of

the Goldenthroated, and the piercing pir-au of the Himalayan Great

Barbet. The second is only occasionally found while there are many

of the other two. ‘The sketchy little song of the Whitebrowed Fantail

Flycatcher came from dense cover where it sat on lower branches

swaying from side to side. On the ridge above the village Hodgson’s

Striated Swallows skimmed the treetops while a party of Whitecrested

Laughing Thrushes filled the air with their hollow mockery. Then

something rustled at our feet. After a moment out stole a Streaked

Laughing Thrush which fluttered down the hill followed by a second

one. The Mussoorie race is very much more common than its Nepal

cousin (setafer). The soft chir of the Redbilled Babbler revealed a

small party of these birds in dense undergrowth. Although it was

mid-forenoon a Barred Owlet suddenly unleashed a ripple of notes.

Greyheaded Flycatcher-Warblers worked energetically in the ‘trees,

singing as they went while their duller relatives, the Blackbrowed

Flycatcher-Warblers, worked near the ground in a more deliberate

manner. |

We climbed a narrow defile, crossed a bridge, and passed a number

of thatched Nepali houses neatly trimmed in two-toned cream and

terra cotta. On the cut-over hillside Hodgson’s Rustycheeked

Scimitar Babblers sent forth a duo: pick-—puck, peak. In this rather

narrow valley we came across a considerable number of Verditer

Flycatchers which seemed to be moving northward in a compact

group for we hadn’t seen them before nor did we see or hear them

later. The Dark-grey Cuckoo-Shrike with its three descending notes,

called at intervals. A flock of Scarlet Minivets flew across the valley

and filled the air with their conversation. Just overhead a tiny Fire-

breasted Flowerpecker rummaged about in a cluster of leaves. A pair

of Crested Buntings sat on the edge of a field. For the first time we

met the Magpie Robin, so very common in Pokhara, Tansen, and

Kathmandu.

The road led steeply upward for a thousand feet to Marsain

(4000 feet) beyond which we could see the white buildings of Tansen,

seven miles distant. We had to drop. down fifteen hundred feet to a

stream and rice fields. In a secondary growth of jungle we came

across a party of Yellowcheeked Tits, escorting leaf warblers,

574 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Velvetfronted Nuthatches, and others. Here the Indian Sunbird gave

a vivid view of his brilliant red and green breast and abdomen. A

flock of Longtailed Minivets, with their mellow tweet—tweet, flew

through the trees.

We reached the bottom of the steep descent and passed out into

rice fields. Redbilled Blue Magpies sent their grating notes down

from the slopes above. Then followed the tidilly—aye--kok of the

Himalayan Tree Pie which flew above us with laboured wing-beats and

drooping tails. The common Hawk-Cuckoo screamed brain fever in

rising crescendo. A Whitebreasted Kingfisher sat at the edge of a

stream, but we missed his brown-headed stork-billed cousin which we

had collected here seven years before.

We still had three or four miles to go and a climb from 2500 to

4500 feet. We followed the survey route of the new motor road to

run from Butwal to Pokhara. Sal forest and some pine covered the

hills. We saw several uniformly grey-brown flowerpeckers and near

them a party of Greenbacked Tits. A Crested Serpent Eagle

screamed overhead, displaying bands of white on outstretched wings.

A single Collared Bush Chat along the roadside appeared to be the

darker Turkestan species. Just below Tansen the Haircrested Drongo,

with its upturned tail feathers flew from one tree to another ahead of

us. In and around Tansen we noted Barn Swallows, and Hodgson’s

Munias which buzzed off with a plaintive tik. A Black Vulture

circled above the town in company with several Griffon Vultures.

Along the path to Bussaldara where the Mission Hospital is being

built, a Kestrel flew from a rock below the road and glided down to

a similar vantage point. Its back seemed rather dark like that of

the Himalayan race. Just then a magnificent golden-headed Bearded

Vulture swiftly cut through the air, a common bird here but not

farther east. Our host and hostess at the Mission Hospital were

Dr. and Mrs. Carl Friedericks.

Next morning we were up early to visit old haunts in Srinagar

forest behind Tansen. Much to my dismay, many of the trees had

been lopped and much of the bird population had disappeared. A

pair of Pine Martens (Martes flavigula) ranged over the hillside, also

accounting for the scarcity of birds. However, I did add a dozen

more species to my list. The Upland Pipit, everywhere common,

called teacher, teacher from several directions. Numerous Tree Pipits

flew from shady forest floors. Tree Sparrows had a nest in a hole

of a hospital building: they had completely replaced House Sparrows.

On the northern slope were both Greenfinches and Dark-grey Bush

Chats, Then we heard a Spiny Babbler. It was in a small tree

AN ORNITHOLOGIST REVISITS WEST NEPAL a75

across a ravine and was soon joined by another, remaining there

several minutes before disappearing. The Little Blue-and-White Fly-

catcher sat in one of the larger trees; its white supercilium was quite

distinct. Near the ridge were several Nepal Grey Tits. A Barred

Owlet puffed itself out and sat silently in the early morning sunshine.

Several Blackthroated Thrushes flew from wild pear trees bordering

the old firing range. Nepal House Swifts careened over grassy slopes.

In the last grove before we reached the hospital was a leaf warbler,

greenish grey in colour with a large bill and pink lower mandible,

probably Phylloscopus magnirostris.

Next afternoon, on the way back to Butwal, a forktail was near

the stream below the road. As darkness overtook us the Jungle Owlet

called, followed by the haw-ek of the Hawk Owl. We heard from

three to five deliberate notes of a nightjar, possibly Caprimulgus

macrurus albonotus. Along the Tinau River at Butwal came the

high-pitched chait, chait of Franklin’s Nightjar.

After a restful night we attempted to get to Bhairahwa to catch

the plane to Kathmandu. It took us six hours to get twenty miles

and we missed our connection. A shuttle plane took us as far as

Pokhara where we had the good fortune of being stranded two days!

The pilot invited us into the cockpit. It was like magic to look down

on that rough, steep road we had covered three times by foot and to

know you could sit back and get to Pokhara in minutes. We saw

Tansen, the Kali Gandak gorges and river, and had glimpses of

Annapurna up ahead.

Our impromptu stop in Pokhara, in a valley at 3000 feet and only

fifteen miles south of the Annapurna Range, was most pleasant, made

so by Dr. and Mrs. F. Okada of the American Museum, New York

City. They introduced me to Captain Gibson, Gorkha tele-communica-

tion officer from Malaya, who accompanied me to the low ridges

north of the parade ground. Some of the birds were the same as

those near Tansen but there were additions. The Koels held noisy

conversations throughout the valley; we hadn’t heard them since we

left the plains of India. Flocks of Greyheaded Mynas in large

numbers reminded us of a similar distribution in central Nepal from

1000 to 3000 feet. We picked out a buzzard in a tree at the edge of

rice fields. Sand Martins lined the telephone wire over open cultiva-

tion. Several Blue Rock Pigeons flew out of the Seti River gorge,

while light coloured kites above us were probably Milvus I. lineatus.

A Spiny Babbler, one of a party of two or three, called from the

scrub jungle on the ridge above the rice fields and Captain Gibson

watched one through the glasses. We had to turn back because of

576 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

an on-coming storm. As we did so, we heard still other Spiny

Babblers at a spot a little to the west and exactly where I had

collected one almost ten years before.

A brilliant dawn broke over a glorious array of snow-capped

mountains next morning. The air had been washed and this was the

day for pictures—but no camera! As we started out for the wooded

ridge to the south of the town, bordering Phewa Tal, I could noi

keep my eyes off that Himalayan grandeur. En route we met numbers

of old bird friends' but there were others which made the trip

exciting. Some of the most common species around Pokhara were

the Bengal Tree Pie which we hadn’t seen since leaving India, the

Spotted Dove. and Jungle Mynas which outnumber Common Mynas.

On a wooded hillside we came upon a natural bath in a large rock,

filled by the rain of the might. A pair of Eastern Redbreasted Fly-

catchers, a Greywinged Blackbird (the only one we saw), and tits

were taking full advantage of this provision for their needs. The

Large Himalayan Cuckoo-Shrike flew into a leafless tree at the top of

the ridge; its loud per-lee indicated its presence before we could

see it. The Blacknaped Woodpecker also frequented the same ridge.

A Shikra swooped into a tree ahead of us and stayed several minutes,

showing the vermiculated breast of an adult bird.

We looked down from the top of the ridge on to the lake below.

Phewa Tal had lost about a fourth of its water but a new dam will

restore it. A rest house now rose from the water’s edge, recently put

up for Their Majesties. We walked toward a cultivated field in the

centre of which was a large, old mango tree. We were surprised to

see a male Maroon Oriole in glistening plumage. There was a

commotion to our left; four Haircrested Drongos pursued a fifth into

a tree. In the next few minutes we counted six others. Beyond the

field a Black Partridge sent out his chuck—pdan, biri, cigarette! Back

down in the fields we saw a pair of Whitenecked Storks in deliberate

flight towards town. Along one of the streets a European Cuckoo

sent his familiar call from the top of a bare tree. Then on one of the

wide, shaded avenues I had a real surprise. There was a Redthroated

Thrush which I had never seen before, hopping around on the ground

in front of me. It looked and acted just like its black-throated

cousin. After a few minutes it flew up into a tree. :

*Dr. O’Hanlon and we watched a pair of Barn Swallows feeding their four young

in the rafters of a house at the Mission Hospital. First one fledgling, more hungry

than the others, pushed forward and received food four or five times in succession.

Then it slumped back into the nest for a rest while the next one monopolized the feed-

ing for several minutes. The second gave place to the third, and so on.

AN ORNITHOLOGIST REVISITS WEST NEPAL ST.

That evening we went back to the place on the terraced hillside

north of the parade ground where we had heard the second group

of Spiny Babblers. Ten years before the hillside was covered with

scrub jungle, but now there was nothing left except a small tree or

two and a tangle of brush and ferns around a neglected spring—a

place now quite easy to find. A Crimsonbreasted Barbet flew on

outspread wings out of a neighbouring pipal tree, after flying ants.

Meanwhile two or three Spiny Babblers were carrying on an animated

conversation just ahead of us. One came out of the tangle near the

ground toward me but soon darted back to shelter. Another one flew

out the far side of this patch. One, however, mounted a small bush

and put on a full concert: There, chir, chir: we we, then with rising

notes, right here, right here, right here followed by a loud tee-ter,

tee-ter, teeter, tee-ter, tee-ter, tee-ter, the second syllable two notes

below the initial one. There followed several mimic calls like pwink

of a bulbul and chip, chip of a Blackthroated Thrush. Again a

loud series of fee-ters, a descending pookil, pookil, pookil augmented

with a chupu, chupu, then fresh introductory gurgles, the tee-ter

refrain concluding with more gurgles and trills. When disturbed it

gave a low chur-r-r-r.. By now it was almost dark.

The following day we had a long wait at the airport so we visited

the Mission Leprosarium near by. We crossed the Seti River to get

there. A pair of Neophrons had a nest in the gorge. They would

fly on to the ground some distance away, then come wheeling back

with something in their beaks. One after the other they would

disappear into the wall crevice, come out about twenty seconds later,

and be off again.

‘Several kestrels also flew about this spot, possibly the paler

European bird. When we returned a couple of hours later we could

only see one. It was perched on an overhanging branch eating a

snake. It worked away for about ten minutes, then picked up the long

tail and tried to swallow it whole. The tail stuck in its throat so

the falcon placed the tail of the snake between its talons and pulled

at it for several more minutes. Again the bird tried to swallow the

lot with same result. A third try—no luck. Finally the kestrel

gathered the morsel, flew to a rock, placed it behind a projection and

glided away. The reptile may have been a keelback (Natrix). Back

to the airport the plane finally came from Dang and we reached

Kathmandu at . dusk. after. a memorable visit again to Tansen and

Pokhara.

578 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Birp List FOR TANSEN-POKHARA, 1959

Indian Pond Heron. Ardeola grayii (Sykes).

Cattle Egret. Bubulcus ibis coromandus (Boddaert).

Fastern Large Egret. Egretta alba modesta (Gray).

Intermediate Egret. Egretta intermedia (Wagler).

Whitenecked Stork. Dissoura-episcopus episcopus (Boddaert).

Smaller Adjutant Stork. Leptoptilos javanicus (Horsfield).

Blackwinged Kite. Elanus caeruleus vociferus (Latham).

Pariah Kite. Milvus migrans govinda Sykes.

Large Indian Kite. Méilvus lineatus lineatus (J. E. Gray).

Shikra. Accipiter badius dussumieri (Temminck).

Japanese Desert Buzzard. Buteo buteo burmanicus Hume.

White-eyed Buzzard. Butastur teesa (Franklin).

Black Vulture. Sarcogyps calvus (Scopoli).

Himalayan Griffon. Gyps himalayensis Hume.

Indian Whitebacked Vulture. Pseudogyps bengalensis (Gmelin).

Bearded Vulture. Gypaetus barbatus L.

Indian Crested Serpent Eagle. Spilornis cheela cheela (Latham).

European Kestrel. Falco tinnunculus tinnunculus L.

Himalayan Kestrel. Falco tinnunculus interstinctus Horsfield.

Black Partridge. Francolinus francolinus asiae Bonaparte.

Northern Grey Partridge. Francolinus pondicerianus interpositus Hartert.

ndian Sarus Crane. Grus antigone antigone (Linnaeus).

Redwattled Lapwing. Lobivanellus indicus indicus (Boddaert).

Common Sandpiper. Actitis hypoleucos L.

Thickbilled Green Pigeon. Treron curvirostra nipalensis (Hodgson)

Indian Blue Rock Pigeon. Columba livia intermedia Strickland.

Indian Spotted Dove. Streptopelia chinensis suratensis (Gmelin).

Indian Red Turtle-Dove. Ocnopopelia tranquebarica humilis (Temminck).

Eastern Roseringed Parakeet. Psittacula krameri borealis (Neumann).

Common Hawk Cuckoo. Cuculus varius Vahl.

European Cuckoo. Cuculus canorus L.

Koel. Eudynamys scolopacea scolopacea (L.)

Jungle Owlet. Glaucidium radiatum radiatum (Tickell).

Western Himalayan Barred Owlet. Glaucidium cuculoides cuculoides (Vigors).

Indian Brown Hawk-Owl. WNinox scutulata lugubris (Tickell).

Long-tailed Nightjar. Caprimulgus macrurus albonotus Tickell.

Franklin’s Nightjar. Caprimulgus affinis monticolus Franklin.

Pied Kingfisher. Ceryle rudis leucomelanura Reichenbach.

Common Kingfisher. Alcedo atthis bengalensis Gmelin.

Whitebreasted Kingfisher. Halcyon smyrnensis smyrnensis (L.)

Indian Roller. Coracias benghalensis benghalensis (L.)

Indian Hoopoe. Upupa epops orientalis Stuart Baker.

Green Bee-eater. Merops orientalis orientalis Latham.

Assam Great Barbet. Megalaima virens magnifica Baker.

Goldenthroated Barbet. Megalaima franklinii franklinii (Blyth).

Bluethroated Barbet. Megalaima asiatica asiatica (Latham).

Crimsonbreasted Barbet. Megalaima haemacephala indica (Latham).

Blacknaped Woodpecker. Picus canus sanguiniceps/gyldenstolpei.

North Indian Pigmy Woodpecker. Dendrocopos moluccensis nanus (Vigors).

Ashycrowned Finch-Lark. Eremopterix grisea (Scopoli).

Common Swallow. AHirundo rustica rustica L.

AN ORNITHOLOGIST REVISITS WEST NEPAL one

Hodgson’s Striated Swallow. Hirundo daurica nipalensis Hodgson.

Indian Sand Martin. Riparia paludicola chinensis (Gray).

Indian Wiretailed Swallow. Hirundo smithii filifera Stephens.

Scarlet Minivet. Pericrocotus flammeus speciosus (Latham).

Western Longtailed Minivet. Pericrocotus ethologus favillaceus Bangs & Philips.

Brownbacked Pied Shrike. Hemipus picatus capitalis (McClelland).

Dark Grey Cuckoo-Shrike. Coracina melachistos melachistos (Hodgson).

Large Himalayan Cuckoo-Shrike. Coracina novaehollandiae nipalensis (Hodgson).

Black Drongo. Dicrurus macrocercus albirictus (Hodgson).

Bronzed Drongo. Dicrurus aeneus aeneus Vieillot.

Haircrested Drongo. Dicrurus hottentotus hottentotus (L.)

Maroon Oriole. Oriolus trailii traillii (Vigors).

~ ? Himalayan Jungle Crow. Corvas macrorhynchos intermedius Adams.

? Indian Jungle Crow. Corvus coronoides levaillanti Lesson.

Indian House Crow. Corvus splendens splendens Vieillot.

Redbilled Blue Magpie. Kitta erythrorhyncha occipitalis (Blyth).

Bengal Tree Pie. Crypsirina vagabunda vagabunda Latham.

Himalayan Tree Pie. Crypsirina formosae himalayensis (Blyth).

Nepal Grey Tit. Parus major nepalensis Hodgson.

Greenbacked Tit. Parus monticola lepcharum Moinesi7ha gen.

Yellowcheeked Tit. Parus xanthogenys xanthogenys Vigors.

Chestnutbellied Nuthatch. Sitta europaea almorae Kinnear & Whistler.

Velvetfronted Nuthatch. Sitta frontalis frontalis Swainson.

Hodgson’s Rustycheeked Scimitar Babbler. Pomatorhinus erythrogenys ferrugi-

latus Hodgson.

Redbilled Babbler. Stachyris pyrrhops Blyth.

Yellowbreasted Babbler. Macronous gularis rubricapilla (Tickell).

Spiny Babbler. Turdoides nipalensis (Hodgson).

The Common Babbler. <Argya caudata caudata (Dumont).

Whitethroated Laughing Thrush. Garrulax albogularis albogularis (Gould).

Whitecrested Laughing Thrush. Garrulax leucolophus leucolophus (Hardwicke).

Nepal Streaked Laughing Thrush. Garrulax lineatus lineatus (Vigors).

Orangebellied Chloropsis. Chloropsis hardwickii hardwickii Jardine & Selby.

Blackheaded Yellow Bulbul. Pycnonotus flaviventris flaviventris (Tickell).

Whitecheeked Bulbul. Pycnonotus leucogenys leucogenys (Gray).

Bengal Redvented Bulbul. Pycnonotus cafer bengalensis Blyth.

Browneared Bulbul. Microscelis flavalus flavalus (Hodgson).

Magpie Robin. Copsychus saularis saularis (L.).

Indian Shama. Copsychus malabaricus indicus (Stuart Baker).

Whitecapped Redstart. Phoenicurus leucocephalus Vigors.

Plumbeous Redstart. Phoenicurus fuliginosus fuliginosus Vigors.

Greybacked Forktail. Enicurus schistaceus (Hodgson).

Indian Bush Chat. Saxicola torquata indica (Blyth).

Turkestan Bush Chat. Saxicola torquata przewalskii (Pleske).

Western Dark Bush Chat. Saxicola ferrea Gray.

Brownbacked Indian Robin. Saxicoloides fulicata cambaiensis (Latham).

Himalayan Whistling Thrush. Myiophoneus caeruleus temminckii Vigors.

Greywinged Blackbird. Turdus boulboul (Latham).

Blackthroated Thrush. Turdus ruficollis atrogularis Temminck.

Redthroated Thrush. Turdus ruficollis Pallas.

Blackbrowed Flycatcher-Warbler. Seicercus burkii burkii (Burton).

Greyheaded Flycatcher-Warbler. Seicercus xanthoschistos xanthoschistos (Gray).

Green Leaf Warbler. Phylloscopus inornatus humei (Brooks).

580 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Himalayan Leaf Warbler. PAylloscopus proregulus chloronotus (Gray).

? Largebilled Leaf Warbler. Phylloscopus magnirostris Blyth.

Crowned Leaf Warbler. Phylloscopus reguloides reguloides (Blyth).

Burmese Tailor Bird. Orthotomus sutorius patia Hodgson.

Beavan’s Wren-Warbler. Prinia hodgsonii rufula Godwin-Austen.

Eastern Redbreasted Flycatcher. Ficedula parva albicilla (Pallas).

Verditer Flycatcher. Muscicapa thalassina thalassina Swainson. ;

Greyheaded Flycatcher. Culicicapa ceylonensis calochrysea Oberholser.

Whitebrowed Fantail Flycatcher. Rhipidura aureola aureola Lesson.

Indian White Wagtail. Motacilla alba dukhunensis Sykes.

Northern Tree Pipit. Anthus hodgsoni yunnanensis (Uchida & Kalida

Indian Pipit. Anthus richardi rufulus Vieillot.

Upland Pipit. Oreocorys sylvanus (Blyth). , -

Blackheaded Shrike. Lanius schach tricolor (Hodgson).

Indian Grackle. Gracula religiosa intermedia Hay.

Greyheaded Myna. Sturnus malabaricus malabaricus (Gmelin).

Pied Myna. Sturnus contra contra L.

Common Myna. Acridotheres tristis tristis (L.).

Jungle Myna. Acridotheres grandis fuscus (Wagler).

Bank Myna. Acridotheres ginginianus (Latham).

Purple Sunbird. Nectarinia asiatica asiatica (Latham).

- Black-breasted Sunbird. Aethopyga saturata saturata (Hodgson).

Indian Scarletbacked Sunbird. Aethopyga siparaja seheriae (Tickell).

Tickell’s Flowerpecker. Dicaeum erythrorhynchum erythrorhynchum (Latham).

- Firebreasted Flowerpecker. Dicaeum ignipectus ignipectus (Blyth).

Indian White-eye. Zosterops palpebrosa palpebrosa (Temminck).

House Sparrow. Passer domesticus indicus (Jardine & Selby).

Tree Sparrow. Passer montanus malaccensis Dubois.

Yellowthroated Sparrow. Gymnorhis xanthocollis xanthocollis (Burton).

Hodgson’s Munia. JLonchura striata acuticauda (Hodgson).

Greenfinch. Carduelis spinoides spinoides Vigors.

Crested Bunting. Melophus lathami (Gray).

(The subspecific designations are based on material previously collected and

identified. Nomenclature from Birds from Nepal, Rand and Fleming, 1957 and

THE BIRDS OF BURMA, Smythies, 1953).

‘Albinism and Partial Albinism

in Tigers

Bu P. GEE

(With a plate)

By kind permission of the Maharaja of Rewa, I was recently able

to visit and photograph the famous white tigers which are in captivity

in-that former princely State. A white tiger, which had been captured

as a cub in the jungles of Rewa, had been mated with a normal-

coloured tigress which was its own offspring as the result of a previous

litter -by an ordinary tigress. This experiment of inbreeding had

produced four white cubs which appeared to be identical in colora-

tion with the father, and a striking contrast to the mother.

Before proceeding to give the details of this unique event, it would

perhaps be advisable to explain that the terms ‘albino’ and ‘white’ are

often rather loosely used in reference to light-coloured tigers in India.

Varying degrees of ‘whiteness’ are to be found, from light-coloured

specimens with dark brown stripes (sometimes known as ‘red’ tigers),

and cream-coloured ones with dark brown or dark grey stripes, to the

Rewa type which have ashy-grey stripes on an almost white back-

ground.

Incidentally, when examining tiger skins caution must always be

exercised due to the fact that, after lapse of time and exposure to

light, all normal-coloured tiger skins fade from their true colour to a

cream background with dark brown stripes. Only freshly-cured

skins, or those which have been carefully and correctly preserved, can

‘be accepted as giving an accurate picture of what the live animal

looked like.

Nearly all the lighter-coloured ‘white’ tigers which are often

described as ‘albinos’ are only partial albino, for to be a true albino

‘a specimen must have white hair (or feathers in the case of a bird) with

no pigmentation, and pink eyes with no ptgment in the iris.

As far as I can ascertain, there has only been one case of true

albinism in tigers. This was in 1922 in the former state of Cooch

Behar in north-east India, reported in a Miscellaneous Note in the

Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society [28 (4) : 1124] by

Victor N. Narayan. He wrote: “We sent our head Jemadar to

582 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

reconnoitre and he came face to face with 4 tigers, 2 of which he

reported as being of a very light colour. Three days later we shot 4

tigers out of the same jungle ... We thought we had bagged all the

tigers, but on examination found that two were full-grown cubs, and

two about three-quarters grown. The two full-grown cubs, were of the

Ordinary colour and markings of a tiger, | male and 1 female.

Measurements about 6’-6”. The three-quarters grown cubs, were

unique and to me seemed pure albinos. They had pink eyes and were

evidently in very bad condition because before being shot at they

only trotted along like big dogs, whilst the other two galloped hard.

Another peculiarity was the long neck, quite unlike that of any other

tiger or leopard I have ever seen; one was a male and one a female.

As it was dark we could not beat any more but two days later got

the mother, a fine beast in the prime of life and condition. Measure-

ment 87-9”. I forgot to mention the measurement of the freaks

viz. 6-0”. Such beasts have never been known of, or seen here,

nor during the many shooting excursions my father (the late Maharaja

Uripendra of Cooch Behar) made into Assam.’

Whereas there is some doubt as to whether black tigers or white

leopards have ever existed, black leopards are commonly found in the

wetter regions of south and north-east India and in other parts

of south-east Asia. It would be expected that white tigers would be

found only in the drier regions, but in fact they are found also

in Assam which has a high rainfall with very thick forests, as well as

in a large area of central India which is now in the re-organized States

of Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. This area includes the Bilaspur and

Mandla districts of the old Central Provinces, and old Rewa State,

and parts of Bihar.

Cases of white tigers, which have not been true albinos and which

appear to have been of varying degrees of creaminess and whiteness,

are many. Richard Lydekker in THE ROYAL NATURAL HISTORY records

that ‘a white tiger, in which the fur was of a creamy tint, with the

usual stripes faintly visible in certain parts, was exhibited at the old

menagerie at Exeter Change about the year 1820’. A record of a white

tiger from Poona was published in the Proceedings of the Zoologicat

Society of London in 1891.

Messrs. Rowland Ward in their RECORDS OF BIG GAME record a

number of white tigers shot in India, of which one was shot in Rewa

State and presented by the Maharaja to King George V, and is now in

the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, London. A male

white tiger from the Lechuar Jungles of Bihar is exhibited in the

JouRN. BomBay Nat. Hist. Soc. PLATE

The normal-coloured mother with her four white cubs, in a separate courtyard.

Photos: E. P. Gee

ALBINISM AND PARTIAL ALBINISM IN TIGERS 583

Indian Museum, Calcutta, of which the ground colour is cream,

stripes light brown, and (glass) eyes normal-coloured.

The Bombay Natural History Society recorded no less than

seventeen cases of white tigers shot in India between the years 1907

and 1933. One of these was shot in the Dhenkanal State, Orissa, in

1909 and was described as follows: “The ground colour was pure white

and the stripes were of a deep reddish black colour’ [JBNHS 19 (3)].

Another was shot in the Bilaspur District of the then C.P. in 1910 and

is described in the Journal [24 (4)] as ‘cream coloured throughout but

paler on the head and the stripes were chocolate brown’. Another was

shot in the district of Bhagalpur in Bihar, and was described |JBNHS

32 (3)] as: “pure white with black stripes on her body and russet brown

ones on the tail. The. taxidermists to whom the trophy was sent

report that during the year 1926 they received three white tiger skins

including mine (mine was shot on December 6, 1926), but my skin

is the only pure white one, the other two being cream coloured.’ As

recently as 1958 a white tiger was shot near Hazaribagh in Bihar,

and the skin was on view at a Calcutta taxidermist’s.

A number of white tigers have from time to time been reported

from Assam. In March 1889 one was shot in upper Assam and is

recorded by Lydekker. Lt.-Col. F. T. Pollok in his book WILD SPORTS

OF BURMAH AND ASSAM published in 1879 wrote: ‘Mr. Shadwell,

Assistant Commissioner in the Cossyah and Jyntiah Hills, also had

two skins quite white, but when turned about in a strong light just a

faint mark or two could be seen to indicate that they belonged to

a tiger at all .. .. Boga-bagh Tea Estate in upper Assam is so

called from the two white tigers found there at the beginning of this

century, and one of them had ‘a lemon-coloured patch on the back

of the neck, otherwise it was white with faint stripes’. The two

light-coloured tigers shot by W. G. Forbes of Hathikuli Tea Estate in

1929 were described at the time of curing by Messrs. Van Ingen as

‘red tigers’.

Now back to the Rewa white tigers. There have been eight cases

of a white tiger in this old State during the last 50 years, during which

time diaries have been kept at the palace. These include a two-year-

old male captured near Sohagpur in December 1915 and kept for

some years in captivity. H. E. Scott of the Indian Police saw this

animal five years later (December 1920) and described it in a

Miscellaneous Note in the Journal [27 (4)} as follows: ‘Body colour:

pure white. No cream colour was visible. Stripes: indistinct or light

black: while some of the stripes, particularly the face markings, are

quite black, the majority are ash-coloured owing to white hairs being

584 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

mixed with the black. Nose: mottled grey-pink (instead of pure pink

as in normal tigers). Lips: grey-black on hair line but quickly merge

to pink (instead of being quite black and gradually merging to pink

well inside the mouth as in normal tigers). Eyes: the colourings of the

eyes are very indistinct. There is no well-defined division between

the yellow of the comex and the blue of the iris. The eyes in some

lights are practically colourless, merely showing the black pupil on a

light yellow background. Eyelids: pinkish-black. Ears: practically

normal in colour and markings. The ground black is however slightly

ashy. General description: the tiger is of course underdeveloped

owing to years of captivity, but in height he is probably slightly above

normal and in a wild state would undoubtedly have been an excep-

tionally large animal.’ |

The former Maharaja of Rewa shot a white tigress in 1937. In

1946 a white tigress was shot by the Administrator and when skinned

was said to have been found to have six unborn cubs—described as

white, but I believe this was not substantiated. The present Maharaja

shot a white tiger in 1947—the last one to be shot in this area. At

this stage I must record my gratitude to Shri Arimardan Singh,

Private Secretary to the Maharaja of Rewa, who not only personally

conducted me to see the tigers but also gave me much valuable

information about their history and so on.

The white tiger now in captivity in the old disused summer palace

at Govindgarh, twelve miles from Rewa town, was captured on

May 27, 1951 when it was believed to be about nine months of. age.

A tigress and four cubs came out in a beat. The mother and three

cubs were shot, while the fourth cub which was white and bigger and

stronger than the others was later captured in a cage with water placed

in it (in a dry place at the dry time of the year). Since then no more

reports of a white tiger have been received in the area which used to

be Rewa State. On February 27, 1952, a normal-coloured tigress

was captured in this area and was kept with the white tiger. Two

male normal-coloured cubs were born on September 7, 1953, and of

these one was given to Bombay and the other went to a Calcutta

dealer.

The second litter of four normal-coloured cubs was born on

April 10, 1955, consisting of two males and two females. A male

and a female cub of this litter went to a Calcutta dealer, and one

male cub was given to the Ahmedabad Zoo—where it still is. A

female cub was kept at Rewa (now the mother of the litter of four

white cubs). A third litter was born to the white tiger and the normal-

coloured tigress on July 10, 1956. Of the four cubs one died on

ALBINISM AND PARTIAL ALBINISM IN TIGERS 585

the first day. Two female cubs were presented to the President and

the Prime Minister of India, and went to the Zoological Park in New

Delhi. A male cub along with its mother was given to the Ahmedabad

Zoo. Ever since then the female cub of the second litter was kept

with the white tiger, its father.

On October 30, 1958, the present litter of four white cubs was

born, consisting of three females and one male. One cub was weak,

but the mother looked after it very well and suckled it first in a

corner before feeding the others, and soon this cub became as strong

as the others. When I saw the family on April 13 the cubs were

said to be fully weaned, and I saw them feeding on pieces of meat.

I spent two busy hours in trying to photograph the family, both in

colour and in black-and-white, and had little opportunity of closely

observing or noting down the exact details of their coloration.

But generally speaking the tiger appeared to be an exceptionally

large and powerful beast, with a fine coat and ruff, with ground colour

of almost pure white or off-white. There seemed to be no trace of

brown, lemon, or even cream colour. The stripes were ash-coloured.

The eyes appeared to be icy-blue, and the pads of the paws pink. It

behaved in a manner which one would have expected from a typical

tiger—it crouched in the shade at the far end of its courtyard and

glared at its human visitors as they stood on a safe balcony above.

Then it rose, advanced with dignity, and then charged with a shatter-

ing roar across the sunlit courtyard. Then it strode back to the

furthest shady corner. This demonstration was repeated several

times—a spectacular and most impressive sight.

In an adjoining courtyard the normal-coloured tigress and her

four white cubs were playing. The cubs appeared to be exact replicas

of the father, and therefore need no description. All appeared to be

in perfect health, and a striking contrast to their richly-coloured

mother. All five animals behaved as would be expected of tame

animals in a zoo.

The history of the breeding of these four white cubs poses some

interesting problems, of genetics. I am personally not competent to

express an opinion on this point, but I have found that my Siamese

cat when crossed with her own ‘tabby-coloured’ son (she had mated:

with a non-Siamese ‘tabby-coloured’ cat near by produced pure-look-

ing Siamese kittens. Also there is the case of the famous white bull

American bison named Big Medicine of the Moiese National Bison

Range in the U.S.A.: when crossed back with its own normal-coloured

mother, the latter produced a white offspring which was a pure

albino with pink eyes and even white hooves.

586 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

According to some notes made by me some years ago from a

scientific work by Professor J. B. S. Haldane, one of the world’s

leading geneticists, albino mated with albino produces albinos, while

albino crossed with normal almost always produces ‘normals’ to look

at. (I am using inverted commas to distinguish between the different

types of normal offspring.) But such a ‘normal’ crossed with a

similar ‘normal’ would produce 4 albinos and }? “normals”, and

“normal” crossed with “normal” would also produce } albino and

+ “normals”. (Other possibilities of crossing are: ‘normal’ with

normal, “normal” with normal, “normal” with ‘normal’, and albino

with “normal’’.)

In the case of the Rewa white cubs now under review, this has

been the result of crossing an albino (if we use the term loosely:

more correctly it is a partial albino) with ‘normal’. It would be

interesting to see if the same crossing repeated would again produce

a complete litter of white cubs, for Professor Haldane in a letter to

me recently has expressed the opinion that we are dealing with a

‘recessive mutant’ and that whiteness being presumed to be a recessive

character one would expect equal numbers of white and normal-

coloured (“normal”) cubs from such a mating between the white tiger

and its normal-coloured (‘normal’) daughter. He considers (pro-

visionally) that the chance of getting a ‘run’ of four white cubs was

1/16, like getting four tails running on spinning a coin. More

information on the family history of the Rewa white tiger and its

various offspring is required before a complete study of the case can

be made. | :

The white tigers of Rewa and adjacent districts appear to have

usually been of great size in their wild state, and the present captive

Rewa tiger certainly is a large beast. A number of sportsmen and

naturalists have from time to time wondered if there existed a

separate breed or variety of white tiger in the forests, and whether

a wild white tiger would prefer a white mate to a normal-coloured

one. Possibly this will never be decided now, owing to the decline

in their numbers—no white tigers have been heard of in old Rewa

State since 195I-

But now at the Govindgarh palace zoo history appears to have

been made, and a distinct breed of white tigers has begun to be

established. It should not be difficult now for the white tiger to be

again crossed with his normal-coloured (‘normal’) daughter and more

white cubs to be produced; and when the present four white cubs

grow up, one hundred per cent white cubs should definitely result

ALBINISM AND PARTIAL ALBINISM IN TIGERS 587

from a crossing between the females and the male, or between the

father (also grandfather) and the female cubs.

Caution would have to be exercised against overdoing this kind

of inbreeding, although it does seem to take place in the wild state

without too much deterioration of stock. The ‘normal’ and “normal”

normal-coloured cubs of the family could also be used in a

scientifically planned and properly managed breeding programme.

Such a white breed of tiger, if firmly established in India, would

give this country a considerable amount of prestige in the zoological

world, as well as provide a fillip for tourism and at a later date a

possible economically valuable item of export to foreign countries.

[A few words of explanation may bring out the genetical signi-

ficance of the case. The white male tiger captured in 1951 genetically

carries the double recessive mutant for white (nn). The normal

tigress with which it was first mated carried the double dominant for

normal colour (NN). The offspring. of a cross between nn o& XNNQ

will always be normal-coloured but genetically heterozygous, ie. will

be Nn.

_ Theoretically a cross between the old white tiger (nn) and a

heterozygous normal-coloured female (Nn) may give rise to 50% Nn,

normal-coloured heterozygous. and 50% nn, white coloured homozy-

gous. The latter carries factors nn only, and generally speaking

any cross between the old white tiger (nn) or any white ot descendant

and a 2 white tigress (nn) will only produce white offspring. The

white race of tiger may thus become permanently established; how-

ever the possibility of a reversion to normal colouring through

mutation is not to be discounted.—Eps.] |

A brief account of the Flora of

Visnagar, N. Gujarat, and its environs

S. G. BHARATI, M.SC.,

Gujarat College, Ahmedabad.

INTRODUCTION

The importance of flora work has often been stressed, and with the

establishment of the Botanical Survey of India it has assumed national

importance.

The FLORA OF BOMBAY PRESIDENCY was published by Cooke (1901-08)

more than fifty years ago. E. Blatter and C. McCann (1926-34), Saxton

and Sedgwick (1918-22) have done considerable work on the ‘Bombay

Grasses’ and on the ‘Flora of North Gujarat’ respectively. Recently

Father H. Santapau (1945) has contributed enormously by his detailed

and painstaking work on ‘Flora of Khandala’, ‘Flora of Gir and Dang

Forest’. Phatak and Joshi (1955) have to their credit an account of the

‘Flora of the University Campus’, Baroda.

It was with an idea of advancing the knowledge of the vegetation of

Gujarat and thereby helping to build the flora of India that the present

work was undertaken.

TOPOGRAPHY

Visnagar is a Taluka in the Mehasana District of north Gujarat.

It is 56 miles north of Ahmedabad on the Ahmedabad-Taranga Hill

railway line. It is situated on 72° 42’ E. and 23° 42’ N. The general

climatic conditions are similar to those of semi-desert areas. The average

rainfall is 15” to 30”; the temperature Max. 117°F. and Min. 48°F. The

soil salinity, though present in excess in a few patches of the land, is much

lower than that of the semi-desert areas. The general texture of the soil

is sandy, though the percentage of clay present is much higher than

in the sandy semi-desert areas. The Visnagar taluka is especially rich

in sub-soil water. There is sufficient well irrigation, and hence in winter

and summer the climate is comparatively more humid.

COLLECTIONS

As a first step the vegetation in the area within a radius of two miles

surrounding the M.N. College, Visnagar, was studied. This served as

a background for a more thorough exploration of Visnagar and other

THE FLORA OF VISNAGAR AND ITS ENVIRONS 589

talukas near about. Some plants are from Varetta and Balaram, the

collections of which were made on botanical excursions, when the author

was attached to M.N. College, Visnagar. In all 215 plants have been

collected and described from about 62 families.

RANUNCULACEAE

1. Clematis gouriana Roxb. (Morvel).

Hab. An extensive climber with grooved stem. Fi. (Oct.-Dec.)

Yellowish white. Loc. Wild near Hanuman temple.

ANONACEAE

2. Polyalthia longifolia Bth. & Hk.f. (Asopalav).

Hab. A tall handsome tree. F/. (Mar.-May) Yellowish green. Loc.

3. Anona squamosa L. (Sitaphal).

Hab. Shrubby plants to small trees. Fl. Noted in leaf only. Loc.

Botanical Garden.

MENISPERMACEAE

4. Tinospora cordifolia Miers (Galo).

Hab. An extensive climber with corky grooved bark and adven-

titious aerial roots. Fl. (Apr.-May) Yellowish green. Loc. On hedges.

Common.

5. Cocculus villosus DC. (Vevadi).

_ Hab. A straggling scandent twiner with soft hairs covering the leaves.

Fl]. (Dec.-Jan.) Small, green. Loc. On hedges. Common.

NYMPHAEACEAE

6. Nymphaea lotus L. (Poyna).?

Hab. Rhizome stout, horizontal with floating leaves. Fl. White.

Loc. Along railway lines. Vadnagar.

7. Nelumbium speciosum Willd. (Kamal, Padmakamal).

Hab. Large aquatic herb, with creeping stems. F/. White or rosy.

Loc. Vadnagar.

1 The real N. lotus L. is an Egyptian plant, not found wild in India. What this

plant may be we are unable to tell without actual specimens at our disposal.—Ebs,

590 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

PAPAVERACEAE

8. Argemone mexicana L. (Darudi).

Hab. A prickly herb with spreading branches. Fi. (Dec.-Feb.)

Yellow. Loc. Common in waste places.

CAPPARIDACEAE

9. Gynandropsis pentaphylla DC. (Thanamani).

Hab. Annual, erect branched hairy herb. F/. (Jul.-Sept.) White or

pale pink. Loc. Growing wild in waste places.

10. Capparis aphylla Roth (Kerandu).

Hab. A straggling glabrous herb. Fl. (Nov.-Mar.) Reddish brown.

Loc. Common, grows wild.

11. Capparis sepiaria L. (Kanther).

Hab. A much branched, woody climber. F/. (Feb.-May) White.

Loc. Common as a hedge.

12. Cadaba indica Lane. (Khordu).

Hab. A straggling, much branched shrub. F/. (Nov.-Mar.) Greenish

white. Loc. Along the border of fields.

PORTULACACEAE

13. Portulaca oleracea L. (Gholl).

Hab. An annual succulent, prostrate herb. F/. (Sept.-Dec.) Yellow.

Loc. Wild on ground in moist places.

14. Portulaca grandiflora Lam.

Hab. A small, hairy herb with fleshy leaves. F/. (May-Jul.) Red.

Loc. Botanical Garden.

MALVACEAE

15. Sida veronicifolia Lam. (Bhoybala). |

Hab. A perennial, much branched prostrate herb. Fi. (Oct.-Nov.)

Yellow. Loc. College grounds.

16. Abutilon indicum Sweet. (Kansaki).

~Hab. A small shrub, hairy. Fi. All the year, yellow. Loc. Wild in

Bot. Garden.

17. Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L. (Jasud).

Hab. A garden plant known for its conspicuous red flowers.

THE FLORA OF VISNAGAR AND ITS ENVIRONS 591

18. Hibiscus schizopetalous L. (Latkanjasud).. . IGS E 05

Hab. A garden plant with pendulous flowers; petals divided.

19. Thespesia populnea Soland. (Parasbhendi).

Hab. A small tree. Fi. (Oct.-Jan.) Yellow with purple base, and

black centre. Loc. Bot. Garden.

BOMBACACEAE

20. Adansonia digitata L. (Choramlo). |

Hab. Noted as a small tree. F/. Not flowering. Loc. Bot. Garden.

21. Bombax malabaricum DC. (Ratoshimlo).

Hab, Noted as a small tree, not flowering. Loc. Bot. Garden.

STERCULIACEAE

22. Guazuma tomentosa H.B. & K. (Badok).

Hab. A small tree. Fi. (Aug.-Sept.) Yellow, fragrant. Loc. Bot.

Garden.

TILIACEAE

23. Grewia asiatics L. (Phalsa).

Hab, Aszall tree, young parts hairy. F/. (Mar.-Apr.) Yellow. Loc.

Bot. Garden.

24. Corchorus triiscularis L. (Kadavi chenchadi).

Hab. Annual hairy herb. Fl. (Sept.) Yellow. Loc. In fields, com-

mon.

ZYGOPHYLLACEAE

25, Tribulus terrestris L. (Gokru).

Hab. Branching prostrate herb, usually silky. FJ. (Sept.-Dec.) On

pseudoaxillary peduncles. Loc. College grounds.

| RUTACEAE

26. Murraya koenigii Spreng. (Mitolimdo).

Hab. Noted as a small tree not flowering. Loc. Bot. Garden.

27, Citrus medica var. limonum. (Pahadilimdo). |

Hab. A small tree. Fi. (Aug.-Oct.) White. Loc. Bot. Garden.

592 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol.- 56 (3)

28. Feronia elephantum Corr. (Kotu). Looxtise cee

Hab. A big tree armed with spines. Fi. (Mar.-May) Dull red.

Loc. Bot. Garden.

29. Aegle marmelos Corr. (Bel). |

Hab. A small thorny tree. Fl. (Apr.-May) Greenish white. . Loc,

Along roadsides and Bot. Garden.

SIMARUBACEAE

30. Ailantus exceisa Roxb. (Arduso). | | :

Hab. Lofty trees with glandular hairy leaves. Fl. (Dec.-Mar.)

Small, polygamous. Loc. Common. Near fields.

31. Balanites roxburghii Planch (Shnoria).

Hab. A small tree, branches ending in very strong sharp ascending

spines. F/. Green in small axillary cymes. Loc. Bot. Garden.

MELIACEAE

32. Melia azedarach L. (Bakan limdo).

Hab. Medium-sized tree. Fl. (Apr.-May) Lilac. Loc. Common;

Along roadsides.

33, Azadirachta indica A. Juss. (Limdo). | ‘dau

Hab. A large tree. Fl. (Mar.-May) White. Loc. Common. Every-

where.

CELASTRACEAE

34. Gymnosporia marginata Roth

Hab. A shrub with stout zig-zag branches profusely armed with spines.

Fl. (Aug.-Jan.) White with reddish tinge and in fascicles. Loc. Along

railway lines. 7 ;

RHAMNACEAE

35. Zizyphus jujuba Lamk. (Bor).

Hab. A small thorny tree. FI. (Sept.-Oct.) Greenish yellow. Loc.

Common in Visnagar. Wild in Balaram. | be Ne

36. Zizyphus lotus Lamk. (Khareki bor).

Hab. A small thorny tree. FJ. (Sept.-Oct.) Greenish-yellow. Loc,

Vadnagar. © .

THE FLORA OF VISNAGAR AND ITS ENVIRONS 593

37. Zizyphus rotundifolia Lamk. (Chanibor).

Hab. A small much branched shrub, armed. F/. (Sept.) Small,

greenish. Loc. Balaram. Wild.

38. Zizyphus oenoplia Mill. (Burgi).

Hab, A small thorny shrub. FI. (Sept.) Green. Loc. €Slleze road.

VITACEAE

39. Vitis quadrangularis Wall. (Had sankal).

Hab. Stem winged,- climbing by tendrils. F/. (July) Green. Loc.

Bot. Garden.

40. Vitis repanda Wt. & Arn. (Gandovelo).

Hab. Stems hairy, woody. Fl. (Mar.-Apr.) Greenish. Loc. In

fields.

Al. Vitis trifolia L. (Ratakhat katumbo.)

Hab. Stem fleshy, hairy. F/. (Aug.-Sept.) Loc. Fields, hedges.

Common.

SAPINDACEAE

42. Cardiospermum halicacabum L. (Karoliyo).

Hab. Annual and perennial, slender delicate climber. Fi. (Sept.-

Dec.) White. Loc. Common on hedges in Bot. Garden.

43. Sapindus laurifolius Vahl. (Arita).

Hab. A tree. Fl. (Oct.-Dec.) Dull white. Loc. Bot. Garden.

44, Dodonaea viscosa. L. (Jakmi).

Hab. A shrub. Fl. (Jan.-Feb.) Greenish yellow. Loc. As a

hedge in College garden.

ANACARDIACEAE

45. Mangifera indica L. (Ambo).

Hab. A large tree. Fl. (Jan.-Feb.) Orange coloured, odorous.

Loc. Field near railway station.

46. Anacardium occidentale L. (Kaju).

_ Hab. A small crooked tree. F/. (Jan.-Mar.) White with red stripes.

Loc. Varetta gardens.

47. Semecarpus anacardium L. (Bilama).

Hab. A small tree. F/. (May.-Jul.) Greenish white. Loc. Varetta

gardens. :

594 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

MORINGACEAE

48. Moringa pterigosperma Gaertn. (Sargavo).

Hab. A small, soft-wood tree. FJ. (Sept.-Dec.) White. Loc. Bot.

Garden.

PAPILIONACEAE

49. Heylandia latebrosa DC. (Godhadi. :

Hab. A prostrate herb. Fi. (Aug.) Yellow. Loc. College grounds.

50. Crotalaria juncea L. (Shan).

Hab. Erect hairy shrub. F/. (Aug.-Sept.) Bright yellow. Loc.

Fields.

51. Indigofera lineafolia L. (Galli).

Hab. Scandent herb in sandy soil. Fi. (Aug.-Sept.) Pink. Loc.

College grounds. .

52. Indigofera enneaphylla L. (Bhuiguli).

Hab. Prostrate, trailing hairy herb. F/. (Aug.-Jan.) Bright red.

Loc. College grounds.

53. Indigofera tenuifolia L. |

Hab. Same as above. Fl. (Aug.-Dec.). Loc. College grounds and

in fields.

54. Sesbania grandiflora Poir. (Agathiyo). i SOK.

Hab. Small soft-wood tree. Fl. (Aug.-Dec.) White, large. Loc.

Bot. Garden. ithe

55. Sesbania aegyptica Poir. (Shevari). ibast

Hab. Small shrub. F/. Throughout the year. Loc. Common, as a

hedge.

56. Abrus precatorius L. (Chanoti).

Hab. A wiry perennial twiner. F/. (Aug.-Sept.) White with pink

tinge. Loc. Balaram.

57. Butea frondosa Konig. (Khakaro kesudo).

Hab. A small tree, young parts hairy. Fi. (Feb.-Mar.) Bright red.

Loc. Bot. Garden.

58. Zornia diphylla L. (Galgivi).

Hab. Small diffuse herb. FI. Small, yellow. Loc. Fields. _

THE FLORA OF VISNAGAR AND ITS ENVIRONS 595

59. Clitoria ternatea L. (Garani).

Hab. A twining herb. FI. ae -Sept.) Blue and white. Loc. On

hedges on College road. |

60. Canavalia ensiformis DC. (Tarvardi).

Hab. Twiner. Fi. (Aug.-Sept.) Pink. Loc. On hedges in college

compound.

61. Alhagi maurorum Fisch. (Jawasa).

Hab. Low shrub with green branches and strong hard thorns. FI.

(Aug.-Nov.) small, red. Loc. College playgrounds.

62. Pongamia glabra Vent. (Karanj).

Hab. A small tree. FA. (Apr.-Jun.) White and purplish in dense

racemes. Loc. Along roadsides. Common..

63. Melilotus officinalis Willd.

Hab. An annual herb. Fi. (Dec.-Apr.) Pale yellow. Loc.

Common in waste places.

CAESALPINACEAE

64. Caesalpinia pulcherrima Swartz. (Galtoro).

Hab. A small unarmed shrub. F/. Throughout the year; yellow

and red. Loc. Bot. Garden.

65. Poinciana regia Bojer. (Gulmohor).

Hab. A big tree. Fl. (Apr.-Jun.) Red. Loc. Bot. Garden.

66. Cassia fistula L. (Garmalo).

Hab. A small tree. Fi]. (Mar.-Jun.) Yellow. Loc. Bot. Garden.

67. Cassia occidentalis L. (Kasundaro).

Hab. Small annual shrub, fetid when rubbed. F/. (Sept.-Nov.)

Yellow. Loc. Common in waste places.

68. Cassia tora L. (Povadio).

Hab. A small herb. FI. (Aug.-Oct.) Yellow. Loc. Common

as a weed in waste places.

69. Cassia auriculata L. (Aval).

Hab. A much branched shrub. Fi. All the year round; light

yellow. Loc. College compound.

596 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

70. Cassia grandis L.

Hab. A small tree. F/. (Mar.-Sept.) Rose coloured. Loc. Bot.

Garden.

71. Tamarindus indica L. (Amli). |

Hab. A large tree. Fl. (May-Jul.) Yellow with pink strips. Loc.

College road and a few trees inside the city.

72. Bauhinia variegata L. (Kanchan).

Hab. Medium-sized spreading tree. Fl. (Feb.-Jun.) Pink. Loe.

Bot. Garden.

73. Bauhinia racemosa Lamk. (Asondaro).

Hab. Small crooked tree. Fi. (Mar.-June) White. Loc. Wild

along road going to Balaram.

MIMOSACEAE

74. Prosopis spicigera L. (Khijdo).

Hab. Armed small tree infested with insect galls. Fl. (Dec.-Mar.)

Yellow. Loc. Common. Along railway lines towards Mehsana.

75. Acacia arabica Willd. (Baval).

Hab. Small armed tree with fissured bark. Fl. (Jul. -Feb.) Yellow.

Loc. Common. Grows wild. ;

76. Acacia catechu Willd. (Kher).

Hab. A small tree, leaves with glands. FI. (Aug.-Sept.) Pale

yellow. Loc. Common. |

77. Albizzia lebbek Benth. (Kaliosaras).

Hab. Unarmed deciduous tree. F/. (Mar.-May) White, fragrant.

Loc. Bot. Garden.

78. Pithecolobium dulce Benth. (Vilayati ambli).

Hab. A small armed tree. F/. (Dec.-Mar.) White. Loc. Varetta

gardens. Few trees in Visnagar. |

79. Parkia biglandulosa Wt. & Arn. (Chandufal).

Hab. An unarmed big tree. F/. (Jan.-Mar.) White. Loc. Bot.

Garden.

CRASSULACEAE

80. Bryophyllum calycinum Salisb. (Dhamari).

Hab. A succulent herb. Fl. (Jan. ane Reddish ea Loc.

Bot. Garden.

THE FLORA OF VISNAGAR AND ITS ENVIRONS 597

81. Kalanchoe cylindrica DC.

Hab. A succulent herb, leaves with small bulbils. F/. Not flowering.

COMBRETACEAE

82. Terminalia catappa L. (Deshi badam).

Hab. Small tree with whorled horizontal branches. Fi. (Aug.-Sept.)

Greenish white. Loc. Bot. Garden.

83. Terminalia belerica Roxb. (Baheda).

Hab. A tree. Fl]. (Mar.-May) Upper flowers male; lower female.

Loc. Bot. Garden.

84. Combretum coccineum Wall.

Hab. A large. climbing shrub with slender stems. F/. (Feb.-Apr.)

Bright crimson in brush-like spikes. Loc. Bot. Garden.

85. Quisqualis indica L. (Rangoon vel).

_ Hab. A scandent climbing shrub. Fi. (Mar.-Sept.) Different

shades of red or white. Loc. Professors’ quarters. | |

MYRTACEAE

86. Eugenia jambolana Lamk. (Jambu).

Hab. A big tree with exfoliate bark. Fl. (Feb.-Apr.) White. Loc.

Outskirts of Visnagar. |

87. Psidium guayava L. (Jamfal).

Hab. A very small tree, bark white, peeling off. Fl. (Apr.-May)

White. Loc. Common. . |

88, Eucalyptus globulus Labill.

Hab. A large straight growing tree, bark white, peeling off. FI.

(Nov.-Feb.) White. Loc. Varetta gardens.

LYTHRACEAE

89. Lawsonia alba Lamk. (Mendhi).

Hab. Much branched shrub. F/. Throughout the year. Fragrant,

white. Loc. As a hedge on College road.

90. Lagerstroemia indica L. (Chinaimendhi). a

Hab. A small shrub. Fl. (May-Jul.) Pink. Loc. Bot. Garden.

598 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

PUNICACEAE

91. Punica granatum L. (Dadam).

Hab. A small shrub. Fi. All the year. Reddish-crimson. Loc.

Common.

ONAGRACEAE

92. Trapa bispinosa Roxb. (Singoda).

Hab. Aquatic floating herb with swollen petioles. Fil. (Jul.-Sept.)

White. Loc. Very common in tanks ; is grown for its fruit.

CARICACEAE

93. Carica papaya L. (Papayu).

Hab. A tree of medium height. Fi. (Sept.-Nov.) Unisexual,

yellow white. Loc. Bot. Garden and Sardarji’s garden. Common.

CUCURBITACEAE

94. Trichosanthes cucumerina L. (Ranpadval).

Hab. Annual, monoecious climber. F/, (Sept.-Dec.) White. Loc.

On hedges and in rice fields.

95. Momordica dioica Roxb. (Kankoda).

Hab. Perennial, dioecious tuberous-rooted climber. Fi. (Sept.-

Dec.) Yellow. Loc. On hedges in fields.

96. Luffa acutangula var. amara C. B. Clarke (Kadava turiya).

Hab. Annual, monoecious climber. F/. (Aug.-Dec.) Yellow.

Loc. Near Randala station.

97. Cucumis trigonous Roxb. (Kotembra).

Hab. A monoecious scabrid climber. FI. (Aug.-Dec.) Yellow.

Loc. Wild on hedges in gardens and fields. 3

98. Coccinia indica Wt. & Arn. (Ghiloda).

Hab. A perennial, dioecious tuberous-rooted climber. F/. (Aug.-

Jan.) White. Loc. Bot. Garden.

99. Melothria maderaspatana Cogn. (Charate).

Hab. An annual, monoecious climber with simple reine FI.

(Aug.-Jan.) Light yellow. Loc. On hedges in Bot. Garden.

100. Blastania garcinia Cogn.

Hab. An annual, monoecious climber. Fi. (Sept.-Dec.) Yellow,

small. Loc. Bot. Garden. | yy

THE FLORA OF VISNAGAR AND ITS ENVIRONS 599

101. Citrullus colocynthis Schrader. (Mota indravarana).

Hab. A perennial, monoecious creeper on ground. Fi. . (Aug -Dec.)

Yellow. Loc. In fields.

RUBIACEAE

102. Ixora parviflora Vahl. (Nevari).

Hab. A small evergreen shrub. F/. (Jan.-Apr.) Crimson. Loc.

Bot. Garden.

103. Spermacoce hispida L. (Madhurijadi).

Hab. A small procumbent herb. F/. (Sept.-Jan.) White. Loc.

College playgrounds.

104. Hamelia patens Jacq. |

Hab. A small shrub, stem reddish, square. Fi. (Jun.-Jan.) Orange

red. Loc. Bot. Garden.

COMPOSITAE

105. Vernonia cinerea Less. (Sahadevi).

Hab. An annual herb, stem hairy. F/. (Oct.-Jan.) Pinkish violet.

Loc. Common; in waste places. ;

106. Ageratum conyzoides L. (Makadmari).

Hab. An annual hairy herb. F/. (Nov.-Mar.) White or pale blue

with bad odour. Loc. Bot. Garden.

107. Sphaeranthus indicus L. (Gorakh mundi).

Hab. A small much branched glandular hairy herb. Fl. (Nov.-Jan.)

Reddish purple. Loc. As a weed in fields and waste places. .

108. Caesulia axillaris Roxb. (Maka).

_ Hab. A succulent sub-erect herb. F/. (Sept.-Jan.) Axillary heads

pale blue. Loc. Common in waste places; near College hostel.

109. Xanthium strumarium L. (Gadriyu).

Hab. A small unarmed herb with short hairs. Fi. (Nov.-Feb.)

Monoecious, unisexual heads. Loc. Common in moist places.

110. Tridax procumbens L. (Pardeshibhangro).

- Hab. A small straggling procumbent perennial herb, hairy. FI.

All the year round. Yellow. Loc. Common as a weed.

600 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

111. Echinops echinatus Roxb. (Shuniyo). }

_Hab. A much branched rigid spiny herb with white cottony tidirs.

FI. (Oct.-Jan.) In big white spiny balls. Loc. Near Rajput boarding,

common near wet places.

112. Eclipta alba Hassk. (Bangro). -

Hab. A rough annual erect or prostrate herb. Fi. All the year.

Heads small, white. Loc. Common as a weed.

113. Adenostemma viscosum Forst.

Hab. An erect annual, viscidly pubescent. Fi. (Sept.-Mar.)

Heads in dense panicles. Loc. Common as a weed.

114. Launaea pinnatifida Cass.

Hab. Perennial glabrous herbs. F/. All the year. Heads fascicled,

yellow. Loc. Common weed. . >

115. Tricholepis glaberrima DC. :

Hab. Annual, branched glabrous erect stem. FI. (Sept.-Feb.)

Heads solitary, purple. Loc. Common weed.

SAPOTACEAE

116. Bassia latifolia Roxb. (Mahudo).

Hab. A large tree with rounded crown. Fi. (Mar. Abr) In dense

fascicles. Loc. Outskirts of Visnagar.

117. Mimusops elengi L. (Borsali).

Hab. A small evergreen tree. Fi. (Dec.-Apr.) Light brown or

white; fragrant. Loc. Dosabhai garden.

118. Mimusops hexandra Roxb. (Rayan). |

Hab. Large evergreen tree. F/. (Sept.-Nov.) White. Loc. Varetta

gardens.

119. Achras sapota L. (Chiku).

Hab. A small evergreen tree with milky juice. F/. (Apr.-Oct.; ae

June) White. Loc. Bot. Garden. |

OLEACEAE

120. Nyctanthes arbor-tristis L. (Parijatak). : ‘Tt .6

Hab. A small tree.. F/..(Sept.-Jan.) Yellow with white lobes. Loc.

Bot. Garden. a | Y 1804 Sat IL

THE FLORA OF VISNAGAR AND ITS ENVIRONS 601

121. Jasminum grandiflorum L. (Chameli).

Hab. A shrub, scandent. Fl. (Jan.-May) White, fragrant. Loc.

Bot. Garden.

SALVADORACEAE

122. Salvadora persica L. (Piludi).

Hab. A tree with drooping branches. F/. (Jan.-Mar.) Small,

functionally unisexual. Loc. Common.

APOCYNACEAE

123. Carissa carandas L. (Karmada).

Hab. Large armed shrub with twin stout thorns. F/. (Jan.-Apr.)

White, odorous. Loc. Bot. Garden.

124. Vinca rosea L. (Sadaphuli).

Hab. Asmallshrub. F/. All the year round, pink. Loc. Cultivated

in gardens.

125. Vinca rosea var. alba L.

Hab. A small shrub. Fi. All the year; white. Loc. Cultivated in

gardens. .

126. Nerium odorum Sol. (Kaner).

Hab. A shrub with milky juice and verticillate leaves. FJ. All the

year; pink, red, white. Loc, Cultivated in gardens.

127. Cerbera thevetia L. (Pilikaner).

Hab. A small tree with milky juice. F/. All the year; yellow.

Loc. Near temples and women’s hostel.

128, Plumeria acutifolia Poir. (Khadchampo).

Hab. A deciduous tree with milky juice. Fl. (Feb.-Oct.) White

with golden centre. Fragrant. Loc. Bot. Garden.

129. Plumeria rubra L.

Hab. A smaller tree than above. Fl. (Feb.-Oct.) Petals red, centred

with rich yellow; fragrant. Loc. Bot. Garden.

130. Wrightia tinctoria R. Br. (Mito indrajav).

Hab. A deciduous tree of moderate size, with milky juice. F/. (Mar.-

May) Loc. Bot. Garden.

131. Tabernaemontana coronaria R. Br. (Chandani).

Hab. A small shrub with milky juice. FJ. (Jul.-Sept.) Snow white.

Loc. Bot. Garden.

602 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

ASCLEPIADACEAE

132; Calotropis procera R. Br. (Nanoratoankado).

Hab. A small shrub, young parts with cottony hairs. Fl. (Nov.-

Feb.) Pink. Loc. Common; in waste places.

133. Asclepias curasayica L. (Kakatundi).

Hab. A small perennial herb with milky juice. F/. (Aug.-Sept.;

Jan.-Feb.) Crimson. Loc. Bot. Garden. |

134. Leptadenia reticulata Wt. & Arn. (Nanidodi).

Hab. A twiner. Fl. (June-Aug.) Small greenish yellow. Loc.

Common; on hedges and in Bot. Garden.

BORAGINACEAE

135. Cordia sebestena L.

Hab. A small evergreen shrub. Fi. (Sept.-Mar.) Scarlet or orange

red with sooty calyx. Loc. Bot. Garden.

136. Heliotropium supinum L. (Ghedeo okhrad).

Hab. A prostrate softly hairy herb. Fi. (Dec.-Mar.) Small. Loc.

College playgrounds and common near wet places.

137. Cordia rothii R. & S. (Nanagundha).

Hab. A small deciduous tree. F/. (Mar.-Jun.) White, small. Loc.

Bot. Garden.

CONVOLVULACEAE

138. Cuscuta reflexa Roxb. (Amarvel). "we

Hab. A parasitic twiner; pale greenish yellow. Fi. (Nov.-Feb.) White

in clusters. Loc. Common in villages.

139. Evolvulus alsinoides L. (Shankavali). :

Hab. A small prostrate wiry herb; hairy. Fil. (Aug. ae) Light

blue. Loc. Common; on sandy soil.

140. Jacquemontia violacea Choisy (Jakshini). six

Hab. A perennial twiner with slender stems. F/. (Dec.-Jan.) Bright

blue. Loc. Dosabhai garden. 3 ee +A

141. Argyreia speciosa-Sweet: - (Samudrashok)..

Hab. Ahuge climber, stems stout, hairy, white. FI. (Aug.-Sept.)

Large rose purple; bracts large white. Loc. Dosabhai garden.

Dy ae a

THE FLORA OF VISNAGAR AND ITS ENVIRONS 603

142. Ipomoea aquatica Forsk. (Jalgamini).

‘Hab. A floating aquatic plant with hollow stem, and rooting at nodes.

Fl. (Oct.-Apr.) Pale purple. Loc. Common in tanks.

143. Ipomoea batatas Poir. (Shakkaria).

Hab. Creeping plant, rooting at nodes. F/. Noted in vegetative

condition only. Loc. Bot. Garden.

144. Ipomoea quamoclit L. (Kamlata).

Hab. An annual, slender twiner with pectinate leaves. F/. (Sept.-

Dec.) Scarlet. Loc. Bot. Garden and Professors’ quarters.

SOLANACEAE

145, Solanum xanthocarpum S. &. W. (Bhoyringani).

Hab. A spiny prostrate perennial herb. F/. (Oct.-Mar.) Yellow.

Loc. Common; in waste places.

146. Withania somnifera Dunal (Ghodakun).

Hab. A small hairy undershrub. FI. (Sept.-Nov.) Yellowish green.

Loc. Common; in wet places.

147. Physalis minima L. (Popti).

Hab. A small herb with toothed or lobed leaves. Fi. (Aug.-Nov.)

Yellow. Loc. Common; in wet places.

148. Datura fastuosa L. (Kalodhaturo).

Hab. A small shrub with purplish and white spotted branches. FY.

(Sept.-Jan.) White or tinged with purple. Loc. Common; near marshy

places.

149. Cestrum nocturnum L. (Ratanirani).

Hab. A small scandent shrub. Fi. (July-Nov.) Yellowish green.

Loc. Sardarji’s garden.

SCROPHULARIACEAE

150. Herpestis monnieria H.B.K. (Bam, Jalnevari).

Hab. A small succulent creeping aquatic herb, rooting at nodes.

Fl. (Jan.-May) Pale blue. Loc. Near Talav.

151. Striga orobanchioides Benth. (Ratoagiyo).

Hab. A small erect herb parasitic on roots of Bajari; stem reddish

purple. Fl. (Oct.-Nov.) Pink with white spot at the base of each lobe,

Loc. In fields, along railway lines,

604. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

152. Russelia juncea Zucc. (Raseeli). —

Hab. A much branched phylloclade with ‘thick nodes; whorled

pendulous branches. FJ. All the year. Red. Loc. College garden.

153. Lindenbergia urticifolia Link & Otto.

Hab. A small' hairy glandular herb. Fi. (Aug.-Dec.) Yellow. Loc.

Near wet places, and on wet old walls.

154. Angelonia grandiflora L.

_ Hab. A small perennial herbaceous plant, with glands secreting sticky

fluid. Fi. (Sept.-Jan.) Of peculiar shape with characteristic smell. Loc.

Bot. Garden. |

BIGNONIACEAE

155. Tecomella undulata Seem. (Ragatrohido).

Hab. A small tree with drooping hairy branches. Fl. (Dec.-Apr.)

Orange-yellow. Loc. Varetta gardens, and behind College garden.

156. Millingtonia hortensis L. (Akashneem).

Hab, A large straight evergreen tree with corky covering on stem.

Fl. (Sept.-Dec.) White; sweet scented. Loc. Bot. Garden.

157. Spathodea campanulata Beauv.

Hab. Noted as a small tree. F/. (Dec.-Feb.) Orange-scarlet. Loc.

Bot. Garden.

158. Kigelia pinnata DC.

Hab. Noted as small trees in Bot. Garden; not flowering.

159. Tecoma stans L.

Hab. A large shrub. Fl. (Sept.-Dec.) Bright yellow. Loc. Com-

mon along hedges in Bot. Garden.

ACANTHACEAE

160. Thunbergia grandiflora Roxb.

Hab. A large, woody climber. F/. (Feb.-Sept.) Bluish. Loc. Grows

extensively, covering the green house in Bot. Garden.

161. Barleria prionitis L. (Pilokantasholiyo).

Hab. A small shrub, much branched, very prickly. F/. (Oct.-Jan.)

Yellow. Loc. Grows wild in Bot. Garden.

162. Lepidagathis trinervis Nees. (Harancharo).

Hab. A very small diffuse herb much branched. Fil. (Nov.-Mar.)

Purple. Loc. Common.

THE FLORA OF VISNAGAR AND ITS ENVIRONS 605

163. Asteracantha longifolia Nees. (Echaro).

> Hab. A herb with reddish brown stems an yellow straight spines in

the axil of leaves. Fi, (June-Jan.) Purplish blue. Loc. Common by the

side of tanks.

164, Rueilia tuberosa L.

“Hab. A small herb with fasciculated tuberous roots. Fi. (Aug.-

Oct.) Purplish blue. Loc. Common in Bot. Garden.

165. Adhatoda vasica Nees. (Ardusi).

Hab. A much branched shrub. F/. (Aug.-Jan.) White with rose-

coloured streaks in the throat. Loc. Common as a hedge plant. 7

VERBENACEAE

166. Lantana camara L. var. aculeata Mold. (Indra danu).

Hab. A shrub, stems with many recurved prickles. F/, All the year.

Of various colours. Loc. Bot. Garden. Does not grow wild.

167. Gmelina hystrix Schntt.

Hab. A large spinous shrub. FI. (Aug. ee Yellow in eee

panicles. Loc. Bot. Garden.

168. Vitex negundo L. (Nagodi). Fs

Hab. A small tree, stem square, white and hairy. Fi. All the year.

Bluish purple. Loc. Bot. Garden.

169. Clerodendron inerme Gaertn. (Vanvai).

Hab. A shrub with climbing habit, FJ. (Aug-Jan.) White. Loc.

College garden; as a hedge.

170. Clerodendron serratum Spreng.

Hab. A small shrub with branches spreading at base. FI. (Aug.-

Jan.) Pink. Loc. College garden.

LABIATAE

171. Ocimum sanctum L. (Tulsi).

Hab. An annual, much branched herb; hairy purplish. FI.

(Sept.-Dec.) Purplish. Loc. Common.

172, Ocimum gratissimum L. (Avachibavchi).

Hab. A small shrub, F/. (Jul.-Dec.) Pale greenish velee Loc.

Near tennis court.

606 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

173. Ocimum basilicum L. var. thyrsiflora Benth. (Sabjo).

~Hab. A small herb, much branched, purple hairy. FI. (ug —

Pink with long white hairs. Loc. College garden.

174. Leucas aspera Spreng. (Kubo). =

Hab. An annual herb, stem square and hairy. Fi. (Oct.-Nov.)

White. Loc. Common; in wet places.

NYCTAGINACEAE

175. Boerhavia diffusa L. (Punarnava).

Hab. A creeping herb, stem purplish. FI. (Sept.-Dec.) Dark pink,

Loc. Common; grows wild.

176. Boerhavia repanda Willd. (Satodo).

Hab. A small herb with long internodes. F/. (Oct.-Dec.) Pink.

Loc. In hedges in Bot. Garden; and along railway lines.

177. Bougainvillea spectabilis Willd. (Rativel).

Hab. An extensive climber. F/. (Aug.-Jan.) Rosy-purple bracts,

Loc. College and Dosabhai garden.

AMARANTHACEAE

178. Celosia sp.

Hab. A small, annual erect herb with grooved stem. Fi. (Sept.-

Jan.) In small terminal spikes. White. Loc. Common on waste land.

179. Digera arvensis Forsk. (Kanejaro).

Hab. A small erect annual herb. Fi. (Sept.-Dec.) Perianth rose-

coloured. Loc. Common; in fields.

180. Amaranthus spinosus L. (Kantalodambo).

Hab. A small annual erect herb with grooved stem, bearing axillary

spines. Fi. (Aug.-Nov.) Green. Loc. A common weed.

181. Achyranthes aspera L. (Andhadi).

Hab. An annual erect herb with square stem. Fil. (Nov.-Jan.)

Greenish white. Loc. Common in waste places.

182. Pupalia lappacea Moq. (Dhologipto).

Hab. A large hairy herb. Fi. (Aug.-Dec.) Perianth wana! Loc.

In hedges, common.

THE FLORA OF VISNAGAR AND ITS ENVIRONS 607

183, Gomphrena globosa L. (Batan)..

- Hab, A small annual herb, stem dichotomous, Surah, FL (Sept. -

Apr.) Purplish red. Loc. In gardens, often growing as an escape.

CHENOPODIACEAE

184, Basella rubra L. (Pothi).

Hab. A perennial large twiner, stem red with thick leaves. Fi, (Oct.-

Jan.) Red. Loc, Bot. Garden.

POLYGONACEAE

185. Polygonum plebejum R. Br. var. indica Hook.

Hab. A much branched prostrate herb. Fl. (Dec.-Mar.) Pink.

Loc. College grounds.

186. Polygonum glabrum Willd. (Ragatrohido).

Hab. A tall shrub, slightly branched and reddish below. FI. (Oct.-

Mar.) Pink. Loc, On margins of tanks.

ARISTOLOCHIACEAE

187. Aristolochia bracteata Retz.

Hab. A herb; almost spreading on the ground. F/. (Aug.-Jan.)

Dark purple. Loc. Near Kadarpur railway station.

EUPHORBIACEAE

188. Euphorbia neriifolia L. (Thor).

Hab. A large fleshy much-branched shrub. F/. (Aug.-Apr.) In-

volucres forming shortly pedunculate solitary or twin cymes. Loc.

As a hedge along fields and gardens.

189. Euphorbia tirucalli L. (Kharsadi thor).

Hab. A small, unarmed, much-branched tree. Fi. (Mar. ay)

Involucre rose-coloured. Loc. As a hedge in Bot. Garden.

190. Euphorbia splendens Boj.

Hab. Asmall armed shrub. F/. (Sept.-Mar.) Cyathia dichotomous.

Involucre crimson or scarlet. Loc. Dosabhai and Bot. Gardens.

191. Euphorbia heterophylla L.

Hab. A small annual herb with floral leaves. FJ. (Sept-.Feb.)

Green. Loc. P.W.D. garden.

608 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

192. Phyllanthus niruri L. (Bhoyamli). £0!

Hab. A small annual herb. Fi. (Aug.-Nov.) Yellowish green,

very small. Zoc. Common as a weed. socb bea ae 1 Cag

193. Putranjiva roxburghii Wall. (Putravanti).

Hab. A small evergreen tree with drooping branches. Fl, (Mar.-

May) Dioecious. Loc. Bot. Garden.

194. Jatropha glandulifera Roxb. a Jee

Hab. A small tree, glandular. F/. (Jan.-May) Greenish yellow.

Loc. Bot. Garden.

195. Croton tiglium L. (Napalo).

Hab. A large evergreen shrub. FI. (Sept.-Dec.) Monoecious. Loc.

Gardens.

196. Ricinus communis L. (Erandi).

Hab. A large annual or perennial shrub. F/. (Dec. Bigs Monoe-

cious. Loc. Bot. Garden and cultivated in fields.

MORACEAE

197. Ficus religiosa L. (Pipalo).

Hab. A large tree. Fi. Receptacles in pairs; dark-purple when ‘Tipe.

Loc. College garden and near temples. tat]

198. Ficus bengalensis L. (Vad).

Hab. A very large tree, with aerial roots. Fi. Receptacles in pairs,

red. Loc. College garden.

199. Ficus carica L. (Anjir).

Hab. A small tree. Fl. Receptacles solitary; basal bracts reddish

purple when ripe. Loc. Bot. Garden.

200. Morus alba L. (Shetur).

Hab. A large deciduous shrub. Fi. (Feb.-Mar.) Monoecious, Loc.

Bot. Garden.

URTICACEAE

201. Pilea microphylla Lieb.

Hab. Small perennial herb. Fl. (Sept.-Oct.) Nonocemnen Loc.

Bot. Garden.

THE FLORA OF VISNAGAR AND ITS ENVIRONS - 609

MONOCOTYLEDONS

HYDROCHARITACEAE

202. Hydrilla verticillata Presl. (Bam).

203. Valisneria spiralis L. (Prangavat).

Hab. Submerged plants; abundant in Talav.

AMARYLLIDACEAE

204, Crinum asiaticum L. (Nagdaman).

Hab. A herb with tunicated bulb. F/. (Aug.-Oct.) White. Loc.

Dosabhai garden. |

AGAVACEAE

205. Agave americana L. (Ketaki).

Hab. A large perennial herb, Fi. Any time of the year ; yellowish

green. Loc. Bot, Garden. —

LILIACEAE

206. Asparagus gonoclados Baker. (Satavri).

Hab. A much branched armed small weak undershrub with nodular

roots. Fi. (Dec.-Jan.) White. Loc. Bot. Garden.

207. Dracaena goldieana Bull.

Hab. An erect woody plant with crowded leaves. Fi. Not in flower.

Loc. Bot. Garden.

208. Gloriosa superba L. (Vachnag).

Hab. A large annual herbaceous climber, with solid and white tuberous

rootstock. Fl. (Aug.-Oct.) Orange and scarlet. Loc. Along railway

lines in hedges. Wild.

209. Asphodelus tenuifolius Cav. (Dungro).

Hab. A small annual herb with fibrous roots. F/. (Dec.-Mar.)

White with red tinge. Loc. In wheat and bajri fields.

210. Aloe vera L. (Eliyo).

Hab. A small herb with fleshy leaves. FJ. (Aug.-Jan.) Orange-

scarlet. Loc. Bot. Garden. Grows extensively.

COMMELINACEAE

211. Commelina nudiflora L. (Shishmuli).

Hab. A small diffuse glabrous herb rooting at nodes. FI. (Sept.-

Dec.) Dark purple. Loc. Grows wild after rains everywhere.

610 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

PALMACEAE

212. Phoenix sylvestris Roxb. (Khajuri).

Hab. An unbranched plant, the stem covered with petioles of fallen

leaves. FJ. (Jan.-Mar.) Dioecious. Loc. Bot. Garden. . :

PANDANACEAE

213. Pandanus furcatus Roxb.

Hab. A small tree with aerial roots. Fi. Not flowering. Loc.

Bot. Garden.

POTAMOGETONACEAE

214. Potamogeton indicus Roxb. (Jalpupodi).

Hab. An aquatic herb. FI. (Dec.) Spike; dense flowered. Loc.

In tanks along railway line. |

CONIFERAE

215. Thuja orientalis L. (Morpankhi).

Hab. A small compact evergreen plant. F/. Monoecious, minute.

Loc. Bot. Garden.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My sincere thanks are due to Principal C. D. Deshpande for en-

couragement and to Dr. H. V. Kashyap, Head of the Biology Dept.,

M.N. College, Visnagar, for help during the preparation of this work.

I have also to thank Dr. H. D. Noronha, Head of the Biology Dept.,

Gujarat College, Ahmedabad, for allowing me to consult the collec-

tions of Saxton and Sedgwick at the Gujarat College.

Reviews

1. THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW. By W. B.

Turrill, D.Sc., F.RS., London: Herbert Jenkins, 1959. 22x14 cm.;

pp. 256, map, 26 half-tone illustrations. Price 25s.

This year the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, celebrate the second

centenary. from their foundation in the eighteenth century; this book

is a fitting tribute to the work that has been done and is being done in

the various branches of Horticulture and Botany. It is appropriate,

too, that Dr. Turrill should write this story; in the words of Dr. G.

Taylor, the present Director, who introduces the book to the public,

‘the book is in good measure a jubilee commemoration of his (Dr.

Turrill’s) half-century’s devotion to Kew. His is a splendid record

of loyal service which has brought great credit to the institution.’

When I first knew him, Dr. Turrill was the Curator of the Herbarium;

_and it was thanks to his great kindness that this reviewer and many

others like him could appreciate the treasures housed in the various

departments of the Royal Botanic Gardens.

To the professional gardener or botanist, Kew is a hallowed place,

the mere name of which seems to inspire reverence and love; it

certainly does this to me. Both the gardens and the herbarium and

library, and the various laboratories now established in Kew, owe

much to the inspiration and energy of such giants in the botanical

world as the two Hookers (Sir William and Sir Joseph Dalton), to

Bentham, to Col. Prain, and others, to speak only of those that have

gone to their reward. Their example seems to be animating the

present stafi with their toundless energy and enthusiasm.

Dr. Turrill has delved into the archives of the Royal Botanic

Gardens, and has as a result produced a book that reads like a story:

in simple and non-technical language he tells of the development of a

Royal Garden of but about 9 acres into the magnificent establishment

of today with over 250 acres of ground. After many vicissitudes as

& private Royal Garden, Kew developed into one of the world’s leading

botanical institutions from the appointment of Sir William Hooker in

1841, when Sir William became the first director officially appointed

by government; from that moment practically every year has seen new

additions to the Gardens, new facilities for research. The Herbarium,

housed in three large galleries, numbers over 6,000,000 specimens;

among them there is a most valuable number of type sheets; the Indian

612 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

collection is the best in the world, both in numbers and in type

materials. As for the Gardens themselves, William Aiton, one of the

first Curators, in 1789 listed 5500 species under cultivation in Kew;

in the last few years, I heard from the then Director, Sir Edward

Salisbury, that over 45,000 different species of plants were being

cultivated in the gardens, in the open air or under glass in the various

hot-houses.

Dr. Turrill describes in detail the gardens and the various houses.

Among the latter the Palm House is probably the most striking

structure in Kew; it happens to be also one of the oldest houses. It

was completed in 1848; its length is 362 ft., its width 100 ft., its

height 66 ft. The Palm House stood as originally built until the

Second World War, when much of the glass was destroyed by enemy .

action; in spite of this most of the plants could be saved, and are

now housed again in the rebuilt Palm House.

Another showy detail of Kew is the orchid house. “The main

orchid house at Kew is a new construction built in 1958. There are,

connected with this, a number of orchid “pits” that is special smaller

houses where orchids are raised from seed and by vegetative propaga-

tion and are kept till ready for public exhibition.’ The collection of

living orchids at Kew is an astonishingly large one, it is also a very

showy one. One of the details mentioned by Dr. Turrill when speak-

ing of orchids may be of interest to our readers: orchids are known

to produce very large numbers of minute seeds; the record for Kew

is a specimen of Cynorchis chlorochilon, one single fruit or capsule

of which contained 3,770,000 seeds!

At the end of the book there is a large-scale map of the Gardens,

with the help of which it is easy to locate any of the various details

discussed in the book.

The subjects dealt with in the various chapters are the following:

History from the beginning to 1958; scientific research at Kew;

economic botany and the various museums; detailed description of the

gardens, of the green houses, etc.; Kew in spring, summer, autumn, and

winter. There is an interesting chapter on Wild Life at Kew, where

many of the birds, insects, etc. seen at Kew are mentioned. The

appendices and indexes are of particylar help to scientific readers.

One of the great attractions of Kew is that every season of the year

seems to bring out a beauty of its own. Bluebells cover the ground in

early spring, soon to be followed by daffodils; a little later the sides

of the Broad Walk are a riot of colour with the finest combination of

massed tulips; by Easter time the Japanese cherry trees with their

profuse flowering are a great attraction to visitors, with Rhododendrons

REVIEWS 613

and Azaleas also at their best. All through summer roses, geraniums,

and other colourful plants are the delight of countless visitors that

flock to the Gardens. Kew is visited annually by over a million

persons, and all seem to find there something to delight and interest

them. Merely as a picnic spot there is no better place in the world!

It is but natural that such a large institution should be costly to

run; it is also natural that the government and the country should

expect some tangible return for the money spent. Kew has repaid the

money spent many times over; perhaps this has not been done directly

to the British treasury, it has certainly been done through the

Commonwealth. It was through Kew that India and the East obtained

their quinine plants from the high ranges of the Andes in South

America; it was also through Kew that southeastern Asia received the

Para rubber seedlings from which the rubber plantations of Ceylon,

Malaya, and other eastern countries have been developed.

To the professional botanist the world over, Kew is known for its

many botanical publications, among which /ndex Kewensis stands out

signally; two large volumes and twelve supplements of this monu-

mental work have so far been published; in this index all the seed-

bearing plants of the world are listed; beginning with Linne’s Species

Plantarum, published in 1753, every plant that has been described or

published in any scientific work to the present day is listed with the

appropriate reference to the original publication. If the Royal Botanic

Gardens, Kew, had done nothing but to sponsor the publication of

this book and its supplements, Kew would still deserve a high place

in the esteem and gratitude of all the botanists of the world. But it

has done much more than that: some of the finest botanical

gardens, at least in the British Commonwealth in general and in India

in particular, owe their inspiration to Kew. India owes a special debt

of gratitude to Kew, in that the FLORA OF BRITISH INDIA and _ the

more important provincia! floras have been compiled by the staff

of the Kew Herbarium. )

The printing of the book is an honour to the British printing

trade; the many fine illustrations are well selected to give an idea of

the history, activities, and beauty of Kew. The book is clearly a work

of love. On this bicentenary occasion the reviewer, remembering the

happy years spent in Kew, sends hearty wishes; may the Royal

Botanic Gardens of Kew continue for many centuries to flourish and

prosper. Floreat Kew!

H. SANTAPAU

614. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

2. BIRD WATCHING AS A HOBBY.. By W. D. Campbell,

M.B.0.U. 114 pp. (18.512 cm.). With photographic illustrations by

H. A. Thomson. Stanley Paul, London, 1959. Price 10s. 6d. net.

This is an excellent little introduction to Bird Watching written

interestingly and in simple language by an experienced devotee of the

nobby. It is intended for the young and the novice, but its comprehensive

coverage should make its appeal to the general reader with even a

passing interest in his natural surroundings.

The chapter headings are descriptive of the contents: Bird watching

as a Hobby; Structure; The Bird’s Voice; Reproduction; The Food

of Birds; Migration; Classification; Recognition and Identification;

Man and Birds; From Bird Watcher to Ornithologist. The text is

enlivened by good photographs and by illustrative anecdotes from the

author’s personal experiences of over a quarter century of bird

watching.

The general reader will find the chapters on Migration and Man

and Birds of particular interest. At the end of the latter are given

some particulars concerning the Protection of Birds Act of 1954 which,

even in its toned-down form as passed by the British Parliament, is in

many respects exemplary. Suitably adapted to local needs and condi-

tions, it could serve as a model for similar legislation in other

countries, including our own. The chapter on Recognition and

Identification gives useful hints on what, where, and how to observe

and record, which, if persistently and intelligently followed, will

without special effort transform the man who starts bird watching

as a hobby into a competent scientific ornithologist as it has done the

author of the book.

S. A.

3. POULTRY KEEPING IN INDIA. By P. M. N. Naidu.

Pp. xviiit293 (24.5X18.5 cm.). 21 coloured plates, 192 black-and-

white photographic and line illustrations. Published by the Indian

Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, 1959. Price Rs. 19.80.

At the outset it may be pointed out that ‘poultry’ in the title is

evidently used here in a restricted sense to cover only domestic fowls.

Ducks, geese, turkeys, and guinea fowl which are normally also

included in the term are not dealt with. They are perhaps intended

to form the subject of a future volume.

India was the centre of domestication of the indigenane Red

Junglefowl, believed to be the progenitor of all the existing domestic

REVIEWS 615

breeds. Man’s primary quest seems to have been for a good fighting

bird, and though fowls were doubtless also used as food, domestication

for this purpose was apparently only a secondary consideration.

Little attention seems to have been paid in India through the ages to

poultry keeping as an economic undertaking, or developing suitable

breeds as a source of food supply for the community. Even today

as an industry it is far less exploited or popular than its

potentiality as a food resource would warrant in a country like ours,

for ever striving to make the ends of food production and food con-

sumption meet.

No ventures in poultry farming have so far been undertaken here

on a scale comparable with the gigantic industry into which it has

developed in western countries, especially the U.S.A. But in a small

way poultry keeping has always flourished as a cottage industry or

for domestic consumption in villages throughout the countryside.

No traveller in India can be unfamiliar with the tough and stringy

dak bungalow chicken and the diminutive pigeon-like eggs which are

the produce of that bird. That seemingly no effort should have been

made to improve the size of the egg and the quality of its layer is

strange, but understandable in the absence of official encouragement

for scientific experimentation and selection for better breeds. The

few fanciers and well-meaning reformers who from time to time

tried to introduce foreign strains of egg-layers or meat-producers to

improve the indigenous stock had not long to wait before having their

entire flocks wiped out by one or other of the numerous poultry

diseases which are the bane of the poultry keeper, especially in the

tropics, but against which the hardier local breeds have developed

some measure of immunity.

It is only now, with the encouragement and facilities provided

to poultry keepers by the Central and State Governments through

prophylactic inoculations of the birds and competent scientific advice,

that poultry farming is gaining in popularity and becoming a practi-

cable proposition for the villager and man of modest means, and

gradually transforming its erstwhile speculative character into a steady

profit-earning industry.

Poultry keepers as well as all concerned over the food problem

in India will welcome this timely publication of the Indian Council

of Agricultural Research. From time to time the Council had put out

a number of pamphlets on poultry keeping, but the need of a

comprehensive book providing practical knowledge in a handy form

was acutely felt. The author Shri P. M. N. Naidu has done his

job admirably, and deserves to be complimented. That the book

615 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL_HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

‘provides just the sort of information poultry keepers needed will be

evident from its list of contents. The chapters cover every aspect of

the industry, from the history and economics of poultry keeping in

India, and the choosing of breeds for different purposes, through the

practical techniques of breeding, feeding, and care, to marketing. In

the reviewer’s opinion, the chapter on Diseases and their Control, in

the light of past disappointments and failures, should prove of the

greatest practical usefulness. and go a long way to reassure the many

poultry keepers who have suffered through the ravages. of these

epidemics and been compelled to abandon their enterprise and

enthusiasm.

~The book is well. printed and attrictivene ear up, and the

illustrations are chosen with care, although the colour rendering in

some of the plates is not all that can be desired. Considering the

high cost of art paper and colour printing, the price is not unreason-

able, though unfortunately still rather beyond the reach of the

ordinary small man. who might be induced to take up poultry farm-

img not only to augment the family income, but also as a service to

the community in producing more food. An official publication like

this, to carry its message to the widest circle of would-be beneficiaries

and produce practical results, needs to be heavily subsidized ‘by

government. SEY WS.

, S. A.

4, A°~GUIDE--- TO - FRESHWATER INVERTEBRATE

ANIMALES: : ‘By ‘Dr: 'F. T. Macan. - Pp. x +118 (85x23 cima

202 line drawings. Woe Green & -Co:> Etd-- Eondim aise:

Price. 11s. (6d, ae se bine he i + eae

-PEhe - scope -and “organisation. of. this ” book are sonell set in__its

introduction... It has. been the intention of the author to provide

such practicable keys as would enable young naturalists or beginners

interested in freshwater animal life to identify their caphires to the

nearest group.

The author, in this work, has devoted L11 pages to jor ures

painstaking work for identifying freshwater invertebrates and then in

the end contributes a short account, comprising only four pages,. on

parasites and epibionts. Of the four keys, the first helps to identify

all the freshwater invertebrates up. to phyla, and animals belonging to

Protozoa, Sponges, Coelenterata, and minor phyla up to their groups.

The remaining three keys deal with Mollusca, Worms, and Arthropoda.

_ REVIEWS 617

respectively. More than half of the book is devoted to the identifica-

tion of freshwater insects.

Literature on animal taxonomy, generally speaking, is too often

not readily comprehended by a general student of freshwater animal

life. Sometimes also the unfortunate attitude that only an_ expert

is capable of identifying animals correctly has discouraged many a

promising beginner from attempting field work. But a book of this

type can help any one to readily identify the more common freshwater

invertebrates with reasonable accuracy up to a group if he is prepared

to follow up the keys given here.

_ The book is, therefore, recommended for those who have

developed interest in identifying freshwater invertebrates, and it will

also form a useful addition to biological libraries.

Dr. KEWALRAMANI

5. FISHERY SCIENCE, ITS METHODS AND APPLICATIONS.

By George A. Rounsefell and W. Harry Everhart. Pp. xu+444

(15 X23.5 cm.). With a frontispiece, one coloured plate, and 106

text-figures. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York. Price $ 7.50.

The unprecedented activities in the development of fisheries science

in this-country during the last ten years has opened up a new field

for post-graduate training and research in fishery biology, manage-

ment, and technology in many Indian Universities. However, as in

most countries in the tropics, the science is still in its infancy not

having progressed beyond the exploratory stage and hence it will be

a long time before a comprehensive text-book on the subject specially

pertaining to this region is available for the guidance of students and

researchers. On the other hand, in the waters of the temperate regions

fishery science offers a wealth of practical knowledge made possible

mainly by the pioneering and inspiring works of John Murray,

Michael Sars, W. Thompson, W. Herdman, J. Johnstone, C. G. Joh.

Pettersen, J. Hjort, and many others and carried on through the last

few decades in many parts of the world, notably the North Sea, the

Baltic, the Sea of Azov, the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North

America, and the fresh waters of the Holarctic. Among the more

recent books a long list may be cited as being both informative and

instructive to the student and researchers, but there are practically

none which have attempted a synthesis and common interpretation of

the methodology aad principles employed for both freshwater and

marine fishery biology in such a way as to be equally applicable to

618 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

the research, conservation, and management of fishery resources rfe-

gardless of where the fish occur. Although six years have elapsed

since its publication we are pleased to make known to our readers the

availability of such a book in FISHERY SCIENCE, ITS METHODS AND

APPLICATIONS. | ;

The book, which is divided into eleven sections, has 25 chapters,

each having at its end a list of references which is heavily weighted

to North American works. The opening chapter ‘How do we produce

knowledge?’ is an appropriate one and worthy of reading by all

biologists engaged in preparing research papers whether of an applied.

or fundamental nature. The remaining chapters deal with principles

of fishery management in general, and as pertaining to streams and

ponds; methods of estimating population size, abundance, and limiting

factors; habitat improvements; varied types of gear and their uses;

tagging; age and growth studies; fishery statistics, stream and lake

surveys; fishery regulations, etc.; and conclude with one on fishery

problems needing immediate and greater attention, such as abundance;

genetics in relation to increased annual harvest: natural balance: role

of nutrients; estuarine ecology; interspecific relations, and the like.

This is followed by an appendix giving a list of scientific journals

exclusively dealing with fishery science or in which the majority of

the articles pertain to fishery research and once again there is a

partiality to North American publications. The book concludes with

a useful six-page glossary of scientific terms and a thirty-page author

and subject index.

Fishery problems are varied both from place to place and from

species to species and the ever increasing output of research material

is also accompanied by constant refinements of existing methods and

techniques. Naturally to expect one book to elucidate all would seem

an impossibility. One basic requisite for anyone specializing in fishery

biology and management is a good grasp of the principles of ecology

as applicable to this field and a working knowledge of the problems,

methodology, and applications of the allied subjects of limnology,

cceanography, marine biology, and ichthyology. To rationalise, the

user of this book is expected to have some training in these subjects.

Although lagging, fishery science in tropical waters has its own

specialities as regards some of the problems, methods, and its appli-

cations, and a chapter or two on this aspect would have greatly

enhanced. the usefulness of this book as an international reference

work on the subject. Nevertheless many of the principles and

methods treated by the authors are equally applicable to tropical

situations. both freshwater and marine. The treatment of the various

REVIEWS 619.

topics dealt with is concise, but in some places only passing references

are made to topics worthy-of more detailed treatment which would

necessitate looking into other references also. Indeed, this is a draw-

back. For instance in a text-book discussion meant to be an aid to

students one would expect to find also a reference to Graham,

M. (1929): Studies on Age-determination in Fish. Parts 1 & 2, Fish.

Invest. Min. Agri. Fish. Ser., M1, Vol. 11, Nos. 2 & 3 for the subject

on scales and age-determination (Chapter 18), or to Hynes, H. B. N.

(1950): J. Anim. Ecol., 19 (1): 36-58 for the section on ‘Methods of

stomach analysis’ (p. 356), and so on. More recent researches on the

dynamics of fish populations will necessitate some changes in chapters

6 and 7.

Prediction, judicious management, and conservation are the goal

of fishery science and this book will give some idea of the immense

amount of systematic and consistent work necessary to attain these

ends. On the whole the book is well written, well illustrated, and the

production is excellent. Many of the principles of value find a place

in it thus making it a worthy text-book and source of reference. The

omissions and suggestions are minor when compared to the many use-

ful qualities of the book and at its present standard a life of many

editions is assured. The book can be confidently recommended as

an aid to post-graduate teaching as well as a guide to researchers

through the pages of which a wide knowledge of the methods and

applications of fishery science as specially pertaining to the piscine

world can be gained.

EB. G. SILAS

6. DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN CEYLON. By Philip

K. Crowe. Pp. x+318 (21.5X14.5 cm.). Line drawings by P. E. P.

Deraniyagala, and a map. London, 1957. Macmillan & Co. Ltd.

Price 30s. net.

As a keen shikari the author has travelled widely in Ceylon and

picked up from many sources interesting items of natural (and some-

times unnatural) history. The identity of the devil bird, the blood-

sucking vampire bat, and the singing fish of Batticaloa Harbour still

appears to be uncertain and the author refers to a new species of

red bear described from: Ceylon in i815. There is an extraordinary

account of the discovery, in company with Major W. W. A. Phillips,

of a red-wattled lapwing sitting on a clutch of Kentish Plover eggs

. ‘an hour later the Kentish plover mother was back on the job.

Undoubtedly the lapwing was a paid egg-sitter!’

620 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

As in India, the Ceylon authorities no doubt have headaches with

ihe matter of game preservation, but it is strange that they have not

yet outlawed some of the commonest offences, e.g. shooting deer and

junglefowl from cars and killing of stags in velvet. Perhaps it is

prohibited, but if so the fact that a person of the standing of the

author has indulged in these practices implies that little publicity has

been given to the Jaw which, as in many parts of India, is nobody’s

concern.

Unfortunately the author has been a little too free in the identifica -

tion of birds and animals mentioned by him. Upon enquiry it was

discovered that the apparent additions of the Pintailed Duck, the

Green Pigeon, and the rabbit to the fauna of the Maldives could

not be vouched for!

The book is, however, very readable and is just the kind which

arouses interest and discussion among naturalists and shikaris.

H. A.

7. THE TIGER OF RAJASTHAN. By Colonel Kesri Singh.

Pp. 197 (22X14 cm.). With twelve plates. London, 1959. Robert

Hale Ltd. Price 18s.

In the foreword, the meaning of the word ‘Kesri’ is given as ‘tiger’.

‘Kesri’ is really a mutilated form of the Sanskrit word Kesari meaning

the ‘maned one’. In the preface the author has expressed gratifica-

tion on his good fortune of being able to select his favourite occupation

as his profession. He claims to having been in constant touch with,

and studied wild animals for over thirty-seven years. The book is the

result of his experiences during this time. The reader therefore is

naturally expectant to learn something new about the tiger, but is

disappointed to find that the book is largely a chronicle of how

innumerable tigers were slaughtered by the author himself or beaten

cut for slaughter by others. Interlarded are anecdotes, some curious,

some interesting, some merely to point a moral or adorn a tale. The

photographs on the whole are poor. Many of them are of doubtful

authenticity, and some quite obviously posed. :

Col. Kesri Singh has a great reputation in Rajasthan as a tiger

slayer, and an even greater reputation for knowledge of tiger lore.

Perhaps it is this reputation that is responsible for the. diaper

ment the reviewer feels on laying down the book!

~ B. Basu.

REVIEWS. Sows Wee aes 624

~~ -.8..--COLLECTING, PRESERVING AND STUDYING. INSECTS.

By: Harold- Oldroyd, M.A, F.R.ES. Pp. 327 (23.5X15.5 -cm.).- 15

monochrome plates and numerous line Gens Hutchinson .and'- Co.

Ltd., London; 1958. 25s. seed Ata eee Ha Tenement a

‘One basic prerequisite towards becoming a skilled insect collector

is to learn the habits and life-history of your quarry. By under:

standing the reactions of various insects towards light. warmth, food,

moisture, and shelter you can learn to anticipate their movements and

know where to look for them.

This seemingly simple knowledge, which in some cases can become

almost instinctive, leads some entomologists to capture rare or un-

usual insects, while other unobservant collectors at the same time and

place are securing only the most commonplace species. 7

A fundamental wisdom and personal humane awareness permeates

this practical and thoughtful book on identifying, collecting, and

preserving insects. The author Harold Oldroyd sets forth a large

amount of accumulated details. His strong sense of: humour. and

individuality as well as a clear and fluid style set this book ‘apart, and

makes interesting reading to the neophyte amateur as well.as informa-

tive matter to the professional entomologist. |

The work describes many established as well as up-to- -date aspects

of entomology, such as. practised methods of killing, preservation,

mounting, photography, identification, classification, and methods of

recording new facts and describing new species. Each phase is

thoroughly discussed, with an ample supply of directions, explana-

tions, lists, diagrams, and plates to make each point quite clear.

Further aids are given at the back of the book with an appendix of

useful chemical formulae and reagents; a glossary of entomological

terms; a list of references; and some ‘useful addresses’ for materials,

books, and new and second-hand cabinets in London.

The field of entomology offers many unexplored possibilities, for

considerable work has yet to be done in the way of international

classification, unification, study, and collection of insects in various

parts of the world. Very little is known about Indian insects, for

instance—with the possible exception of those injurious to specific

crops or responsible for human diseases. Mr. Oldroyd mentions the

fact in particular that the fauna of decaying rot-holes in trees has not

yet been completely explored, especially in the tropics where some rare

and beautiful insects have yet to be fully investigated. ‘No opportunity

of collecting them should be missed,” he succinctly points out. |

622 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

In many ways this book offers a challenge. With detailed informa-

tion packed into this book, and new fields for exploration pointed

out, a person could be aided and inspired to promote further study

and offer solid contributions to the present knowledge of entomology.

B. J. TUFTY

9, KERALATTILE PAKSHIKAL—(in Malayalam). By

Induchidan. Pp. xiiit+638-+indexes 2 unnumbered (2114.5 cm.).

10 colour plates and 169 line drawings. Kerala Sahitya Academy,

Wrichur: - 1958. (ePrice Rs. 8:50:

This is the book form of the series of articles contributed in the

last few years to the illustrated Malayalam weekly, the Matrubhumi,

by Induchtidan, the assumed name of the author, Sree K. K.

Neelakantan, who is now Professor of English Literature in the

Women’s College at Trivandrum.

The book contains detailed descriptions of 115 or more of the

commoner birds occurring in the State of Kerala. There are additional

chapters for general topics, such as a historical sketch of Ornithology

in India, hints to bird watchers, and a list of suggested reading which

includes two books already published in Malayalam.

The descriptions are well written and largely supplemented by the

author’s own observations. They reveal his keenness for birds and

competence as an observer. He writes intimately and sympathetically

of his subjects which makes the book eminently readable.

The reported occurrence of the Common Hornbill, Tockus birostris

(Scop.) in the Valluvandd and Palghat Taluks of the District of

Malabar, where it is common, is interesting. The bird has not so far

been found in Travancore or Cochin. But it may be pointed out that

it is listed in the Malabar birds given as appendix iv of THE MANUAL

OF THE MALABAR DISTRICT by W. Logan (1906). The author’s discovery

of Peafowl living in the wild state is also interesting, though he has

not disclosed where, out of fear for their safety.

The format of the book is pleasing. The colour plates, from

blocks borrowed from the Bombay Natural History Society, have

reproduced well and the line drawings, in most cases, are good. But

the printer’s errors, from which Malayalam publications are seldom

free, outnumber the 41 items already listed in the errata and are offend-

ing to the sensitive reader. At least the mistakes in spelling of the

English and scientific names of birds in the first table of the opening

chapter should have been avoided.

REVIEWS 623

It would have been a great convenience to the reader, if the scientific

names of birds were also included in the chapter headings, which now

contain their Malayalam names only. Similarly, the scientific names

of the different trees and plants associated with birds mentioned in the

book are also desirable.

These are only minor matters in an otherwise excellent book and

the author deserves to be congratulated not only for his painstaking

studies, but also for doing a real service to all Malayalam readers by

giving them a reliable handbook of their birds.

N, G. P:

Miscellaneous Notes .

1. MUSK SHREWS FEEDING ON LEECHES —

Commenting on B. K. Behura’s note [JBNHS 55 (3): 552] on a

musk shrew (Suncus murinus) attacking a keelback (Natrix stollata),

the editors of this journal mentioned the widely varied dietary of the

musk shrew, which includes besides cockroaches and other insects which

are its normal food being an Insectivore, various other animals like

scorpions, toads, bull-frogs, suckling guinea pigs, as well as vegetable

matter like roots, grain ?, and bread, etc. Elsewhere. Deoras and

Gokhale have recorded [JBNHS 55 (3): 459] baby rats and mice

also in the dietary of the musk shrew.

Recently, I have observed rather an odd item in their dietary.

While keeping for experimental purposes over a hundred live leeches

(Foraminobdella heptamerata) in a wide-mouthed open earthenware

vessel, I was noticing a conspicuous dwindling in their numbers every

morning, but no dead ones could be seen in the container. Un-

fortunately, I was neither aware of the presence of two musk shrews

in my house nor of their nocturnal pilferings of my leeches till one

evening, when I noticed them at dusk getting up the vessel in my

very presence, poking their snouts right into the water, snatching the

leeches, and rushing off with them to the nearest retreat.

In about a week’s time nearly eighty leeches were knocked off

this way. Sometimes I noticed dead leeches floating, with cuts on

their body, probably the shrew-bites. These dead and stinking ones

seem to attract the shrews more, because, when the vessel was re-

moved to concealment, the shrews could easily scent their way up.

It is rather unlikely in nature for leeches to come within reach

of musk shrews, which normally inhabit human surroundings, but I

wonder whether the shrews would resort to hunting after this strange

food, if they happen to live in the vicinity of leech infested waters.

DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY,

MADRAS CHRISTIAN COLLEGE, P. J. SANJEEVA RAJ

TAMBARAM. SOUTH INDIA,

September 19, 1959.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AO. 629

>. PRESENT STATUS OF THE TWO-HORNED RHINOCEROS,

- < DIDERMOCERUS SUMATRENSIS (FISCHER) IN

- THE SHWE-U-DAUNG RESERVE, BURMA

“-U Tun Yin of. Rangoon has sent us a recent draft report on the

Shwe-U-Daung Reserve by Mr. Oliver Milton who, together with Mr.

R. D. Estes, is presently engaged on a survey of wild life in Burma.

This report is of a preliminary nature and covers the period of one

month (July-August) when the monsoon was at its worst making it

difficult to find, follow, and identify rhino tracks. More than half

the Reserve, ic. over 60 sq. miles, was sampled including some 25

sq. miles in which grew abundantly two sources of food particularly

favoured by rhinoceros, namely Kyansa (Toddalia aculeata) and Kyein

(Calamus sp.), where the rhinoceros were expected to be found. From

all the evidence obtained, both directly and by questioning the locals,

it appears that there are now only two rhinos living in this area

(some believe 3) confined to the upper reaches of the streams in the

remotest parts of the Reserve.

Considerable depletion of wild life took place in the Reserve during

and since the iast war until about 1956, anti-government elements

having made protective control by the Forest Department impossible.

From local evidence it seems that since about 1940 at least 17 rhinos

have been killed. This figure may represent only a part of the total

destruction. What an attractive commercial proposition a dead

rhino can be to the poacher is shown by the values attached to ve

various parts of its body, given as under:

Dried blood 5 kyats =$1 05. U.S: per half ounce

Fresh blood 500 kyats == F105" 4 5, per 1 viss (=3.65 Me

Bone 50 kyats = 910.5175) per viss

.. Skin 100 kyats pet fo9) per viss

Horn varies from 500 kyats ($105) to 1000 kvats ($210) per inch. —

The survey will be resumed in March/April 1960 after which a

further report will be submitted by the investigators, with their com-

ments pe suggestions. :

BoMBAY NATURAL ‘History SOCIETY, : MASS ,

91, WALKESHWAR ROAD, kt ORS - =~" EDTTORS

Bompay 6, ;

- September 27, 1959.

626 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

3. THE SHOU OR ‘SIKKIM STAG’

In the Journal for December 1958 (55: 556) Mr. Gee appeals for

information regarding the status of the ‘Show’ (Cervus affinis Hodgs.)

in Bhutan and Tibet. I have visited all the areas in which this animal

is said to occur, and my experience of it may be of interest despite

the fact that it is not up-to-date.

Western elope

I do not think the Shou has ever occurred in recent times in the

vicinity of Mt. Kailas and the Manasarowar Lake. The fact that an

antler was found in a monastery near the lake means nothing. All

sorts of queer objects such as python skins, stuffed monkeys, crocodile

heads, etc., are to be found in these monasteries—presents from pious

pilgrims. Western Tibet is a barren, elevated country, totally devoid

of forest, and suitable only to such animals as the yak, kiang, gazelle.

and antelope which are specially adapted to the rigours of life on

the great Plateau. The Shou could never exist under such conditions.

Chumbi Valley

When I was in Gyantse from 1923 to 1926 a few Shou inhabited

the Chumbi Valley in the vicinity of a little plain called Lingmothang.

In the winter of 1925 I saw three hinds in this area, but no stags. The

Shou was also reported to occur at this time in the upper reaches

of the Ha Valley in Bhutan, but even at this early date the animal

was said to be on the verge of extinction, and in later years Raja

Dorje. who owned the Ha Valley, told me he was convinced that all

had been exterminated. In 1933 and 1949, in company with Major

G. Sherriff I traversed Bhutan from. west to east keeping for the most

part to the temperate zone under the eaves of the Great Himalayan

Range. Burhel were plentiful, also musk deer and barking deer, and

in certain valleys takin, but I saw no Shou nor did I hear of any.

though the country seemed eminently suited to their needs.

SEY Tia brett

In 1936, 1938, and again in 1946-47, Major Sherriff and I made

extensive journeys in SE. Tibet. We visited the provinces of Takpo.

Kongbo, and Pome, and explored the great Tsangpo Gorge, and the

valleys of the Po Yigrong and Po Tsangpo. In none of these areas

did we see or hear of Shou, except in the district of Tsari. Tsari

is holy ground wherein no life may be taken. Mt. Takpashiri, a place

of pilgrimage, is as sacred in the eyes of the Tibetans as Mt. Kailas

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 627

in western Tibet. But Tsari unlike western Tibet is densely forested,

and here the Shou at the time of our visits occurred in fair numbers.

At the village of Chikchar the inhabitants informed us that it des-

cended in winter to feed amongst their cattle. We were told,

however, that even in this holy sanctuary the deer were often harried

in late autumn by barbaric Dafla tribesmen who ascend the Subansiri

to trade, and slay the animals with arrows tipped with deadly aconite.

In proof of this we found Shou heads in the vicinity of Chikchar with

horns still attached to the skull.

Lhasa

During the war, in 1942-43, I was stationed in Lhasa and in the

summer of 1942 I sent my Kashmiri servant to a place called Reting,

60 miles north of the city, to coliect plants. He was given a letter

of introduction to the Reting Rimpoche, a lama of high rank who

acted for a time as regent of Tibet after the death of the 13th Dalai

iama. My servant was well and hospitably received and allowed

to wander wherever he wished. He returned to Lhasa in the autumn

with a fine collection of plants, and confirmed the reports I had heard

that the Reting district was a fertile and well-wooded area. He was

most enthusiastic about the country, and said it closely resembled

Kashmir and that it contained a large number of Shou which he

called ‘bara singh’, which were strictly preserved by the Reting

Rimpoche. In addition to the Shou, he said there were numbers of

bear, leopard, and burhel. The fact that Shou occurred in the Reting

area was also corroborated by Lhasa officials whom I consulted on

the matter. It is certain, therefore, that the Shou enjoyed sanctuary

in this Reting area until the end of the war. Unfortunately, after the

war, the Reting Rimpoche got into serious trouble. He was arrested

for a political crime, and imprisoned in a Potala dungeon where he

is said to have died. Shortly after this China invaded Tibet. In

view of the Chinese belief that the horns of deer in velvet possess

aphrodisiac qualities, it is extremely doubtful if the Shou at Reting

any longer enjoy the protection afforded them by the late Reting

Rimpoche.

Information on this point could probably be obtained in Kalim-

pong. 3

BriTISH Museum (NATURAL HISTORY),

CROMWELL RoaD, F. LUDLOW

Lonpbon, S.W..,

March 3, 1959.

628 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

4. A TRUSTING CROW

Yesterday while ce was sitting reading on the veranda of my nes

a common crow (Corvus splendens) flew in and alighted quite close

to me. This unusualiy deliberate act on its part made me curious.

On examining, I was able to find that the crow had a small meta]

ting pressed around the lower half of its beak, quite close to its

base, causing slight bleeding and preventing it from closing the beak. I

approached the crow, which made not the least sign of fear, and holding

it by hand removed the ring. Without any delay the crow flew out.

1 wonder whether there is any other record of this kind. A probable

explanation is that, by long association with man, the crow has come

to believe in his essential dignity; at least it is fascinating to think so.

MARINE BIOLOGICAL LAB.. :

TRIVANDRUM-7, P. RABINDRA NATH

July 11, 1959.

5. SPINY BABBLERS IN KATHMANDU VALLEY .

On our day off last week, my wife and I headed for the haunts

of the Spiny Babbler [Turdoides nipalensis (Hodgson)}. We picked

up Dr. Das in Kathmandu, drove past the King’s palace, and seven

miles northward to Buda Nilkantha Narain with its new white-washed

walls trimmed with terra cotta. There we made a right angle turn

toward the west and zigzagged for three miles up through a pine

forest and scrub jungle to Tokha Sanatorium and the doctor’s

bungalow. From his lawn we looked down from our 5800 feet to

the Kathmandu Valley below. The Sanglakhola on the right

meanderéd through lush, green rice fields to meet the Vishnumati on

our left and disappeared behind familiar landmarks of modern

Kathmandu—Bhim Sen Tower, the Tundikhel, and Phurtli Sarak. |

_ By mid-morning, monsoon clouds lay above and below us. Armed.

with binoculars and vasculum and accompanied by our little white

Tibetan apso ‘Jhapu’, we paused at the end of the terrace to get

direction. Yes, the ‘Spinys’ were calling both to the right and to

the left, so we picked our way down through a grove of young pines

(Pinus longifolia), past corn fields, to a hill-side of scrub Symplocos,

Rhododendron, and laurel, shrubs of Phyllanthus and. Osbeckia, over

patches of grass brightened with yellow Hypoxis - and. beds. a

Selaginella.

Half way there we came upon an improvised shrine beside a

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 629

running brook.. A pujari_was chanting before a platform of large,

multi-coloured dahlias, supported by rows of fruit. A group of

villagers sat around him, many of whom grasped scrawny chickens.

-A hundred yards beyond, a. ‘spiny’ began to sing and was im-

mediately answered by birds in two. other directions, We came

to a little rise and scanned the bushes and young trees across a

ravine. Sure enough, there sat our bird near the top of a twelve-foot

pine tree, facing us.. He would tilt his head back, hold his tail fairly

still and warble for several seconds. He would bend. forward,

flicking his head and tail slowly from side to side, then straighten

up and sing again. There were really two parts to-his song: the

first was quiet and confidential, the second loud and clear. - Initially

he seemed to imitate a bulbul, a streaked laughing thrush,- and

a kestrel, his notes were so varied. But as he swung into the

emphatic part of his refrain, the notes were more characteristically

‘spiny’. |

After the song had been in progress for about three minutes, a

second bird flew into the lower branches of the same tree. Its attitude

was like that of a Whitethroated Laughing Thrush [Garrulax albogularis

albogularis (Gould)], with tail bent down and wings flopping open as the

head and tail jerked from side to side. It soon ‘branch-hopped’ upward

and sat close to the first bird which flared open its tail and shivered

for an instant. The breast of the newcomer was of a distinctly darker

shade. The second bird moved about continually, sidling out and back

along the branch while the first bird kept his original place. Finally the

second one seemed to persuade the first they had an engagement

elsewhere, so one after another they ‘branch-hopped’ vertically down-

ward to the lowest limb of the tree and flew with rapid wing beats

to a bush farther into the ravine. We heard two or three calls before

all was quiet.

On our way back up the hill we stood at the edge of a corn field

and heard still other. ‘spinys’ a quarter of a mile away. We saw

brown crickets, tan dragonflies, and a black-and-white day moth with

a red body among the foliage. Coral and gill mushrooms lined the

path while silver lip (Cheilanthes farinosa) and lady ferns (Athyrium

pectinatum) lined overhanging banks. Along a water course grew. a

single lily-of-the-valley (Ophiogopon) hedged about with Christmas

ferns (Polystichum squarrosum). _ Rocks of quartz lay among loose

earth glinting with mica.

..As we came - back past. the shrine, four small children played

among the debris. The flowers were splashed with blood while~ the

hillside was strewn with fresh feathers, but the fruit was gone.- A

630 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

kite (Milvus I. lineatus) slowly wheeled about the spot where the

villagers had sacrificed to ‘Ban-Kali’, Goddess of the Forest, for rain

and a good harvest.

A ray of sun broke through white clouds and lit up the rice

fields. Another spiny called from the spur to the east. It was strange

that no one had recorded this bird from the Valley for 114 years until

we found it first at Nagarjung, then on Sheopuri, Negarkot, and Lele.

It is the common babbler of the scrub jungle on the hills surround-

ing Kathmandu.

SHANTA BHAWAN,

PATAN, KATHMANDU. R. L. FLEMING

NEPAL,

July 25, 1959.

6. COMMUNAL NEST-FEEDING IN BABBLERS

In a Miscellaneous Note on the parasitic habits of the Pied Crested

Cuckoo in Volume 40. p. 125, I remarked on a case of four members

of a gang of Jungle Babblers feeding young in one and the same

nest. I thought I had enlarged on this elsewhere but do not seem to

have done so. At one particular moment I could see a babbler flying

away from the nest having just fed the young, another was now on

the rim parting with food, a third was waiting near by in a nim tree,

the fourth arrived on the roof of the bungalow a short distance

away. I waited till Nos. 3 and 4 had also fed the young. This was

in Bareilly, but I have seen three of these babblers feeding the young

in a nest as far away as Madras.

In the Pied Crested Cuckoo note I referred to Jungle Babblers

feeding two young cuckoos moving about together and wondered

whether the young cuckoos were out of the same or different nests—

they looked the same age incidentally—of the same party of babblers.

However, I think this is the place to point out that I never succeeded in

finding two nests of the Jungle Babbler in use at the same time, that

is, in an area in which I could say they belonged to the same gang. In

fact I have a strong suspicion, supported by a certain amount but

insufficient evidence for certainty, that the pairs in a gang nest con-

secutively and not concurrently. If I am right, this is not a negation

of the synchronized nesting idea but merely an adaptation of it which

might well be of considerable value in the case of these gregarious

birds. I would also add that I have no reason at all to believe that

two or more females ever lay their eggs in the same nests as Mr.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 631

Malcolm Macdonald suggests. It should not be too difficult with the

help of colour-ringing for someone with the necessary time and

patience to elucidate these points.

HAYBARN,

THURSLEY, R. S: P. BATES,

SURREY, ENGLAND, Lt.-Col., 1.4. (Retd.)

July 26, 1959.

[A. Skutch (1935, Auk 52 : 267) found in the Central American

Bush Tit, Psaltriparus melanotis, where males outnumber females by

4-6: 1, that unmated bachelor males heip the mated pair to feed

the young. At three nests 1, 1, and 3 extra males were sharing in

this duty.

Out of the 12 young fledged from these three nests, all seemed to

be males! But sex was not determined by dissection, so there is a

possibility of error.

It would be of great interest to determine the sex ratio in babbler

‘sisterhoods’.—EDs.]

7. TWO DEAD SWALLOWS IN A NEST

On 15th September 1959 we went to Changalra (Bhuj) for netting

birds under the B.N.H.S. Migration Study Scheme, and in the shoot-

ing box there Dr. Sd4lim Ali found a nest of the Redrumped Swallow.

Hirundo daurica erythropygia (Sykes), with one dead bird blocking

the entrance tube of the nest. On further examination of the nest

after the entrance was broken open we found one more dead swallow

inside with the shells of its eggs. It appears that the birds had complet-

ed the nest, and one of them was incubating the eggs while the other

one must have been busy putting the finishing touches to the structure.

The only plausible explanation for this rather unusual mishap seems

to be that one of the birds must have taken the last few pellets of

mud late in the evening, and thereafter on entering the nest to roost

it must have tried to complete the day’s work. The result of this

last-minute constructional alteration was that the entrance hole

became too narrow and the birds thus unwittingly entrapped them-

selves. As some of the mud must have dried up and become hard.

set during the night, it must have become impossible for the poor

swallows to get out of the narrow entrance the next day, and

eventually they starved to death.

632 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

The two dead swallows were found in a completely dry state and

hence it appeared that this little tragedy must have taken place at

least a month ago. It is likely that the eggs were broken by the

birds during their struggle to escape from the nest; or the other

possible explanation for the broken eggs might be that the starving

birds helped themselves to the contents?

This unusual incident also throws some light on the roosting

habits of this swallow. It would seem, at least in some cases, that the

male roosts in the nest while the female incubates the eggs.

BHUJ, ; .

KUTCH, M. K. HIMMATSINHSJI

September 20, 1959.

8. THE DIFFERENT CALLS OF THE GREY PARTRIDGE

FRANCOLINUS PONDICERIANUS (GMELIN)

Generally people are under the impression that the call of the Grey

Partridge, commonly heard in our countryside, is uttered by the male

alone, but in actual fact in eight cases out of ten it is the combined

calls of both the cock and the hen which one hears. I have kept

partridges as pets, and thus have had the opportunity to study their

different calls at close quarters. These I shail now try to describe.

There are mainly two types of calls which are uttered by the

male. Generally they are preceded by low clucks or chuckles uttered

several times at intervals of a few seconds, each successive cluck

rising in intensity. This is followed by the high-pitched kili ka ka

ka kili ka ka ka or kila kila kila repeated in quick succession. While

fighting or challenging, rival males also utter a sharp pila ... pila

. .. plia at intervals of two to three seconds. The female sometimes

utters low chuckles also, but these are not as sharp as those of the

male. The usual call of the female is a very high-pitched mono-

syllabic tee tee tee repeated several times. She also says kila kila

Kila like the cock, but this call, though similar, is softer and more

sharp in comparison. Normally, when the male calls the female joins

him and combines her tee tee with his kili kaka or kila kila; and so

when they call in unison it sounds like kiliaak killak killaak or

kateela kateela kateela. In the former call, ic. kiliaak, the first

syllable of the male’s call is uttered simultaneously with the tee of

the female followed by the likaka, while in the latter, i.e. kateela, the

tee of the female is uttered a fraction of a second after the ki of the

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 633

male, and hence this combined call sounds like kateela kateela

kateela.

Apart from the above calls there is also a very sharp and high-

pitched alarm call which sounds like firrr tirrr tirrr repeated quickly

when partridges are flushed by a bird of prey or any animal. When

danger is suspected, chirrr .. . chirrr . . . chirrr is repeatedly uttered

at intervals of between two to eight seconds. This short alarm call

is usually continued to be sounded by the birds until they are

satisfied that the danger, whether real or imaginary, has passed.

When partridges have young chicks with them the above calls are

uttered more often. As soon as the parents sound the alarm notes

the young ones rush for cover, and they remain quite still until

called out by the parent birds with a soft kunva kunva kunva which

is answered by the shrill ti ti ti... ti ti ti of the chicks, audible

at some distance. These calls of the parent. birds are repeated, and

the little ones also continue with their tiny calls until the whole family

is re-united. Young males sometimes make their first attempt to call

when they are between three to eight weeks old.

BHUJ,

KUTCH, M. K. HIMMATSINHJI

September 28, 1959.

9. THE OCCURRENCE OF THE WHITENECKED STORK

[CICONIA EPISCOPA (BODDAERT)] IN THE KASHMIR

VALLEY

Early in the morning of May 15 1959, when I was walking along

the Dal Lake in Srinagar, a solitary Whitenecked Stork was observed

opposite to Oberoi Palace Hotel (altitude about 5200 ft.).

The occurrence of the Whitenecked Stork in the Valleys is note-

worthy since it marks an extension of its distributional as well as

as altitudinal range. THE BOOK OF INDIAN BIRDS mentions that it

occurs up to an altitude of 3000 ft. above sea-level. Osmaston

(Notes on the Birds of Kashmir, i927, J/BNHS 32) does not record

it, neither do Bates & Lowther in their THE BREEDING BIRDS OF KASHMIR.

174, KasBaA PETH,

POONA 2, V. C. AMBEDKAR

Ociover 20, 1959.

[The Whitenecked Stork occurs in the Salt Range area of the

Punjab and has once been recorded in Sind. As far as we are aware,

the above is the first published record for Kashmir.—Eps.]

634 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

10. LARGE CLUTCH OF NAKTA EGGS

K. §S. Shivbhadrasinhji informed me that he had found a nest

of a Nakta duck (Sarkidiornis melanotus) containing a large quantity

of eggs on 2Ist August 1959 at his farm at Hathab, Gohilwad

District, about 18 miles from Bhavnagar.

So on 25th August 1959 he and I went to see the nest. The

nest-hole was in a bifurcated trunk of a mango tree. There were

two mango trees close to each other, one of which contained the

hollow in which the eggs were laid. The trees were situated in open

grassland with clusters of other mango trees here and there. A

small pond of dirty rain water, the only suitable pool in the neighbour-

hood, was 300 yards from the nest-hole. The nest-hole was 70 inches

from the ground, the diameter of the entrance was 9 inches and the

hollow 454 inches deep. The bottom of the nest-hole was slightly

wider, had a separate narrow exit leading upwards to a broken stump,

the width at the base being 6 inches. The nest-hole was mostly lined

with soft down mixed with sand debris and contained 54 (fifty-four)

eggs. We consider this to be an unusually large number, perhaps a

record for one nest, the product of at least three or more females.

A. Anderson found a nest with 40 eggs, and Livesey in Kotah,

Rajasthan, found one with 47 (Baker, NIDIFICATION 4: 490). The

latter thought that it was the product of two or more females.

Taking into account other observations in the vicinity of the

nest-hole within a week, we saw one male Nakta and four females,

and one day the drake had with him five ducks. We made a

search of the neighbouring trees for nests but could not find any

and the one which contained the eggs appeared to us as the most

suitable site for the Naktas. Therefore, a communal nesting appears

to be the obvious answer when suitable nest-sites are wanting. Later,

owing to human disturbance, we found the Naktas had deserted the

nest and a few of the eggs were cracked and smelly.

Dit BAHAR,

BHAVNAGAR, R. 8S. DHARMAKUMARSINHJI

August 27,1959,

[This, as far as we know, is the largest number of eggs recorded

in a single Nakta nest.—Ebs.]

Ds te

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 635

11. ADDITIONS TO THE BIRDS OF KUTCH

During recent field work in the neighbourhood of Bhuj (15-30

September) in connection with the Society’s project of ringing birds

for migration study, the following species were recorded as new for

Kutch:

1. Locustella naeyia straminea Seecbohm: The Eastern Grasshopper

Warbler.

Winter migrant from northwestern central Asia to practically all

India. Previously recorded from Gujarat and Saurashtra.

2. Phragamaticola aedon (Pallas) : The Thickbilled Warbler.

Winter migrant from Siberia from Tomsk to Manchuria, and

N. China. An unexpected find as hitherto known. only as a visitor

tc NE., E., & S. India, presumably migrating from the eastern side.

Two specimens were taken in mist nets near Bhuj on 26 and 29

September. Since it has never before been recorded in NW. or W.

India it needs to be ascertained whether these two exampies were

merely vagrants—in some way under pressure of the phenomenally

heavy monsoon in Kutch, Saurashtra, and Gujarat this year—or

whether the species has consistently evaded collection or observation

in the past. It may be mentioned that but for the fact of their

getting caught in the mist nets the birds would most certainly have

been. overlooked or mistaken for the Great Reed Warbler,

Acrocephaius stentoreus hrunnescens (Jerdon), tc which it bears a

close superficial resemblance.

3.. Ploceus benghalensis (Linnaeus): The Blackthroated Weaver Bird.

A specimen taken in the nets, 16 September 1959 (preserved but

unfortunately destroyed by a cat).

Not recorded from Saurashtra or Sind; nearest from the Baroda and

Kaira districts of Gujarat. This was the only specimen (in female

plumage) taken during a fortnight amongst 220 philippinus. It is

possible that small numbers may be resident (?), or may visit Kutch

under favourable conditions produced in years of heavy rainfall.

Before the specimen was obtained I had observed (on September 7) two

nests (this year’s) presumably abandoned owing to flood. They were

typical of this species both as to structure and site, but no birds

were present to confirm their identity.

SSorALL HILL,

BANDRA, SALIM ALI.

BOMBAY 20,

October 30, 1959.

636 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

12. ADDITIONS TO THE BIRDS OF TAMBARAM,

(CHINGLEPUT DISTRICT, S. INDIA)

Alice M. Barnes has recorded (JBNHS 40 : 467-476 and 744-747)

eighty-four species of birds noticed in and around Tambaram during

the years 1932-1939. During my stay here since 1945, I have noticed

some more birds, the addition of which to the bird list of Tambaram

may be of interest to bird watchers in this locality:

1. Dicrurus caerulescens (Linn.) The Whitebellied Drongo.

Often seen in the college estate either singly or in pairs from

October to December. Habits very much like the Black Drongo’s.

Sometimes noticed in the company of other insectivorous birds like

bee-eaters and shrikes. One was observed lying in wait and

snatching away a mole cricket scratched out of a gutter side by a

domestic hen.

2. Anthus rufulus Vicillot The Indian Pipit.

Observed only once late in the evening on 12-10-1957 feeding in

the grasslands adjacent to the Selaiyur tank bed.

3. Crocopus phoenicopterus (Latham) The Common Green Pigeon.

One was seen in the garden one evening in March 1957.

4. Sterna aurantia Gray The River Tern.

Common from February to April when the surrounding tanks

begin to dry up. Can be seen flying overhead in flocks of 2-12, but

are known to alight only at the larger Agaram tank.

5. Himantopus himantopus (Linn.) The Blackwinged Stilt.

Common on all the local tanks from February to April, feeding

in the shallow receding waters.

6. Phalacrocorax niger (Vicillot) The Little Cormorant.

Only one, probably an accidental visitor, was once captured in

1946 on the Kadaperi tank.

7. Ardea cinerea (Linn.) The Grey Heron. —

Observed twice on the Selaiyur tank. Once in July 1957 and later

on 24-3-1959. Usually single, right in the middle of the tank, rather

late in the evenings.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 637

8. Egretta intermedia (Wagler) The Smaller Egret.

Noticed only once on 4-2-1958 on the drying up tank at

Amruthapuram near the Tambaram Sanatorium station.

9. Nycticorax nycticorax (Linn.) The Night Heron.

Never seen them alighting on the local tanks but groups of 2-6

can be seen flying overhead every day at dawn,and at dusk from

January to April.

DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY,

Mapras CHRISTIAN COLLEGE, P. J. SANJEEVA RAJ

TAMBARAM,

July 14, 1959.

[Since the above two more species have been added to the

Tambaram list by Mr. Gift Siromoney of the above college as follows:

1. Dumetia hyperythra (Franklin) The Rufousbellied Babbler.

A small flock in the garden on 16-9-1959.

2. Mbotacilla indica Gmelin The Forest Wagtail.

A group of 5 on 25-9-1959 and a single on 27-9-1959.

He also gives the description of a bird which was evidently

Lanius cristatus Linn. The Brown Shrike.

Single on wires on 19-10-1959.—-Eps.]

13. SOME BIRDS OF CHINGLEPUT DISTRICT, MADRAS

I send here a note on a few birds seen recently around here which

are not very commonly observed :

1. Laggar Falcon: Falco jugger. Once seen by A. Krebs and

myself near the hills south of this town (Chingleput) and again near

the western foot of the same hills in early December. On. this

occasion it stooped very fast from a height and struck down a myna

near the bank of a channel. It dragged its victim on to the bank

below the bund on which I was standing, and plucking it proceeded

to make a meal. Its large size and powerful build and the dis-

tinctive colouring easily visible at such a short distance were clear

guides to its identity.' (Only 2 records--one Chingleput District and

one Wynaad.)

-_—

1The records in brackets are from The Vernay Scientific Survey of the Eastern

Ghats, Ornithological Section, by H. Whistler and N.B. Kinnear, and The Birds

of Mysore, by Salim Ali, published in previous volumes of JBNHS.

638 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

2. Small Indian Swallow-Plower or Pratincole Glareola lactea.

A dozen of these small plovers drew my attention as they moved on

the sandy bed of the Palar River SW. of Chingleput, and thinking

they were Ring Plovers I was puzzled by the lack of rings. As more

flew in bands of 30 or 40 their almost tern-like long wings, black-

tipped tail, and general appearance showed them to be something

quite different. The problem of their identity was solved the next day

(25th Dec.) when I saw the fine coloured plate in Henry’s BIRDS OF

CEYLON.

On the sand the birds nestled low or stood, occasionally moving

forward in little spurts. The general appearance of the bird is grey

with the dark stripe from beak to eye very conspicuous, the chest

sandy or buff in colour. At close quarters the white ring round the

eye is very conspicuous. Even when at rest the dark tips of the long

wings stand out, while in flight the dark primaries and dark-tipped

tail contrasting with the white tail coverts prevent false identification.

I estimate that more than 100 were gathered when the light faded.

A few days later none were to be seen.

(‘Godaveri Delta’, Mysore, ‘Mangalore’.)

3. The Tufted Duck: Aythya fuligula. A small party of 9 of

these were seen by me on the P. V. Kalathur tank near here on 1-1-59.

They were fortunately unusually close to the bund when we

appeared. They then paddled off very smartly for the middle of

this large tank. Their tubby form, large head (only some had crests),

prominent eye, and the striking black and white of the drakes were

immediately recognisable, though my last view of these ducks was on

a pond in Edinburgh. They have apparently only once been recorded

in Ceylon and I myself have not seen them before in these parts.

(‘North Coimbatore, Vizag, Godaveri, Kistna, Chingleput, Chittore,

and Bellary’, Mysore.) :

4. Spottedbilled Pelican: Pelecanus philippensis. On 13-3-59,

the watcher at Vedanthangal informed me that no pelicans had been

seen this season. Half an hour later, at 5.30 p.m., one appeared and

after circling round for a while settled in a tree well in the middle of

the tank.

CHURCH OF SCOTLAND MISSION,

CHINGLEPUT, REV. E. O. SHAW, M.a«.

S. INDIA,

March 14, 1959.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 639

14. BIRDS EATING POISONOUS FRUIT OF YELLOW

OLEANDER (THEVETIA NERIIFOLIA)

Earlier, Krishnan has reported in the Journal (50: 943-944 and

52: 207) the Koal (Eudynamys scolopaceus) and the Common Myna

(Acridotheres tristis) eating the fleshy mesocarp of the fruit of the

Yellow Oleander. Subsequently, Neelakantan (JBNHS 51: 738) has

noted the same habit in the Common Grey Hornbill (Tockus birostris)

About the end of August, ripe fruits were dropping to the ground

from a single Yellow Oleander-in front of my house and, for two days

alone, I was noticing the Redvented Bulbuls (Molpastes cafer) and

the Whitebrowed Bulbuls (Pycnonotus luteolus) frequenting the plant

for the fruit. These birds are abundant in the surrounding 300-acre

scrub jungle of the college estate. Only on a single occasion, did I

see a Redvented Bulbul pecking at a fruit on the plant, otherwise,

they seemed to prefer the ripe ones fallen on the ground underneath.

Each bird would eat about half of the fleshy part of the fruit which

it pecked at and tore off with its beak. Sometimes while in fear of

intruders, it carried off the fruit to safety in a near-by hedge. I

noticed several Common Mynas also approaching the ripe fruit but,

strangely enough, none of them touched it. }

I feel that the preference shown by birds for the ripe fruits is

probably due to the lesser amount of latex they contain than the raw

ones. Even then it is not every bird, but only an occasional individual

that relishes the fruit. Unfortunately, we have no evidence of the

effects of eating such poisonous fruit on the birds concerned, either

good or bad.

DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY,

MADRAS CHRISTIAN COLLEGE, P. J. SANJEEVA RAJ

TAMBARAM,

S. INDIA,

September 22, 1959.

15. CALOTES LIZARD OCCUPYING BIRD’S NEST

At Jodhpur there was a small nest of a bird (?) in a Capparis

aphylla bush which was being searched for snakes and small mammals

at midnight. The net was examined and found to be occupied

640 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

by a lizard, Calotes versicolor. It was carefully captured, identified,

and marked with indelible ink. Next evening it was released near

the bush. The nest was again examined late in the night and found

to be occupied by the same lizard. During the day the nest, which

appeared to be abandoned by the owner, was always found vacant.

It was only a nightly resort of the Calotes, which was observed living

there for about a week after which it disappeared.

DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY,

MAHARAJA’S COLLEGE, ISHWAR PRAKASH

JAIPUR,

May 1, 1959.

16. FLYING SNAKES

(With a text-figure)

I have to report an extraordinary occurrence which happened to

me on 16th June 1959.

While walking along a path on my tea estate I saw a snake

hurtling through the air towards me on a diagonal trajectory from right

to left. When I first saw it, it was about 20 feet above ground level

and appeared to have launched itself from a rosewood tree on the

slope of 30° above me and some 50 yards away. It came with a

furious swimming motion keeping itself perfectly horizontal, and as

i drew back whipped past about five feet in front of me at chest level

and landed below me between two tea bushes and some five yards

away. It lay on a heap of weeds perfectly still, and I was able to

observe that it was about 24 feet long, thin, and coloured yellowy

brown with red, black, and white markings on its back. After a few

minutes I clambered down the bank to kill it but at the first blow

with my stick, which Janded towards its tail, it shot off into the bushes.

i was unable to observe its head which was in the shadow and be-

hind a branch.

I have never heard of a ‘flying snake’ or one that could launch

itself such a distance and at such a height and anyhow why should

it do it? On the other hand if it had been dropped by a bird of prev

it would have fallen straight down and not been trajected across my

line of vision?

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 641

te)

O02

ag +

ue) o

so Oo &

SES

Ay Ge aee

Cay

plat epatic

2 3%

This estate is in the South Wynaad and the average elevation is

about 3000 feet.

CHEMBRA ESTATE,

CHEMBRA P.O.,

VIA MEPPADI, K. H. VAUGHAN-ARBUCKLE

MALABAR,

June 17, 1959.

642 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

[Elaborating the note our correspondent sent us the above

sketch drawn from measurements taken later. es

The snake concerned could be the Golden Tree Snake Chrysopelia

ornata which occurs in the W. Ghats south of Goa. In the P.Z.S. for

1906 (pp. 227-230) are described some experiments with this species.

The ventral scales are narrow and the belly can be pulled in to show

a concavity in cross section thus giving the snake leaping from a

height the same buoyancy through space as of a split bamboo.—Eps.]

17.. THE FOOD OF THE BULL FROG

During my stay in Poona, when I kept quite a lot of snakes in

captivity, I used to catch frogs and toads regularly to keep the snakes

alive. On one occasion I picked up a rather gigantic specimen of

Rana tigrina, and though I had my doubts that my pet Dhaman (of

8 feet in length) would make the necessary exertion to swallow the

huge frog, I put it in with the snake anyhow to see what would happen.

As I had thought, the snake did not even try to eat the frog, and

the two animals seemed to get along pretty well, the frog sitting all

day in the water bowl provided for the snake. After a week, realising

that the snake had to eat something anyhow, I threw in a sparrow.

Next day the sparrow was gone, and I thought that the dhaman had

eaten it. After three or four days another sparrow, and then a third.

All down the snakes throat, so I thought. But for the third sparrow

J came back after an hour, and was surprised to find no ‘bump’ in

the snake’s belly where the sparrow should have been. 1 thought

that rather funny, because a freshly eaten sparrow always showed a

swelling in the stomach in the past. |

This time I waited a whole week, and then brought a sparrow along

to the large glass-fronted snakebox. And then I witnessed a nauseat-

ing sight. As soon as the sparrow fell into the box it made for the

glass, thinking it would get through, and at that very instant the huge

frog made a frantic dive for it, missed, dove again, missed again. |

first thought that the frog was merely frightened by the sparrow and so

was jumping around in fear. But in the fourth or fifth try the frog had

the sparrow caught in between its jaws, and then using both its forelegs

like hands it just shoved the bird into its mouth, pushing first left

and then right, left and right, till the bird was entirely within the

mouth and throat. Then with an awful effort it gave a mighty

swallow, and down went the bird.

CATHOLIC CHURCH, :

RAJ-ANANDPUR, BIHAR, RICHARD LANE SMITH, s,s.

LLY QA ES

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 643

{Several notes have appeared in the Journal from time to time on

the exceedingly varied nature of the bull frog’s dietary. Reference is

invited to p. 213 of Vol. 52 (1) where some of the foods previously

recorded have been summarized.—EDs. |

18. A PRELIMINARY NOTE ON THE CULTURE AND

DEVELOPMENT OF INDIAN EARTHWORMS

(With a text-figure) :

The role of the earthworm is controversial. Some regard it as

beneficial, whereas others consider it a pest and recommend measures

for its elimination. Thus, about three years ago, the Smithsonian

Institution recorded the invasion of the eastern United States by a

‘Plague’ Pheretima lupeinsis or the green earthworm.

Pheretima houlleti 24 hrs. after hatching,

with capsule.

One reason for the controversy is: perhaps the fact that there are

many types of earthworms, some beneficial and some otherwise.

Hence, the cultivation and breeding of a few selected types has been

644. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

undertaken abroad. In India, this aspect has barely received attention.

though others are fairly well represented. Thus the monumental work

of the late K. N. Bahl deals mainly with Systematics & Anatomy,

while J. V. Bhat, N. V. Joshi, and others have concentrated on the

intestinal microflora. Shrikhande & Pathak in Kanpur, and Nijhavan

& Kanwar in Ludhiana have studied the physico-chemical properties

of earthworm castings and the latter team has compared them to those

of other insects. Such studies are of the greatest importance in India

where nitrogen, in particular, is in short supply and its addition to

the soil in the inorganic form is subject to losses by way of leaching.

tase exchange, and volatilization. The cultivation and breeding of a

few select types of earthworms which may produce good manure is

thus important to our agronomy.

Work along these lines has advanced so much in other countries

that the following can be only a very sketchy review of the same.

Thus, according to the U.S. Dept. of Agr. Exp. Sta. Record 27,

No. 6 (2), it is estimated that earthworm castings deposited during

an active growing season of 6 months of the year (in the valley of the

White Nile in the Sudan) amount to 239,580 Ib. (119.79 tons) per

acre.

Wolney has found from direct experiments in culture boxes

that the ratio of higher production in the presence of worms varied

from 2.6 per cent in Oats to 63.9 per cent in Rye, 135.9 per cent in

Potatoes, 140 per cent in Vetch, and 300 per cent in Field Pea to 733

per cent in the case of Rape.

Bafile (1950) has concentrated on the industrial production of

humus by earthworms, and Grant (1955) has expanded upon the

subject of earthworm breeding farms.

In our own country Joshi (1954) has made a beginning by noting

the improvement in black cotton soils due to increased nitrification

resulting from earthworm activity.

Experiments conducted so far (unpublished) by the junior author,

with castings of Pheretima houlleti seem to indicate a fair amount of

ammonification in culture flasks.

The procedure given below has been adapted, in part, from

Barrett:

EARTHWORM CULTURE

Wooden boxes (11” X7” X8”) are filled with garden soil, cowdung,

and straw in equal quantities (by volume) and topped up by an inch-

thick layer of dried leaves. The upper surface of the leafy layer is

then covered by gunny cloth. The boxes are supported on two bricks

in a metal tray containing water to prevent attacks from insect

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 645

predators like red ants. A population of 250 mature earthworms can

be supported by a box of this size. Accordingly they are collected

and after preliminary screening, 250 healthy specimens are distributed

per box. The boxes are to be watered at regular intervals, avoiding

water-logging. (A two-inch layer of crocks and pebbles arranged in

the bottom of the box prior to filling up provides good drainage).

The contents are examined at monthly intervals. If a few cocoons

are detected then the examination is repeated every week in order

to collect the full quota of cocoons. If on the other hand, many young

lones are observed then the cocoons can be taken to have hatched

during the interval. If allowed to remain, the cocoons will produce

young worms in the course of time. If embryological studies are in

view then the following method is recommended.

10-12 cocoons are distributed over layers of moist filter or

blotting paper kept in the bottom of 8” petri dishes. The sheets are

moistened with a weak watery extract of soil from the earthworm box.

The young worms can be maintained for a few days, at least, on a diet

of moist filter paper only. This, incidentally, suggests a method for

studying the food habits of worms by impregnating the filter-paper

with various kinds of artificial media. The excreta can then be

subjected to chromatographic analysis.

The following is a list of the earthworms cultured by the method

described. '

1. Pheretima posthuma.

2! Bs houlleti (Perrier, 1892).

3. Pontoscolex corethurns.

4. Hoplochoetella khandalensis (Stephenson, 1924).

S Perionynx sp.

It may here be mentioned that H. khandalensis could not be main-

tained successfully for long periods. P. posthuma and P. houlletj were

selected for further study in pure cultures. Their choice was due to

their importance as types for undergraduate courses.

OBSERVATIONS

1. P. posthuma prefers more organic matter than P. houlleti.

2. P. posthuma produces cocoons after a period of four weeks

from maturity, whereas P. houlleti requires three weeks.

3. The cocoons of P. posthuma are brown in colour, oval in out-

line, and with two projections at either end of the long axis. The

1We are indebted to Dr. G. E. Gates, U.S.A., for the identification.

646 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

cocoon is deposited deep within the burrow. P. houlleti, on the other

hand, produces cocoons which are white, round, and slightly larger

than those of P. posthuma. They are distinct from the soil and can

be easily separated.

4. The hatching period for P. posthuma is about 30-37 days under

petri dishes, while P. houlleti requires 25-30 days depending on the

temperature and humidity. If the temperature is lowered below 28° C.

and 50% relative humidity, the cocoons take a longer time to hatch,

about 45-50 days.

5. Both the worms are surface casters.

6. A newly hatched animal has same segments as the adult.

7. About 20°. of the cocoons do not develop: probably they are

unfertilized.

In brief, it is hoped that the technique presented here will enable

workers to contribute towards elucidating the role of the earthworm

in agronomy. The animal is also interesting from the zoological as

well as the biochemical point of view. Regeneration, respiration, and

the nitrogen content of the excreta are some other aspects of impor-

tance. Lastly, it will enable teachers to provide live specimens for

dissection throughout the year.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors wish to thank Dr. D. V. Bal, Director, Institute of .

Science, and Prof. Mrs. E. Gonzalves, Prof. of Botany, Institute of

Science, for the facilities provided and for their constant encourage-

ment.

BloLOGY DEPARTMENT,

ELPHINSTONE COLLEGE, BOMBAY, ‘ Y. Bi TEMBE

BOTANY DEPARTMENT,

INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE, BOMBAY, P. J. DUBASH

Aweust 8. 11959:

REFERENCES

Bafile, M.-(1950): Industrial produc- breeding Farms. Science 121 (3134):

tion of humus and artificial raising of 107-108. an

earthworms. Italia Agric. 87 (6): 372-381. Joshi, N.V. (1954): Investigations on

Barrett, T.J.( ? ): Harnessing the Microbiology ~ of Soils. _ Proc. of the

Earthworm.. London, Faber & Faber Symp. on‘ Soil Research in India’. Bull.

Ltd. Nat. Inst. Sci. India 3 ; 115-121.

Grant, W.C., Jr. (1955) : Earthworm

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 647

19. APPEARANCE OF NACADUBA PACTOLUS

CONTINENTALIS FRUH., (LEPIDOPTERA: LYCAENIDAE)

AT LONAVLA, WESTERN GHATS

(With a text-figure)

In October and December 1956, and in November 1957 and 1958,

I was fortunate in encountering this rare Line-blue butterfiy on the

outskirts of Lonavla. (2300 ft.) on the main line between Bombay

and Poona.

I took one male only, on 12-12-1956, and a female on 14-10-1956.

The next female was caught on 30-11-1957; seven on 5-10-1958, and

one ‘each on 15-10, 12-20, and 2-11-1958. There were also two

females in November 1958 from which J tried to get eggs.

Clasps of Nacaduba pactolus continentalis Frih. (ventro-dorsal view)

All the specimens occurred in a small jungle, only about 200

by 50 yards in area, next to the Christian cemetery. I believe the

vegetation here is in the climax stage; a remarkable fact in itself, for

the place lies between the bazar and a region of bungalows. But the

ground dips suddenly into a hollow, and so man has not cared to spoil

it much. I know of no other place in the district where, at most

seasons, butterflies are so thick on the ground.

I am unable to give a proper account of the plants; a complete

list, eventually, may prove to be the only way of getting at the food-

stuff of pactolus; at present I can only mention a few which I have

learnt to recognize through their known connections with the

Lycaenidae. The undergrowth includes a great deal of the leguminous

648 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Mezoneurum cucullatum, the tenacious hooks of which are a great

nuisance to the collector. There are also some grand full grown

Entada scandens (Leg.). On young shoots of young plants of this

species I have found larvae of the common Nacaduba beroe gythion

Frith. Other under-plants are Cylista scariosa (Leg.), Acacia sp., and

Dioscorea sp. Among the trees are Pongamia glabra (Leg.), growing

only on the edge of the wood, apparently not more than six feet high,

and without flowering—a botanist’s problem. Terminalia _ sp.

(Combret.), and Eugenia jambolana (Myrt.) conclude this inadequate

summary of the plants.

On the identity of the butterfly [ am on firm ground. 1 am much

indebted to Mr. T. G. Howarth of the British Museum for checking

the identity of the only male I caught. The clasps of the genitalia

are distinctive, being in shape rather like the head and bill of a

cormorant (see text-figure). It is worth emphasizing how easy it is

to obtain a view such as this, sufficient to see the characteristics for

identification, provided one remembers to squeeze out the genitalia

while the specimen is fresh (see JBNHS 54 (1): 212-215 for full

information about methods of examining genitalia). In the case under

consideration I wanted to remove one clasp in order to see further in.

But I found I must wait until I have had more practice.

When I saw Mr. Howarth I had only one female; his opinion was

that this should be linked with the male. This helped me towards

a confident decision on the fairly large catch of females in 1958, several

of which are in excellent condition. But all, whether worn or not,

show clearly the darkened veins on the disc of the upper forewing, a

feature distinguishing females of pactolus from those of Nacaduba

hermus. (See Wynter-Blyth, pp. 296 and 299; Woodhouse & Henry,

pp. 87-88. Evans, 1931, does not mention this point.)

The following is a summary of all the data and records I have

been able to get together. I am most grateful to those in charge of

the major collections for so kindly easing my way both by letter and

personally.

British Museum:

Type from Sikkim, Godwin Salvin Coll., 1908.

Burma: Ataran Valley, Maymyo, E. Pegu, Upper Burma, Nagas.

Assam: Khasis, Angralong.

S. India: Coorg, 9-4-1929, J. H. Yates.

‘India’: Coll. Hewitson.

Bombay Natural History Society:

Sikkim: Tista Valley, March, April, October, November 1949 and

1950.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 649

Assam: Sibsagar, July 1952. All above in Souter Coll.

S. India: N. Kanara, Karwar, March and May 1920 and 1921,

oR. Bell,

Zoological Survey of India:

Sikkim: 19-10-1884, de Nicéville Coll.

=. undated =

Assam: Sibsagar, undated, Peal Coll.

Tenasserim: Dawnat, undated, de Nicéville Coll.

Bhutan: Buxa, undated, Mus. Coll.

Hope Department of Entomology, Oxford:

Standing under the name of Nacaduba macropthalma Fldr. are

the following specimens:

1 # Nilgiris 3000 ft. July 4th 1896 A.G. Cardew.

1 J SE. Nilgiris 6000 ft. Coonoor, May Sth 1918 Coll. C. Donovan.

1 SE. Nilgiris 6000 ft. Coonoor, May 11th 1918 Coll. C.

Donovan.

1 f SE. Nilgiris 6000 ft. Coonoor, May 6th 1919, Coll. C.

Donovan.

1 # SE. Nilgiris 6000 ft. Coonoor, May 18th 1919, Coll.

C. Donovan.

1 $ South India. Palni Hills, 6000 ft. Kodaikanal May 27th 1919.

Coll. C. Donovan.

S. India: Coorg, Urti, 28-10-1926, female.

Coorg, Sampaje Ghat, 22-4-1929, male. Both Coll.

Winkworth, and labelled N. pactolus continenlalis.

The only published records I have been able to find are:

A. JBNHS Vol. 35, p. 105, where Yates tells of four males he

took on one short stretch of road on the Sampaje Ghat in

Coorg. He then thought his specimens were the first for

S. India, until he saw the female in Col. Winkworth’s

collection. Evidentiy he did not know of Bell’s, Cardew’s,

and Donovan’s specimens.

B. JBNHS Vol. 59, p. 287. F. M. Bailey took a single specimen

at Kathmandu in Nepal on 4-10-1937. This is the most

northerly record so far.

C. JBNHS Vol. 51, p. 52. Sir Keith Cantlie mentions that it

is not rare in the Cherra State, Khasi Hills, Assam, where

it occurs from March, and in the autumn.

D. Wynter-Blyth, p. 296, mentions that there are records from

the Nilgiris.

650 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

There ought to be more data obtainable from private collections,

and these, with further research into the literature, would be of great

use in filling out the scanty information given above.

The butterfly does seem to be rare, but the available data point

to its being even more rarely noticed. Yates was of the opinion that

the vast jungles of Coorg had not been thoroughly ‘combed’. This

{ think applies too to the diminishing jungles farther north on the

same ghats. An insect which is apparently not continuous-brooded

can easily escape notice. Also, as with most Lycaenids, it cannot be

identified until caught; and, as everyone who has tried it knows, there

is usually at least one butterfly, in the course of a day’s catching in

thick and thorny jungle, about the identity of which one can only

philosophize. One’s difficulties are increased with pactolus, because

where it does occur, it seems to keep to a very restricted area. It

certainly seems to do this at Lonavla. Yates’s information (see A.

above) points this way. Earlier in the same article (JBNHS 34: 1054)

he notes that the Coorg specimens are subsp. continentalis, and not

ceylonicus as might have been expected. If the species is as sedentary

as it seems, it may even be that further geographical races remain to

be sorted out.

The fact that I caught only one male may simply be due to some

limitation in myself. At the same time, this may point to the males

covering a wider area than the females, which would be normal, but

in a rare species would reduce one’s chances of getting them.

Probably, in my case, they were sitting on leaves high up while I

was catching their females down below. Or they may have been at

water or damp patches; there is a good spot for this just outside the

wood. Woodhouse and Henry (loc. cit.) say that the males have

this convenient habit.

At Lonavla the females were flying arcund in a small patch of

filtered sunlight at the bottom of a dell; they could be taken without

great difficulty when once they settled for a moment, never for long,

on leaves low down. When I missed one, it shot up to the higher

levels, probably to an Entada creeper; after which no others were

seen for a quarter-hour of precious time. Such corporate wariness

could well be developed by insects living in close colonies. I only

saw them between 11 and 1 in the ‘forenoon, the usual egg-laying

time for the season, if N. beroe is a guide.

As a matter of fact, the first female I saw in 1958 was probably

looking for a place to lay. I caught it, saw it was a four-line

Nacaduba, and realised that if it was pactolus I had lost a chance of

discovering its unknown foodplant; which needless to say did not occur

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 651

again. I did what I could, marking the spot with a scrap of blue

cloth—which is still there. The likeliest plants were: a bushy

growth of Mezoneurum about four feet high under which the specimen

had been fluttering; a poor shoot of Entada, trying to grow under the

Mezoneurum bush; and a scandent Acacia not far away. I failed

to find any eggs or larvae. I brought two live females home to Poona,

and tried without success to get them to lay on a potted Entada

seedling. At least they lived three days. I hope this will not be the

end of the story.

It would be good to hear the experiences of others in this difficult

matter of persuading captive butterflies to lay. There must be means

of overcoming their well-known reluctance in India. It is specially

important to perfect the technique for Lycaenidae, because the gaps

in our knowledge of the early stages of this family in India are very

large. Wynter-Blyth (pp. 496-499) gives an excellent table, comprising

the whole of our present knowledge of Lycaenid foodplants, that is of

only 87 out of the 438 species of the Indian region. And many of this

large remainder are nothing like as rare as Nacaduba pactolus.

This note may fittingly conclude with a spur to our efforts. The

great T. R. D. Bell knew at least something about the early stages of

this butterfly, though the knowledge probably died with him. His

specimens in the Bombay Natural History Society’s collection have their

pupa case below on the pin. They are dated 1920-21; it was two

years before this that he had included notes on some of the Nacadubae

in his series on Indian butterflies in this journal. He only mentions

N. pactolus in passing, under the synonym macrophthalma, and

implies that the early stages are unknown. I am indebted to Mr.

Wynter-Blyth for pointing this out; he believes that Bell reared most

of the butterflies he presented to the Society’s collection. We cannot

presume to blame Bell, who published so much, and is still our fullest

authority on the habits and growth of Indian butterflies, for not having

managed to publish records of the pupa, and probably of the other

stages of pactolus. It is even possible that the information exists

in MS. somewhere. Are any of his note-books still available?

Meanwhile, in our fumbling way, those of us who have contracted

butterfly fever, and proud of it, must go on trying.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My grateful thanks are due to the authorities of the British

Museum, especially to Mr. T. G. Howarth; to Dr. Varley, and members

of the staff at the Hope Department of Entomology, Oxford; to Dr.

Kapur of the Zoological Survey of India, to the Hon Secretary and

other officers of the Bombay Natural History Society, in particular

652 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Dr. E. J. Silas: and to the staff at the Prince of Wales Museum,

Bombay.

St. JOHN’S MISSION HOUSE,

PANCH Howp, A. E. BEAN

POONA 2,

June 22, 1959.

REFERENCES

Bell, T.R.D. (1918) : The Butterflies of Wynter-Blyth, M.A. (1957) : Butterflies

the Plains of India, JBNHS 25 : 653. of the Indian Region.

Evans, W.H. (1933): The Identifica- Woodhouse, L.G.O., aad Henry,

tion of Indian Butterflies. G.M.R. (1942): Butterfly Fauna of Ceylon.

20. A NEW VARIETY OF THE BUTTERFLY

RAPALA NISSA RANTA SWINHOE

Rapala nissa ranta var. bifida. var. nov.

Two males taken at Sadon, N. Burma in June 1926, in the Tytler

collection in the British Museum (Natural History). |

In colour and markings these are typical nissa of the form that

lacks the orange patch on the upper side of the forewing and would,

according to the nomenclature used in the Museum arrangement

described in paragraph 2 below, be called nissa ranta f. ranta. I

dissected them because at that time my knowledge was confined to

the mistaken statement in Evans’s IDENTIFICATION OF INDIAN BUTTER-

FLIES that all nissa in Burma had orange patches and were nissoides.

The cleft between the conjoined clasps of the Sadon specimens extends

to half way down the clasps; in other words the total length of the

clasps is double the depth of the cleft. In all forms of nissa hitherto

known the length of the clasps is three and a half times the depth

of the cleft. The difference is very noticeable to the eye. Corbet in

Proc. Roy. Entom. See. (B) 8 (6), June 1939 figures clasps of some

species and relies on the fixity and constancy of differences of depth

of cleft between the species. The cleft of nissa is shallower than that

of other species except buxaria-—now called rectivitta, for which see

below—but is not actually so shallow as is shown in the figure in

Corbet, who selects the form nisscides as his example.

I hesitate to treat these two specimens as a new species on this

evidence alone, so describe them merely as a variety. If more be

found they may prove then to be a distinct species. |

2. ihe eee name ranta is used according to the resent 7

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 653

rectivitta Moore was applied by Evans to the Common Flash of

Sikkim and Assam, but Corbet has reverted to the view of Swinhoe

in LEPIDOPTERA INDICA that rectivitta is the older name for the Shot

Flash which de Nicéville called buxaria. The type of rectivitta is not

now discoverable in the Museum though Swinhoe wrote that he saw

it there. But in the Museum drawer is a specimen of the Shot Flash

from the Swinhoe collection with a label ‘rectivitta compared with the

type’ in the handwriting of Swinhoe.

In the British Museum collection the species R. rectivitta Moore

1879 (=buxaria de Nicéville, 1888) is separated from R. nissa Kollar

1848 by R. rosacea de Nicéville 1888 (easily distinguished by its

vinous red underside). R. nissa is divided into two subspecies :

(1) R. nissa nissa Kollar. Confined to NW. Himalayas,

(2) R. nissa rania Swinhoe, 1897. Sikkim, Assam, Burma.

The various varieties of ssp. ranta are recognisable as follows:

If there be no orange path on the forewing upperside, the name is

nissa ranta form ranta; if there be an orange patch the name is nissa

ranta form maculata. (Maculata is a name taken from Seitz 1910

applicable to any nissa of any ssp. with an orange patch). Ia Burma

those with a very large orange patch, all being from Hsipaw and

-Yenwentang, Shan States, are labelled nissa ranta form nissoides Swinhoe

1910. Those with an orange patch, sometimes very faint, of moderate

or small size, are nissa ranta form maculata. Those from Burma

without an orange patch are labelled nissa ranta form ranta. The

existence of any form in Burma except nissoides was unknown to

Evans in 1932. Most were got by Tytler, and I have found more

from Loimwe and Kalaw in his material. Dissections exhibit the

depth of cleft normal for nissa; only the two from Sadon show a deep

cleft.

(3) The use of the term ranta should be explained. Swinhoe in

LEPIDOPTERA INDICA 1897 thought nissa with or without an orange patch

extended from the NW. Himalayas to Burma. He got three specimens

from the Jaintia Hills (Assam) without orange, differing somewhat in

colour and strength of markings, and named them Rapala ranta. In

Corbet’s arrangement nissa nissa is confined to the NW. Himalayas

_ and ranta is taken as the subspecies occurring from Sikkim to Burma

embracing those without and those with an orange patch, these being

further distinguished by the form names ranta and maculata res-

pectively.

5, Upper WIMPOLE ST..,

Lonpon W. 1, i KEITH CANTLIE

August 26, 1959. |

654 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

21. INFESTATION OF BANYAN TREE BY CATERPILLARS

OF THE MOTH AYPSA FICUS FABR.

In the first week of April 1959, I noticed that a large Ficus

bengalensis (‘Bargat’) tree was covered with caterpillars eating the

young leaves. It would seem that the caterpillars emerged from their

eggs about March 28th. It was noted that the shoots started sprout-

ing, growing light green leaves on this tree and others near by, about

March 12th. At that time weather conditions were hot and close:

rain followed on the 30th March, 0.48 inches, and on the 31st March,

0.42 inches. Frass was falling all around the spread of the tree, some

120 feet in diameter.

Large caterpillars started moving off the tree about April 13th.

At this time a type of dipterous fly was found hovering over the

caterpillars most of the day. The largest, sluggish caterpillars were

unable to stop this fly from making a temporary stop at one side of

the body, but the younger caterpillars, at the approach of a fly, were

able to wag the top half of their bodies violently which kept the flies

off and they promptly moved on elsewhere.

Eventually all but the mid-rib of the leaves which were able to

grow to some size before the caterpillars became large fell off in 4 or

5 days’ time after the leaf had been eaten. Except for one or two

Magpie-Robins (Copsychus saularis) which seemed to take a few

caterpillars early morning, birds were not interested. At this time

Mynas [Aethiopsar ?] were around in great numbers, migrating uphill.

The larger caterpillars started pupating about mid-April, most down

around the roots of the banyan. Many entered the verandah and

outer rooms of a near-by cottage. The chrysalids were to be found in

rough nests made by the caterpillars of paper, cotton, blanket, gunny-

sack ‘wool’. Other chrysalids were found uncovered and plain in tins

and boxes. :

The caterpillars were about 45 mm. long at the final moult. They

had hair over the body which was marked by a yellow central band

and with two black bands along the two sides. The chrysalis was

nearly 20 mm. long and of a dark brown colour. Moths emerged

about April 24th. The moth was about 20 mm. long from head to

tail, with a wing-spread of from 50 to 60 mm. The upper-forewings

are coloured brown/grey with thick light-coloured veins. The wing-

cells and head/body are coloured yellow with white patches contain-

ing black dots. The underforewings are light brown with a yellow

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 655

and white patch nearer the body. The hind-wings were of a light

grey colour having a yellow patch near the body.

The moth has been identified by the Bombay Natural History

Society as above.

The pupa of the dipterous fly was about 7 mm. long while from

head to tail the length of the fly is near 6 mm. with a wing-spread of

about 12 mm. The specimen sent for examination was identified as

a wasp of the genus Brachymeria but, as it was damaged, the species

could not be determined. This parasite has apparently not been

recorded from Hypsa ficus before.

The tree stands at some 2000 feet elevation, at the foot of the first

Himalayan range, some 3 miles east of Kathgodam, NE. Rly., Naini

Tal District, Kumacn, U.P. It was not until about 9th May that the

tree started to sprout young fresh shoots which developed slowly,

giving only about 25% of the usual shade it gave at this time of the

year, mid-May.

Since writing the above, I noticed that another large tree, some

half-mile away in the orchards, also had its young leaves eaten by the

same type of caterpillar. Villagers mentioned that some other trees

about half a mile further from the viilage were also attacked.

Most banyan trees in the forest near by were not attacked, as also

one near the cottage—a seven year old banyan—and another larger

and older tree with a spread of about 150 feet. This is the first time

in about 25 years that I have found caterpillars feeding entirely off

such banyan trees.

During the last four years there had been much extraction of

trmber, sal, haldu, jaman, etc., with the burning of charcoal in this

area by the Forest Department. It could be that some new crops

recently introduced, not usually grown hereabouts in the past, suck

as Sunn hemp or Arhar dal, attracted this pest. Perhaps egg-laying

moths may have come down from the flora of the hillside above, the

top ridge of which is about 2000 ft. higher. The main crops grown

by the farmers within a three mile radius are wheat and rice.

THE ALLEN ORCHARD ESTATES,

BHowatl P.O., P. R. SHERRED

KUMAON, UP.,

July 20, 1959.

656 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

22. IDENTITY OF THE LADYBEETLE, EPILACHNA

IMPLICATA MULSANT, FROM INDIA (COCCINELLIDAE:

COLEOPTERA)

(With two figures)

The ladybeetle, Epilachna implicata Mulsant, was first described

in 1850 from India by Mulsant who regarded it as allied to Epilachna

vigintioctopunctata (Fabr.) and superficially resembling a variety of

the latter. He, however, pointed out the differences in respect of the

disposition and sizes of the black elytral spots by which the two

species could be distinguished from each other. In view of the almost

infinite variation of spots in E. vigintioctopunctata, Crotch (1874)

considered E. implicata to be a mere variety of the latter. This

nomenclatorial status of implicata has ever since remained unchanged

in literature, as may be seen in the works of Mader (1927) and

Korschefsky (1931). Although Dicke (1947) gave a monographic

account of Epilachna (sens. lat.) in Asia, Europe, and Australia, he

made no reference to implicata either as an independent species or

as a variety of E. vigintioctopunctata of which he gave an extensive

account from India and elsewhere under the name Epilachna sparse

(Herbst).

Mulsant (loc. cit.) described Ek. implicata from the material in the

collections of Germar and Schaum, Hope, Reiche, and Westermann.

As was generally the practice in those days, he did not designate any

single specimen as the ‘type’ or the ‘holotype’. Consequently all the

examples of E. implicata in the above-mentioned collections are

syntypes. The one in Prof. Hope’s collection at the Oxford University

Museum was lately obtained on loan through the kindness of Prof.

G. C. Varley. It tallies in the main with Mulsant’s description and

has, on detailed examination (including that of its genitalia), proved

to be quite distinct from E. vigintioctopunctata or any of its known

varieties. I have since designated this example as the ‘lectotype’ and

give below a brief redescription of the species. The lectotype bears

the locality label ‘Mysore’ and is a female.

Through the courtesy of Dr. M. Puttarudhriah, Government

Entomologist, Department of Agriculture, Mysore State, I was also

able to obtain some material of Epilachna spp. from Bangalore and

found in it a series of nine examples of E. implicata collected from the

cucurbit Coccinia indica. The material of E. vigintioctopunctata was

on the other hand collected from solanaceous plants like the brinjal

and potato. As both the males and females were represented in the

above-mentioned series of E. implicata, a study was also made of the

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 657

male genitalia with a view to give further distinguishing characters of

the species.

OUCH

Figure 1. Epilachna implicata Muls. (2, Lectotype).

A, Outline of body and pattern of markings. B. Female genital plates (ix sternite).

C. Inner notches of the genital plates, much enlarged. D. Stylus of the genital plate, much

enlarged.

0.1 mm. scale for figures C & D.

On account of the harmful association of E. implicata with

Coccinia indica, the fruits of which are used as a vegetable, this

ladybeetle is likely to feature in literature on economic entomology.

It seems desirable, therefore, that its systematic position be clarified

and its possible confusion with E. vigintioctopunctata avoided.

658 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Epilachna implicata Mulsant

1850. Epilachna implicata Mulsant, Ann. Soc. Agric. Lyon 3,

pp. 837-838.

Body similar in general appearance to E. vigintioctopunctata but

slightly larger, more convex and rounded; generally testaceous with

the black spots on the pronotum and elytra of the lectotype as shown

Figure 2. Epilachna implicata Muls.

A. Lateral view of external male genitalia except sipho. B. Outline of

median lobe as seen from below. C. Sipho, lateral view; D. Apex of the

same much enlarged; E. Apex of sipho seen from below, much enlarged.

0.5 mm. scale for figures A—C ; 0.3 mm. scale for figures D & E.

in Figure 1, A; each elytral black spot invariably surrounded by a

light yellow ring. In certain other examples instead of the seven

pronotal spots as seen in the lectotype, only five (as a result of the

coalescence of the central three spots into one) or six (as a result of

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 659

fading away of the posterior central spot) are present. Likewise instead

of the thirteen black spots on an elytron, as in the lectotype, certain

examples may have fourteen black spots, but in such cases the relative

size and position of the spots remain almost unchanged. Underside with

a pair of small, piceous spots on the metasternum and median three

abdominal sternites. The lateral margins of pronotum are rounded

anteriorly but gradually become subparailel in the posterior half. In

E. vigintioctopunctata, on the other hand, the lateral margins are

uniformly rounded. Another character by which the two species may

be easily distinguished is that the apical angle of the elytron is rounded

in E. implicata and distinct in E. vigintioctopunctata. It may, how-

ever, be mentioned that there are aiso other Indian species, e.g.

Epilachna dodecastigma (Wied.) and Epilachna septema Dieke, in

which the apical angle of the elytron is rounded. Caution must there-

fore, be exercised in distinguishing E. implicata on this character

alone. The external genitalia offer the most reliable characters in

identification of the species.

@ genitalia (Lectotype): The female genital plates (Fig. 1, B)

rounded proximally, slightly narrowed but rounded distally; length

0.44 mm., maximum width 0.31 mm.; the notch on the inner margin

fairly deep, subrounded, with a narrow, slanting opening; an enlarged

view of the same (Fig. 1, C) shows both the upper and lower lips of

the opening (”). In the case of E. vigintioctopunctata, on the other

hand, the notch in the genital plate is wide and the upper lip absent. The

pear-shaped stylus (Fig. 1, D) at the distal end of the genital plate

bears three or four long setae.

& genitalia: Sipho (Fig. 2, C) gently curved near the base, from

then on straight and gradually narrowed distally to a point if seen in

profile (Fig. 2, D). In this respect it is very similar to that of E.

vigintioctopunctata, but can be easily distinguished from the latter

when seen from below on account of its flattened surface and widely

emarginate apex (Fig. 2, E). In E. vigintioctopunctata the apex of

sipho is narrowed and pointed all round. Parameres and basal piece

are nearly similar to those of the latter but the median lobe is quite

distinctive; when seen in profile (Fig. 2, A). the underside of median

lobe is straight in the basal two-thirds of its length and gently curved

up to a pointed apex in the apical one-third; the upper side is with a

narrow vertical blade-like ridge which starts at the base of the

parameres and is gradually narrowed distally to end at the middle of

the length of the median lobe: the distal half of the latter bears two

rows of long hairs. Seen from below (Fig. 2, B) the median lobe looks

like a closed and gradually narrowing tube with the seam along the

660 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

middle in the basal two-thirds of its length and an elongate-oval orifice

in the distal one-third. In E. vigintioctopunctata, on the other hand,

the median lobe, when seen in profile, is slightly emarginate at a little

distance below the middle and then curved upwards into a hook at the

apex; the blade-like ridge is also broader; seen from below the orifice

of the median lobe is smaller and more or less diamond shaped.

The two species are thus easily distinguished from each other

by several reliable characters and should be regarded as distinct.

ZOOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA,

CALCUTTA, A. P. KAPUR, Phy, pie

September 28, 1959.

REFERENCES

1. Crotch, G.R. (1874) : A revision of 4. Mader, L. (1927): Evidenz der

the coleopterous family Coccinellidae: palaearktischen coccinelliden (1926): 34,

87. (E.W. Janson, London). pl. THe. 32.

2. Dieke, G.H. (1947): Smithson. 5. Mulsant, E. (1850) : Ann. Soe.

misc. Coll., Washington, 106 (15): 1-183. Agric. Lyon, 3: 837-838.

3. Korschefsky, R. (1931): Coleopt.

Cat., Berl. 16 (118), : 26.

23. APHIDS OF CALCUTTA AND SUBURBS (WEST BENGAL)

INTRODUCTION

The first records of aphids from West Bengal were by Cotes (1896).

Later van der Goot (1916, 1917) added some more species. It was

not till 1955, however, that these insects received attention in this part.

of India and Banerjee and Basu recorded 13 species. In the same

year in a review of the Entomological section of the Department of

Agriculture, Government of West Bengal, a list of 26 species of aphids

including the previous 13 was published.

Of the species so far known from West Bengal, 15 are found in

Calcutta and suburbs including 2 new records, one of which has very

recently been published by Ray Chaudhuri and Ghosh (1958). A list

of such species with a preliminary key for some of them, is given

below.

LisT OF SPECIES

Aphis L.

1. A. craccivora Koch—320 apterae, 5 alatae.

Locality & Host plant family: Cossipore Club, Calcutta, on

18-10-52, 25-10-52, 27-1-53, from Cucurbitaceae; Dalhousie Square,

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 661

Calcutta, on 10-10-52, 24-10-52, 25-1-53, from Labiatae, Urticaceae, &

Scitaminaceae; Curzon Park, Calcutta, on 30-1-53, from Nyctaginaceae;

Bishop’s Garden, Calcutta, on 3-11-53 from Leguminosae.

2. A. gosspii Glov.—10 apterae, 12 alatae.

Locality & Host plant family: Cossipore Club, Calcutta, on

26-10-52, 1-11-52, & 2-11-52 from Euphorbiaceae and Leguminosae;

Curzon Park, Calcutta, on 30-11-52 & 4-12-53, from Amarantaceae

and Malvaceae: Dalhousie Square, Calcutta, on 22-10-53, from

Araliaceae.

3. A.nerii Boyer.—35 apterae, 9 alatae.

Locality & Host plant family: - Science College Garden, Calcutta,

on 6-11-57, from Asclepiadaceae.

Liphaphis Mordvilko

4. L. erysimi (Kalt.).—38.apterae, 17 alatae.

Locality & Host piant family: Dalhousie Square, Calcutta,

on 1-10-52, from Araliaceae; Eden Garden, Calcutta, on 11-11-57,

from Cruciferae.

iLongiunguis van der Goot

5. IL. sacchari (van der Goot).--37 apterae, 20 alatae.

Locality & Host plant family: Dum Dum, Calcutta suburbs, on

6-1-58, from Graminaceae.

Rhophalosiphum Koch

6. R. maidis (Fitch.)—4 apterae.

_ Locality & Host plant family: Agri-Horticultural Society, Calcutta,

on 22-9-53, from Graminaceae.

7. R. nymphaeae L.—56 alatae.

Locality & Host plant family: Cossipore Club, Calcutta, on

20-12-52, from Caesalpinioideae.

8. R. rufiabdominalis (Sasaki).—7 alatae.

Locality & Host plant family: Behala, Calcutta suburbs, on 4-12-52,

from Chenopodiaceae. -

Schizaphis Borner

19, §S. graminum (Rond.).—1 alata.

Locality & Host plant family: “den Garden, Calcutta, on 28-10-53,

from Solanaceae. 7

1 This species is recorded for the first time in West Bengal.

662 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Toxoptera Koch

10. TT. aurantii (Boyer).—20 apterae, 5 alatae.

Locality & Host plant family: Agri-Horticultural Society, Calcutta,

on 10-2-52, from Moraceae.

Macrosiphonellia Del Guercio.

11. M. sanborni L.—10 apterae.

Locality & Host plant family: Eden Garden, Calcutta, on

26-10-55, from Compositae.

Myzus Pass.

12. M. persicae (Sulz.).—25 apterae, 3 alatae.

Locality & Host plant family: Agri-Horticultural Society,

Calcutta, on 4-2-53 & 10-2-53 from Acanthaceae & Malvaceae.

Pentalonia Coq.

13. P. nigronervosa Cog.—13 apterae.

Locality & Host plant family: Hoogly, Calcutta suburbs, on

10-1-54, from Leguminosae.

Myzocallis Pass.

14. M. kahawaluokalani Kirk.—2 apterae, 8 alatae.

Locality & Host plant family: Curzon Park, Calcutta, on 16-10-52,

from Lythraceae.

Tetraneura Hartig

i5. TT. hirsuta (Baker).—2 alatae.

Lacality & Host plant family: Behala, Calcutta suburbs, on

3-12-51 & 4-1-52, from Cruciferae and Solanaceae.

APHIS L.

KEY TO THE APTEROUS VIVIPAROUS FEMALES

1 (2) Processus terminalis 43-5, 2/5 times as long as base of same

segment, equal to, or 14 times as long as, IIIrd antennal

segment. Hairs on first tarsal joints 3, 3, 3. Cauda with

7-9 hairs.

A. nerti Boyer

2 (2) Processus terminalis 2-24 times as long as base of the same

segment, # of, or at most equal to, IlIrd antennal segment.

Hairs on first tarsal joints 3, 3, 2. Caudal hairs 1-6.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 663

(4) Body pear shaped. Dorsum of the abdomen with honey-

comb pattern. Hairs on abdominal tergites with acuminate

or furcated apices.

A. craccivora Koch

(3) Body elongated. Dorsum of the abdomen without such

pattern. Hairs on the abdominal tergites with acute or

acuminate apices but never with furcated ones.

A. gossypii Glov.

KEY TO ALATE VIVIPAROUS FEMALES

(2) Processus terminalis 4-5,1/5 times as long as the base of

the same segment. I[lIrd antennal segment usually with

8-12 rhinaria not placed in a row and [Vth antennal

segment without or with at most 3 rhinaria. Hairs on first

tarsal joints 3, 3, 3. Cauda usually with 9 hairs.

A. nerii Boyer

(1) Processus terminalis twice or at most up to thrice as long as

base of same segment. UlIrd antennal segment usually

with 4-7 rhinaria always in a row and [Vth antennal

segment never with any rhinarium.

(4) Abdomen broadly oval. Basal diameter of siphunculi nearly

or at most twice as thick as the middle of the hind tibiae;

the middle of siphunculi at most 14 times as thick as the

middle of hind tibiae. Middle of hind tibiae never more

than 14 times as basal diameter of IIIrd antennal segment.

Apices of femora and tibiae black. Siphunculi black.

A. craccivora Koch

(3) Abdomen elongated oval. Basal diameter of siphunculi

never less than 24 or may be up to 23 times as thick as the

middle of hind tibiae; middle of siphunculi never less than

14 times and may be almost twice as thick as middle of

hind tibiae. Middle of hind tibiae always more than 14

times and may be up to almost twice as thick as the basal

diameter of IIIrd antennal segment. Apices of femora

and tibiae pale brown; Siphunculi yellowish brown.

A. gossypii Glov.

664

JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

ROPHALOSIPHUM Koch

KEY TO ALATE VIVIPAROUS FEMALES

1. (2) Antennae 5-jointed.

times as long as IVth antennal segment.

IlIrd antennal segment.

1,2) 5213373

Longest hair on

segment III, 14 to twice as long as the basal diameter of

the segment.

long as the base of the same segment.

Processus terminalis 5, 1/5-6,3/5 times as

-Siphunculus

slightly swollen at its middle, and which may extend up

to distal 2/3 portion, imbricated from base to apex.

2 (i) Antennae 6-jointed.

times as long as [Vth antennal segment.

the basal diameter of the same segment.

segment III, 4

R. rufiabdominalis (Sasaki)

IlIrd antennal segment 2, 3/5-3, 1/10

Longest hair on

Processus terminalis 3, 3/5-3, 4/5 times as long as the base

of the same segment.

Siphunculi bagpipe like, imbricated

only at its 4-2/3 portion.

R. nymphaeae L.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors thank the authorities of St. Xavier's College, Calcutta,

for research facilities.

ZOOLOGY LABORATORY,

ST. XAVIER’S COLLEGE,

CALCUTTA,

November 27, 1958.

A. K. GHOSH

D. N. RAY CHAUDHURI

REFERENCES

1. Banerjee, S.N. & Basu, A.N.

(1955): Aphididae of West Bengal Curr.

Sci. 24 (2): 61.

2. Cotes, E.C: (1896) : Miscellaneous

Notes. Indian Mus. Notes,3: 54.

3. Das, B. (1918): The Aphididae of

Lahore. Mem. Indian Mus. 6 : 135.

4. Doncaster, J.P. (1954) : Notes on

genus Liphaphis Mordvilko 1928 and

description of a new species Proc. R. ent.

Soc. London. 23 (B) t 83.

5. ———— (1956): The

root aphid. Bull. ent. Res. 47:7.

6. Goot, P. van der (1916): On some

undescribed aphids from collections of

the Indian Museum. Rec. Indian Mus.

12 ME 1-4.

—-—— (1917) :

Rice

Notes on some

Indian aphids. Rec. Takes Mus. 13 (4):

175-183.

8. Mukerji, D. & Behura, B.K,

(1949) : Observations on the biology of

Aphis nerii. JBNHS 46: 68.

9. Ray Chaudhuri,D.N. & Ghosh.

A.K. (1958): A note on aphids of

Calcutta and suburbs with special refer-

ence to the newly recorded host plant

families for some of the species. Curr.

Sci. 27 (10) : 402.

10. Takahashi, R. (1931) : Aphididae

of Formosa, Pt. 6: 1-127.

11. Anon. (1948-1955): Systematic

study on the Aphididae of West Bengal.

A brief review. Entomology section,

Department of Agriculture, Government

of West Bengal.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 665

24. INSECT PESTS OF MAIZE IN RAJASTHAN

The region, south-east of the Aravalis, is the chief maize growing

area of Rajasthan. About 60 per cent of the total area under the

crop falls in this region, which is one of the most important maize

producing tracts of India. The cultivation of this crop has of late

years become of so much national importance as well as domestic

interest that the farmers are anxious to obtain maximum yields.

The crop is sown in June-July and harvested in September-

October. It has been observed that, out of the many adversities that

maize cultivation has to face, the damage caused by insect pests is

by far the worst. To the misfortune of the farmers, practically no

information exists on the insect pests of this crop in Rajasthan. An

intensive survey was, therefore, undertaken to investigate the insects

injurious to maize and elucidate points in their biology which would

help in suggesting and developing control measures against them.

It has been found that maize crop is attacked by many kinds of

insects. No part of the plant escapes injury. Although no specific

determinations have been made of the losses occasioned by insect

pests, it is quite evident that at a very conservative estimate 10 to

15 per cent of the produce is lost annually in this region on account

of the insects alone. Furthermore, insect attack weakens the plant,

which may later succumb to unfavourable weather conditions, en-

croachment of weeds, or other causes.

A list of the insects noticed to cause economic loss to maize crop

is arranged under the different parts of the plants damaged, together

with short notes on their biology and nature of damage for the more

important ones. The pests recorded in this paper were collected and

identified, and as far as possible reared in the entomological labora-

tory of the College. Wherever necessary, specimens were sent to

different entomological institutes for identification. In preparing

this report the works published by Sen-Gupta and Behura from

Orissa (1), Srivastava from Uttar Pradesh (2), and Trehan and Pingle

from Bombay (3) have been of great help.

Insects attacking Roots

1. White ants, Odontotermes sp. and Microtermes sp. (Termitidae).

Major pests under unirrigated conditions. Infestation may begin

soon after germination and also occurs at any stage of growth of the

crop. |

666 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Leaf Feed crs

A. Chewing

1. Kharif grasshopper, Hieroglyphus banian Fb. (Acrididae).

A major pest, usually active during the months of July to October.

Adults and nymphs feed on the leaves and there is only one genera-

tion in a year.

2. Surface grasshopper, Chrotogonus trachypterus (Bl.) (Acrididae).

A minor pest; injurious to the young crop during June and

July.

3. Hairy caterpillar, Amsacta moorei Butl. (Arctidae).

A major pest. The caterpillars defoliate the plants. There is

only one generation during June-July, the pupa of the second brood

hibernates in the soil. Sometimes the infestation is very serious

during the early growth of the crop. The caterpillars feed voraciously

on the seedlings and the damage increases as the caterpillar grows, so

much so that in certain years all the seedlings in a field are often

wiped out, thus necessitating resowing of the crop which may be too

late.

4. Army worm, Cirphis unipuncta H. (Noctuidae).

A major pest; attacks the crop at all its stages of development.

As soon as the crop germinates the larvae are attracted to and feed

on the leaves mostly at night, while during the day they remain hidden

in the clods underground. In severe cases of attack they completely

defoliate the seedlings as is done by the hairy caterpillars. When the

crop is somewhat advanced in its growth and the internodes have been

formed, the worms attack the growing shoot and remain hiding

singly or more frequently in groups of 2 or 3 in the whorl. When

the injured leaves unfold they present a ragged and _ unsightly

appearance. Such damage results in stunted growth of the crop and

reduced grain production. There are 2 to 3 generations from June

to October and then it hibernates as pupa in the soil.

5. Lucerne caterpillar, Laphygma exigua (Hb.) (Noctuidae).

A minor pest; feeds on the leaves during July and August along

with the hairy caterpillar and the army worm.

B. Sucking :

1. Aphids, Aphis maidis Fitch. (Aphididae).

A minor pest. Infestation usually occurs from August to

September.

2. Stem bug, Pundaluoya simplicia Dt. (Fulgoridae).

A minor pest found on the tender shoots. Nymphs and adults

are active during September and October.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 667

Stem Borers

1. Maize borer, Chilo zonellus (Swin.) (Pyralidae).

A major pest. The newly hatched larvae, after feeding for

sometime on the tender leaves, bore into the stem and produce dead

heart in the young crop. When the plants are sufficiently grown they

tunnel into the stem causing reddening of the stems and yellowing

of the leaves. The pest is active from June to November. There are

about four generations in a year and the caterpillar hibernates in

stubble. Early planted crop is severely damaged in summer.

2. Pink borer, Sesamia inferens (Wlk.) (Noctuidae).

A major pest; occurs along with the maize borer, but its first

generation appears after the first generation of the maize borer is over.

‘This pest is active from July to March and there are 6 generations

in a year. The tunneling by one borer in a stalk does not always

cause appreciable damage, but when two or more are present within

the same stalk, as frequently happens, it becomes reduced to a mere

shell and is filled with fragments of the frass or castings of the borers.

It has been noticed that maize plants suffering from severe borer

injury ripen much earlier than the healthy ones.

Attacking Tassels and Cobs

1. Army worm, Cirphis unipuncta Haw. (vide leaf feeders).

A serious pest of cobs. When tassels appear the worms im-

mediately attack them, but this feeding rarely results in serious injury.

As soon as the silks and ears appear the larvae leave all other parts

of the plant and turn their attention to them. They feed upon the

silks as long as these are fresh, and such feeding is within the protec-

tion of the shunk. The young larvae crawl to the tip of the shunk,

push their way in between the silk strands and start feeding. After

the silk has dried out the larvae feed upon the developing kernels till

they are soft.

2. Maize borer, Chilo zonellus (Swin.) (vide stem borers).

Frequently found in the cobs. At the early stage of the develop-

ment of borers they enter the ear directly at the tip, base or side.

Ordinarily the ear is entered at its tip by small borers which feed

first upon the tender portion of the husk, and then work their way

down into the cob and grain.

668 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Pink borer, Sesamia inferens (Wlk.) (vide stem borers).

Not serious on cobs. The caterpillars usually enter the ears

indirectly through the short stem, or shank, by which the developing

cob is attached to the stalk. In such a case the stem is frequently

so weakened by the injury that it breaks off before the ear has com-

pleted its development.

produced by the maize borer.

The damage inside the cobs is similar to that

The author is indebted to Dr. A. Rathore, Principal, for providing

necessary facilities and encouragement for this work. |

RAJASTHAN COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE,

UDAIPUR,

July 2% 1959.

B. K. SRIVASTAVA

REFERENCES

1. Sen-Gupta, G. K. & Behura, B. K.

(1957) : Annotated list of crop pests in

the State of Orissa. Mem. Ent. Soc. India,

No. 5 : 44 pp., New Delhi.

2. Srivastava, A. S. (1956) : Plant Pro-

tection Service in Uttar Pradesh, Bureau

of Agricultural Information, U.P., Luck-

now, pp. 22.

3. Trehan K. N. and Pingle, S. V.

(1946) : Annotated list of crop pests in

oe oy Province. JBNHS 46 (1):

139-153:

25. THE MELTING POINT OF THE WAX OF INDIAN BEES

In a recent report of the Apicultural Laboratory (Bombay Village

Industries Board), Poona, there was a reference to the melting point

of wax of the combs of Apis dorsata, the large Rock Bee, being lower

than that of the other two honey-producing Indian species A. indica

and -A. florea. er tt

The combs of A. dorsata are built on cliffs etc. thus liable to

greater exposure to the sun and consequent heating up, and a lower

melting point seemed an inconsistency which would be of distinct

disadvantage to the species. We therefore wrote to the Hony. Re-

search Director of the institution, Dr. G. B. Deodikar, for confirmation.

He replies as follows:

‘As regards melting point of dorsata wax, we also anticipated

a priori that the melting point should be higher than in other bees

building combs in shaded enclosures. Contrary to our expectation it

has been repeatedly confirmed from samples collected in various

parts of India that the melting point of dorsata wax is about 4° F.

lower than indica wax. As the comb becomes older and impregnated

with fat, soluble ingredients from nectars and pollens, or with propalis

as also deposition of insoluble sediments and debris, the melting point

does rise by a few degrees, but this is so in all the three species of

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES — 669

bees. This is rather difficult to understand. Though dorsata builds

in shade, the nest is exposed to much higher temperature than that of

indica. A partial explanation may be the fact that the bees cover

the wax comb completely and they have a method of airconditioning

by means of remarkably synchronised fanning of wings. Anyway

lower melting point of dorsata wax is quite contrary to what might

be normally expected.’

BomBay NatuRAL History SOCcIETY,

91, WALKESHWAR RoaD, _ EDITORS

BOMBAY 6,

October 29, 1959.

26. IDENTITY OF A TIBETO-HIMALAYAN RANUNCULUS

(With text-figures)

Among the Tibeto-Himalayan species of Ranunculaceae, a some-

what unusual member is the commonly known Ranunculus cymba-

lariae. The plant is dwarfish and lacks a proper stem. It produces

a number of long, articulated runners which help in vegetative

propagation. Its seeds have a very thin papery surface.

In 1900, Greene created the genus Halerpestes to accommodate

some of these peculiar plants, but for a long time his genus’

was not recognised. Hutchinson in his review of the genera of

Ranunculaceae, considered the generic name AHalerpestes, but left

it as a synonym of Ranunculus. Two years later, Dunn described a

species called Ranunculus palifolius which was considered to be

closely allied to the hitherto known Ranunculus cymbalariae. Un-

fortunately, however, the species Ranunculus cymbalariae itself, as

understood by Hooker f. & Thomson, is a mixture of two species

neither of which belongs to true Ranunculus cymbalariae Pursh

[=Halerpestes cymbalaria (Pursh) Greene] as originally described by

Pursh.

The first author who recognised Halerpestes as distinct from

Ranunculus appears to be Komarov and he was followed a few years

later by Handel-Mazzetti. The genus is characterised, among other

things, by the absence of any proper stem and the achenes having

thin texture and striated surface. A few years ago, the present author,

while working in the Kew Herbarium, came across an unnamed

specimen of Ranunculus collected from Kashmir (Koelz no. 2318).

This specimen agreed with the specimen described earlier by Dunn

as Ranunculus palifolius. On further scrutiny, it was found that

Dunn’s species agreed so well with Ranunculus cymbalariae, that it is

670 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

impossible to maintain Dunn’s plant as a distinct species. Thus, while

the identity of the Koelz specimen (no. 2318) became clear, both its

nomenclature and the nomenclature of the plant hitherto known as

ll 14 15

1. Halerpestes tricuspis (Maxim) Hand.-Mazz. General view ; 2 Flower; 3 Sepal ;

4. Petal; 5 Stamens; 6 Carpel with ovule ; 7 Carpel, side view ; 8. Achene.

9. Halerpestes sarmentosa (Adams) Komarov. General view; 10 Flower; 11 Sepal;

12. Petal; 13. Stamen; 14 Carpel; 15. Achene.

Ranunculus cymbalariae got more and more involved. It is, there-

fore, proposed to clarify the position. The Tibeto-Himalayan plant

as understood by Hooker f. & Thomson, dissolves into two species and

their nomenclature and distribution are as follows:

1. Halerpestes tricuspis (Maxim) MHand.-Mazz. in Acta _ Hort.

Goteburg. 13: 135 (1940).

Ranunculus tricuspis Maxim. Fl. Tang. 12 (1889); Enum. PI.

~Mongol. 14, 16, tab. 4, fig. 17-27 (1889).

Ranunculus paiifolius Dunn in Kew Bull. 1925: 280.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 671

Ranunculus cymbalariae Hook. f. & Thoms. var. alpinus Fl. Ind.

32 (1855).

Ranunculus cymbalariae Hook. f. & Thoms. non Pursh in Hook.

f. Fl. Br. India 1: 17 (1872) pro parte.

Distribution—-NW. Himalayas, J. L. Stewart s.n. (Herb. Cal.);

Kashmir, Nulre (Mulra ?) valley 3300 m. 7. Thomson s.n. (Kew);

Baltistan, Dras valley, 3300 m. J. F. Duthie 11740 (Cal. et

Kew); British Lahul, beyond Baralacha Pass 5000 m. S. R.

Kashyap 44 (Kew); Ladak, J. Thomson s.n. (Kew); Ladakh

5000 m. Thomson 2010; Ladak, J. L. Stewart s.n. (Kew); Rupsu,

Hanle river 4600 m. W. Koelz 2318 (Kew); Tibet, Khambajong,

Younghusband 20, 51, 278 (Cal.); Tibet, without name of collector

246 (Cal.); Giri, Younghusband s.n. (Cal.); Tisum 5100 m.

Strachey & Winterbottom 23 (Cal.); Chumbi & Phari, Dungboo

s.n. (3 sheets in Cal.); Sikkim, Lhonak 5000 m. Smith & Cave

1910 (Cal.); Tongloo, J. A. Soulie 903; 936 (Kew).

2. Halerpestes sarmentosa (Adams) Komarov in Kom. et Klob-Alis,

Key Pl. far East U.S.S.R. 1: 550 (1931).

Ranunculus sarmentosus Adams in Mem. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 9:

244 (1834).

Ranunculus cymbalariae Hook. f. & Thoms. var. major Fl. Ind.

ire 32 €1855).

Ranunculus salsuginosus Pall. Resise 3: 213, 265 (1776) non

Georgi.

Halerpestes salsuginosa (Pall.) Greene in Pittonia 4: 208 (1900).

Ranunculus subsimilis Printz in Contr. fl. As. int. 3: 239 (1921).

Distribution.—Afghanistan (?), Griffith 1401 (Cal.); Afghanistan,

Aitchison 354 (Cal.); Lahul near Kardong, Jaeschke s.n. (Cal.);

Baltistan, Skardo, C. B. Clarke 30026 C (Cal.); Tibet frontier,

Gyangtse, H. J. Walton 24 (Cal. et Kew); Topidhunga 5000 m.,

Strachey & Winterbottom 22 (Cal.); Western Nepal, Kali Valley

3500 m. J. F. Duthie 6321; Sikkim, Lajhep, 4000 m. W. W.

Smith 3294 (Cal.); Nakuchu, Lhonak 5500 m. Smith & Cave 1900

(Cal.).

Besides the distribution shown above, both the species have been

recorded from north Szechuan, Siberia, Persia, North America, Mexico,

mountains of South America. Halerpestes sarmentosa (Adams)

Komarov is distinguished by its more robust appearance, longer and

more numerous achenes (80 to 130) collected in oblong capitulum, and

more or less orbicular crenately incised leaves. H. tricuspis (Maxim.)

Hand.-Mazz., on the other hand, is more slender, has broader achenes

672 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL AIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

numbering 40 to 50 in each roundish capitulum, and has elliptic and

deeply cleft leaves.

In Acta Hort. Goteburg 13: 136 (1940), Handel-Mazzetti has

placed Ranunculus palifolius Dunn as a synonym of Halerpestes

linifolius (Bert.) Hand.-Mazz. The present author is of the view that

Dunn’s plant should be more correctly placed under Halerpestes

tricuspis (Maxim) Hand.-Mazz., and this has been done in this paper.

INDIAN BOTANIC GARDEN,

SIBPUR, D. CHATTERJEE

CALCUTTA,

September 26, 1959.

REFERENCES

Greene, E. L. (1900) : Pittonia 4 : 207. Pursh, F, T. (1814) : Fl. 2 : 392.

Hutchinson, J. (1923) Kew Bull : 88. Komarov, Vink (1931) Key Pl. far

Dunn, S. T. (1925): Kew Bull: 280. East Reg. U.S.S.R. 1:

Hooker. f. & Thomson. T. U. (1872) : Handel-Mazzetti, H. (193856 Acta Hort.

in Hooker. f, Fl. Br. India 1: 17. Goteburg, 13 : 13

27. CEDRELA TOONA ROXB. IN RAJASTHAN.

A CORRECTION

N. C. Nair and G. R. Nathawat in the Journal (54: 288) mentioned

Cedrela toona Roxb. as occurring at Harsh Nath in the Aravalli Hills.

Shri K. S. Sankhala, the Div. Forest Officer, Jaipur, has called the

Editors’ attention to this point, and adds: ‘The observation of the

authors appears to be incorrect, as there is no Cedrela toona Roxb.

on the hill. It appears that the authors have . . . identified Lannea

grandis Engl. of the Anacardiaceae as Cedrela toona Roxb. Lannea

grandis trees are often met with in the other hills of Sikar forests and

occurrence of the tree in Harsh Nath is nothing new. Since the record

of Cedrela toona Roxb. at Harsh Nath may create subsequent complica-

tions, particularly for the ecological studies, and may influence future

forest management and plantation programmes, I consider it extremely

necessary that a correction should. be published.’

Cedrela toona Roxb. is found in moister forests than nee of

Rajasthan; for this reason the Editors will be hopefully awaiting

confirmation of its existence in Harsh Nath; if this can be confirmed,

it will form an interesting record.

BoMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY,

91, WALKESHWAR ROAD, EDITORS

BomMBayY 6,

June 16, 1959.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 673

- 28. A NEW PLANT RECORD FOR INDIA—ERIGERON

: FLORIBUNDUS (H.B.K.) SCH. BIP.

(With text-figures and a plate)

During the course of a detailed systematic study of the Compositae

of Dharwar, the authors came across a plant that was fairly similar

to Conyza ambigua L. Later, it was referred to the Kew authorities

who identified it as Erigeron floribundus (H.B.K.) Sch. Bip. This is,

imm. imm.-

Figs. 1-3. E. floribundus (H.B.K.) Sch. Bip. 1. Jug-shaped capitulum. 2. A

single outer floret. 3. Apical portion of the above showing the bilabiate corolla

and stigma.

Figs. 4-6. E. bonariensis L. 4. Cup shaped capitulum. 5. A single outer

floret. 6. Apical portion of the same showing the corolla with subequal lobes

and stigma.

as far as we are aware, the first record of the occurrence of the

plant in India. A detailed description as from actual examination of

fresh specimens collected from Dharwar is given below:

Stout annual herb up to 1.4 m. high, generally branched from the

base. Stem angular, longitudinally furrowed, often with purplish

blotches, hairy to puberulous, becoming woody when old. Leaves

pale green, alternate, sessile, simple, oblanceolate, pubescent on both

surfaces, more so on the upper. Margin entire or distantly serrate or

pinnatifid. Lower leaves up to 17 cm. by 3.5 cm., and gradually

becoming smaller towards the apex. Heads many, about 0.7 cm. by

0.3-0.4 cm., in terminal and axillary panicles, the whole forming a

pyramidal compound inflorescence. The lateral branches of the

inflorescence do not overtop the apex of the main axis. Peduncles of

674 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

heads 0.6-1.2 cm. long, filiform, pubescent. Involucre cylindrical;

bracts in 2-3 series, 20-30 in number, green, pubescent, sometimes

purple at the apices, linear, acute, the innermost the largest, chestnut

brown on the inside when reflexed (on the old dry heads). Disc

naked, pitted, about 0.2 cm. in diameter. Outer florets about 0.5-0.6

cm. long, pistillate, in many series, filiform. Corolla rayed or

bilabiate, upper lip generally bifid, the lower entire or obsolete. Style

exserted or included, bifurcated; style-arms filiform. Inner florets

disciform, 0.5-0.6 cm. long, numerous, bisexual. Corolla tubular; tube

slightly dilated at the apex, 5-toothed, lobes acute, hairy outside,

yellow. Stamens 5; anthers appendiculate; anther-bases entire.

Style exserted, bifurcated; style-arms almost compressed or plano-

convex, the tips lanceolate and hairy outside. Pappus hairs in a

single series, spreading, many, pale straw coloured or brownish white.

Achenes of ray- and disc-florets similar, about 0.1-0.13 cm. long,

angular, laterally compressed, sparsely covered with appressed short

hairs.

E. floribundus (H.B.K.) Sch. Bip. is closely allied to E. bona-

riensis L. (Syn. Conyza ambigua L.). It has been reported that

E. floribundus was passing frequently under the name E. bonariensis L.

Burtt (1948), (On E. bonariensis L. Kew Bull, pp. 369-373), has

clearly shown the differences between these closely resembling species.

E. floribundus and E. bonariensis are said to be of South American

origin, the latter chiefly occurring in temperate Mediterranean countries,

though it has spread out to the tropical countries, while the former is

reported to have a preference for the tropical climate. Both occur as

weeds. In India, E. bonariensis is well known as Conyza ambigua L.

The chief differences between these two species as given by Burtt

(1948) are as follows:

E. bonariensis L. E. floribundus (H. B. K.) Sch. Bip.

Herb up to 6 ft., branched, the lateral

Herb up to 4 ft., branched, the lateral

branches often overtopping or at least

equalling the main axis (cf. E. acris L.);

inv. bracts whitish inside ; capitula when

pressed commonly 1 cm. or more in

diameter ; pappus white or pinkish.

Further differences :

Corolla of outer flowers 3-4 toothed;

teeth equal or subequal.

branches NOT overtopping the* main

axis and the whole forming a pyramidal

compound infil. (cf. E. canadensis L.) ;

inv. bracts showing chestnut brown on

the inside when reflexed on the old

capitula ; capitula when pressed com-

monly less than 1 cm. in diameter ;

pappus straw coloured.

Further differences :

Corolla of outer flowers rayed bila-

| biate or rarely the lobes subequal.

‘xade ay) doydA0 soysueig [P19}v] 94} YSIYM ‘xodv ay} 3uIddoj19A0 Jou aie sayouRsg [e19}e] 9)

ul ddUddSaIOYUT puNodwos YUM JuLyd 9Y) Jo 11k YoIyM UL soUddSo1OyUI JeprueIAd punodwo0s sy

"T SISUALIDUOG UOsAIB1IT “gq oO ‘dig ‘yos (GH) Snpungiioyf uodasliq “yw youd

‘00§ “LSIH “LYN AvaWwog “Nywnof

——

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 675

The authors are thankful to Prof. L. K. Gunyjikar, Head of the

Botany Department, Karnatak Science College, Dharwar, for laboratory

facilities and to Rev. Fr. H. Santapau, St. Xavier’s College, Bombay,

for help in preparing this manuscript.

DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY,

KARNATAK SCIENCE COLLEGE, H. R. LADWA

DHARWAR, R. M. PATIL

NEw Mysore STATE,

July 15, 1959.

29. RECORD OF CRYPTOSTEGIA MADAGASCARIENSIS

BOJ. FROM BARODA

Cryptostegia madagascariensis Boj. is a woody, shrubby climber,

grown in tropical gardens for its showy flowers, which are either

purple-pink or white tinged with purple or pink. Although it is an

ornamental garden plant, it is sometimes found established in a wild

state as an escape.

- This plant was first reported from some places near Bombay

and Poona by Santapau and Irani (JBNHS 55: 594-595, 1958) with

a remark that ‘it is a new record for Bombay and possibly for the

whole of India’. In the same note they have given a detailed descrip-

tion of the plant along with a key to identify the two species of

the genus Cryptostegia. The plants were collected in cultivated and

wild state.

During the course of our local excursions, we came across several

plants of Cryptostegia, which looked slightly different from C.

grandiflora. ‘These plants, on detailed examination of the flowers,

turned out to be C. madagascariensis Boj. This is not only the first

record for Baroda but for the whole of Gujarat.

At present the plants have been collected from a few localities

in and around gardens, but we propose to study the range of distri-

bution of these plants in the various areas of Baroda and environs.

DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY,

M.S. UNIVERSITY OF BARODA, A. R. CHAVAN

BARODA, S. D. SABNIS

July 24, 1959.

676 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 36 (3)

30. NOTES ON THE FLOWERING OF CARVIA CALLOSA

BREMEK. (=STROBILANTHES CALLOSUS NEES)

Rey. Father H. Santapau (1955) in his paper on Excursion of the

Indian Botanical Society to Pavagadh Hill near Baroda, on January

7th, noted this plant as ‘only occasional in the lower half of the

slopes; abundant in almost pure stands on the upper half in leaf only’.

In the subsequent year a few plants flowered. Mr. B. B. Joshi (1956)

collected this plant in flower (Joshi, 23-9-1956, 326 P.). In the

succeeding year (1957) we observed the general flowering on the

slopes of the hill (up to about 523 metres) in the months of September-

November (Oza, 1-9-57, 103 and 6-11-57, 262). This shrub with

bright purple flowers having the bracts green with a pink tinge, and

pleasing scent, reached the height of about 60-120 cm., presence of

minute hairs on the margins of leaves, stems squarish with continuous

furrows; the plant species being fairly abundant on the upper half

of the slopes of the hill. By the month of May in 1958, dried plants

were noted on the same slopes of the hill. Observations during the

months of September-November in the same year helped us to note

only a few small plants in flower. The flowering was then random.

The year 1956 witnessed the partial flowering only and hence it

could not be called general. As the general flowering occurred in

1957, the authors expect the next general flowering to take place

some time about 1963. Further observations on the next general

flowering of this plant will be reported to the Journal immediately it

occurs either before or after 1963.

DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY,

M.S. UNIVERSITY OF BARODA, V. G. PHATAK, D.sc.

BARODA, G. M. OZA, M.Sc.

February 28, 1959.

[The general flowering of Carvia callosa Bremek. reported in this

note as having taken place in 1957 on Pavagadh Hill is of interest in

one respect. When in the past there has been a general flowering

of Carvia on any of the hills near Bombay, it has coincided- with a

similar general flowering practically all over Bombay and southwards

to the limit of the distribution of the plant. Further it seems to

have coincided also with a general flowering of Phlebophyllum

kunthianum Nees (=Strobilanthes kunthianus T. Anders.) in the

south of India. In 1957 there was no general flowering of Carvia

callosa in Bombay, except for Pavagadh Hill near Baroda; a few

plants were noted in flower in Mahableshwar, Khandala, etc. On the

JOURN. BOMBAY NaT. HIST. Soc.

Carvia callosa Brem.

A. Last year’s spikes, B. This year’s new leaves

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 677

other hand, to judge from the remains noted on the Kodaikanal Hills

in May of this year, there seems to have been a general flowering of

Phlebophyllum on the Palnis and Nilgiris.—EDs.]

31. THE FLOWERING OF STROBILANTHES

(With a plate)

Most of the plants listed in our floras under the name of

Strobilanthes seem to belong to what Bremekamp has _ termed

‘plietesials’, that is to say they flower once after several years of

vegetative growth and then die off. My experience of many years

confirms that this is the normal behaviour of such plants.

Recently in Khandala (c. 2000 ft.) on the Western Ghats, I was

surprised to see that some Strobilanthes plants appeared not to con-

form to the general habit of ‘plietesials’. The top of the hill known

as Echo Point, near Bhoma Hill, the higest point of Khandala, is

practically covered with dense thickets of the Karvi plant, Carvia

callosa Brem. (=Strobilanthes callosus Nees); the rains had been

on for several days, and most of the Karvi shrubs were in leaf. Whilst

walking to the top of the hill along paths through the Karvi thickets,

1 noticed exactly nine plants which showed remains of the flowering

or fruiting spikes of last year together with fresh leaves of this year,

both on one and the same branch. Some of these abnormal plants

were collected and pressed and are now kept in Blatter Herbarium

under the reference number Santapau 23140-23143. Together with

these I noticed also four or five plants that had flowered last year and

were obviously dead. This is the first time that I have noticed the

survival of Karvi jplants after their flowering. The number of

survivors may have been much higher, but I did not stray from the

paths to investigate further. (See plate.)

It is clear, then, that the Karvi plant may flower and survive to

a second flowering, though this seems to be most unusual. The

general rule is for the plant to flower once in several years, 7-12, and

then die off before the next monsoon; at the beginning of June of

the year following the flowering of the plant, the seeds that have

remained on the dead parent plant are scattered by an elastic

mechanism in the capsule or fruit and germinate at once on the arrival

of the first steady showers.

ST. XAVIER’S COLLEGE,

BomBay 1, H. SANTAPAU, s,.

June 10, 1959.

678 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

32. THE LEAVES OF ALSEODAPHNE SEMECARPIFOLIA

NEES.—A CORRECTION

In a note published in the Journal (56: 160, 1959) mention is

made of the properties of some leaves and tubers, which by mistake

were said to be those of Alseodapline semecarpifolia Nees. The

leaves are indeed those of this plant; but the tubers are of Dioscorea,

probably D. bulbifera Linn. This latter plant produces a large under-

ground tuber and in addition brings out a number of small “bulbils’

or tubers in the axils of most of the leaves; it is these bulbils or

tubers of Dioscorea that are used in the treatment of eczema.

Alseodaphne does not produce any tubers, at least normally.

ST. XAVIER’S COLLEGE,

Bompsay l, H. SANTAPAU, S.J.

August 3, 1959.

Gleanings

Crop damage by Blackfaced Weaver Bird (Quelea

quelea) in Tanganyika

‘It has been calculated that one bird eats the equivalent of two

ounces of mature wheat a day, so that a roost of 492,000 was eating

300 X 200 Ib. bags of wheat a day, or 27 tons.’

[Extract from Bull. Brit. Orn. Cl. (1959) 79, p. 38.]

Perennial Wheat

‘After 35 years experimentation U.S. Department of Agriculture

plant breeders appear to be on the verge of developing a commercially

valuable perennial wheat. A hybrid of wheat and certain tall grasses,

the perennial yields grain for several years, resists insects and disease

and provides year-round cover for the soil.

The quest for perennial wheat was started by W. J. Sando, now

retired, who in 1923 crossed wheat with wheat grass and other species

of the genus Agropyron. Among those who followed up his work

was C. A. Suneson, a Department of Agriculture agronomist working

in the California Agricultural Experimental Station at Davis, Calif.

He has evolved an especially promising perennial by backcrossing

Sando’s hybrids to spring wheat and intercrossing the progeny.

Suneson’s plants live about four years and bear grain that 1s

especially rich in protein. They withstand drought and are highly

resistant to smut, rust, mildew, and other wheat diseases. Further-

more, they are not attacked by the Hessian fly and other insects that

ravage wheat. There is, however, one drawback. While the yield of

grain in the first year matches that of local wheats, it drops off by

40 per cent or more in the second year. But Suneson now believes

that he can keep the yield high throughout the lives of the plants

if he can work out ways to fertilize them every year and to control

weeds.’

[From Scientific American, Vol. 200, No. 1, pp. 62-63, January

1959.]

Fishing with Air Curtain

‘An ingenious method for herding herring into the fisherman’s net

has been developed by the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Fish

and Wild Life Service.

680 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

In the method, the fish are blocked off from escape into other

waters by use of a “bubble barrier” or underwater air curtain. The

bubble barrier is created by pumping compressed air through long

lines of plastic pipe laid down on the ocean floor. Air escaping from

the tiny holes in the piping forms a wall of bubbles which serves

as an effective barrier to a school of fishes. |

Government experts say that tests have shown the air curtain to

be successful in guiding the movement of herring. The plastic pipe

can be swept across the bottom of the open ocean or a deep channel,

driving the fish into water shallow enough for seine fishing.’

[From Science Digest, Vol. 45, No. 5, p. 12, May 1959.]

Termites

‘The termite is a fascinating creature to study but is also a very

frightening menace. In America where only fifty-five species are

known, the active damage caused by termites was reckoned in 1934

as forty million dollars a year. Over four hundred species have been

identified in the continent of Africa, some of which live and work

underground, tunnelling into the centre of their prey, be it beams or

door frames or stalks of plants, and eating away the inside unnoticed,

until the outer walls collapse. The termites are invading the earth.

From Australia to India, Malaya and Ceylon, from California to San

Francisco, from North to South America, one or another species of

the four hundred main families of termites has made its home.

Climate is no deterrent to them, for they adapt themselves to with-

stand cold as well as heat and have been found high in the Himalayas.

In a right proportion they are beneficial to agriculture and to life. It

is the terrific pace of their increase that has caused them to become

enemies instead of friends.’

[Richard St. Barbe Barbe Baker (1954): SAHARA CHALLENGE.

(London. Lutterworth Press.)]

Mixed Forests

‘For successful forestry it is well to study the natural forest. ..,

The virgin forest often contains a preponderance of so-called secondary

timbers, for which there is little economic use. On the face of it the

obvious solution is to concentrate on promoting the regenerating

growth of a few of the most valuable timbers, and to transform the

mixed, uneven-aged virgin forest—this apparently struggling mass—

into uniform plantations of a single valuable species. This was done

in the mahogany forests. ... That experiment failed.

GLEANINGS 681

‘In the Kingdom of Wood there is a complicated society of living

things in which each is a dependent member. No single species can

thrive by itself, nor may it be used in plantations where it is isolated

from its natural nurses and helpful neighbours. Observation shows

that the trees that man regards as useless to cultivate can each make

their own especial contribution to the good of the community. The

slogan “Back to Nature’, as applied to silviculture, holds a deep

significance, for once the rhythm of the forest is broken, growth will

lag and degeneration will set in. The harmonious functioning of all

parts of the forest is the best guarantee of its health and well-being.

It should be remembered, however, that in the virgin forest growth

only keeps pace with decay, and until man harvests the matured trees.

they are unproductive of timber.’

[Richard St. Barbe Baker 1942): AFRICA DRUMS.]

Notes and News

Birb MIGRATION STUDY

In the April (1959) issue reference was made to the Society’s plans

for Bird Migration study in Kutch. A pilot project was put through

between 15 and 30 September mainly to test the potentialities and

train personnel for the field work proper in spring 1960, in which

financial participation by W.H.O. is expected. The phenomenally

heavy and long-drawn monsoon this year, with the resulting inunda-

tions and road breaches, rendered it impossible to reach the venue

originally selected, namely Kuar Bet in the Great Rann. Therefore

& more accessible area in the neighbourhood of Bhuj had to be chosen

which would provide reasonably adequate opportunities. The project

was financed out of the grant received by the Society from the

Rockefeller Foundation earlier. Thanks to a special donation from

W.H.O., we were enabled to invite to India Dr. Alfred Schifferli,

Director of the Swiss Migration Research Centre, Sempach, for a few

weeks to impart the necessary training to our personnel in the use

of Japanese mist nets and other relevant migration study techniques.

The trainees included three members of the Society’s staff and several

amateur ornithologists who, it is expected, will participate in the field

work next March.

During the fortnight’s operation 2060 birds of 56 forms were

netted, including some 300 recaptures. 27 species of these 56 were

migrant. Owing to the abnormal weather conditions migration

eppeared to be greatly retarded. Many species though overdue had

-not arrived, while those present were also in small numbers. The

birds were banded with aluminium rings of 3 sizes—A, B, C—-bear-

ing, in addition to a serial number, the legend INFORM BOMBAY NAT.

HIST. SOCIETY. Readers are requested to publicize this information

as widely as possible by every means at their command. The success

of the scheme depends upon ensuring that no recovery of a ring goes

unreported to the Society.

The birds were identified, registered, measured, and weighed.

Prior to release, all except 33 were also examined for ectoparasites

by technicians of the Virus Research Centre, Poona, who accompanied

the field party. Ticks were found on only 6 birds, two of which

belonged to migratory species. The netting operations produced 3

new birds for Kutch—species not recorded before. (See Misc.

Notewias p.1035))

NOTES AND NEWS 683

The spring migration field work is provisionally scheduled for

8-31 March 1960. Persons willing to participate (and prepared to

put up with a certain amount of physical discomfort) should contact

Dr. Salim Alli.

* * * *

THE MARINE BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION OF INDIA

The Marine Biological Association of India was founded at

Mandapam Camp, to promote interest in marine biological and

cognate sciences. The Association was formally inaugurated by the

Hon’ble Mrs. Lourdammal Simon, Minister for Fisheries and Local

Administration, Madras State, on January 3rd, 1959. The following

Oimice bearers were elected: Dr. S. Jones (President), Prof. R. V.

Seshaiya (Vice-President), Dr. R. Raghu Prasad and Dr. C. P.

Gnanamuthu (Secretaries) Dr. R. P. Varma (Asst. Secretary), Shri.

K. V. Rao (Treasurer), Dr. P. N. Ganapati (Editor), Dr. R.

Subramanyan (Joint Editor), and Dr. S. V. Job (Managing Editor).

The official organ of the Association, the ‘Journal of the Marine

Biological Association of India’, is expected to be issued half-yearly.

Membership is open to all interested. All correspondence may be

addressed to the Secretary, Marine Biological Association of India,

Marine Fisheries P.O., Mandapam Camp, South India.

* 6 * *

THe ALL-INDIA CONGRESS OF ZOOLOGY

The First All-India Congress of Zoology, sponsored and organized

by the Zoological Society of India, was held at Jabalpur, October

24-27th, under the presidentship of Dr. M. L. Roonwal.

Nearly 120 papers were received on many branches of zoology,

in addition to contributions to the three Symposia on ‘Reorientation

of teaching of Zoology in India’, ‘Marine Zoology and fisheries in

the Indian Ocean’, and ‘Recent evolutionary studies in India.’

Proceedings of the Congress, including these papers in full, are being

printed. Abstracts, which were issued in advance, and other informa-

tion may be obtained from the General Secretary, Dr. B. S. Chauhan,

c/o. Zoological Survey of India, 34 Chittaranjan Avenue, Calcutta 12.

It is proposed to hold similar Congresses every three years.

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY

SOCIETY FOR THE YEAR ENDING 3lst DECEMBER 1958

President

SHRI SRI PRAKASA, Governor of Bombay

Vice-Presidents

Major-General Sir Sahib Singh Sokhey, 1.M.s.

Rev. Fr. H. Santapau, s.J.

Dr. Salim Ali

Executive Committee

Prof. S. P. Agharkar, M.A., Ph.D., F.L.S., F.N.I.

Dr. D. V. Bal, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Mr. R. E. Hawkins

Dr. C. V. Kulkarni, M.sc., Ph.p.

Mr. D. N. Marshall

Mr. D. J. Panday

Mr. D. E. Reuben, I.c.s. (Retd.)

Mr. J. A. Singh, LF.s.

Mr. Humayun Abdulali (Hon. Secretary)

Mr. M. J. Dickins (Hon. Treasurer)

Advisory Committee

Mr. H. G. Acharya, F.R.E.S. me me Ahmedabad

Mr. G. V. Bedekar, I.c.s. ae ... Aurangabad

Sir Chintaman Deshmukh, kt., C.1.E., LCS. ... New Delhi

Rev. Fr. Dr. J. B. Freeman, M.A., L.T., Ph.D., D.D. Mysore

Mr. E. P. Gee, M.A., C.M.Z.S. a ... Assam

Cok R.°C. Morris, E.2.G:S. Zs. ... Attikan

Lt.-Col. E. G. Phythian-Adams, 0.B.E., F.Z.S., LA.

(Retd.) a ... Nilgiris

Dr. Baini Prasad, D.Sc., F.N.L. ... Dehra Dun

Lt.-Gen. Sir H. Williams, cC.B., C.B.E., M.I.C.E.,

M.LE. on a8 ... Roorkee

Dr. M. L. Roonwal, M.sc., Ph.D., F.N.L, F.Z.S.I. .... Calcutta

List of members of the Executive and Advisory Committee elected

for the year 1959:

PROCEEDINGS AND ACCOUNTS, 1958 685

President

SHRI SRI PRAKASA, Governor of Bombay

Vice-Presidents

Major-General Sir Sahib Singh Sokhey, 1.M.s.

Rev. Fr. H. Santapau, S.J.

Dr. Salim Ali

Executive Committee

Prof. S. P. Agharkar, M.A., Ph.D., F.L.S., F.N.I.

Dr. D. V. Bal, M.sc., Ph.D.

Mr. R. E. Hawkins

Mr. D. N. Marshall

Mr. D. J. Panday

Mr. D. E. Reuben, I.c.s. (Retd.)

Mrs. Barbara J. Tufty

Mr. Humayun Abdulali (Hon. Secretary)

Mr. Surendr Lall (Hon. Secretary)

Advisory Committee

Mr. H. G. Acharya, F.R.E.S. a: ... Ahmedabad

Mr. F. C. Badhwar, 0.B.E. ye ... Calcutta

Mr. G. V. Bedekar, I.c.s. Aurangabad

Sir Chintaman Deshmukh, Kt., C.1.E., 1.c.S. (Retd.) New Delhi

Rev. Fr. Dr. J. B. Freeman, M.A., L.T., Ph.D., D.D. Mysore

Nir E. P.-Gee, M.A., C.M.Z.S: F. ~. Ve Shitlong

Dr. Baini Prasad, D.Sc., F.N.I. ‘a ... Dehra Dun

Dr. M. L. Roonwal, M.Sc., Ph.D., F.N.I., F.Z.S.1. .... Calcutta

Ma P: DD. Stracey, I.F.S. ae ... Dehra Dun

Lt.-Gen. Sir H. Williams, C.B., C.B.E., M.I.C.E.,

M.LE. eee as ... Roorkee

HONORARY SECRETARY’S REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1958

THE SOCIETY’S JOURNAL

Parts 1, 2, and 3 of Volume 55 were published during the year.

Tt was decided to complete this and future volumes with the third

number so that each volume will now coincide with the calendar year.

The last volume contained 39 articles and 85 miscellaneous notes.

686 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 36 (3)

The routine work of the Society included the identification of

specimens and the answering of many enquiries, several of which have

led to miscellaneous notes.

GENERAL

With the formal sanction of the Government grant, referred to in

the last report, the Society’s offices have been moved to 91, Walkeshwar

Road, where it is hoped that members will be able to take better

advantage of the library and, in due course, of the reference collec-

tions also.

Mrs. Barbara Tufty, a member of the Society, has very kindly

undertaken the cataloguing and arrangement of the large number of

books and magazines in our library, but her efforts are being hampered

by our inability to obtain all the steel bookcases which have been

ordered.

The reference collections will also be brought over with the

completion of the agreement with the Prince of Wales Museum and,

after these are under the same roof as the library, members and others

will have better .opportunities to study them.

. The negotiations with the Ministry of Scientific Research and

Culturai Affairs regarding the building funds have not progressed any

further.

With the funds made available by the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust grant,

six students have been given varying awards for field work.

Owing to technical difficulties Dr. J. H. Crook of Cambridge

University, who is working on the breeding biology of the baya

around Poona, has not been accepted by the University of Bombay as

a teacher for the M.Sc. course in Zoology (Field Ornithology), and at

the moment this work is being supervised by Dr. Salim Ali. The

only student on our rolls is, however, working in conjunction with

Dr. Crook and is one of the beneficiaries under the Sir Dorabji Tata

Trust grant.

Through the courtesy of the Canadian High Commissioner in Delhi,

we were able to show three excellent films entitled ‘Hunting with a

Camera’, ‘Your Forest Heritage’, and ‘Life on the Western Marshes’

on 11th July at the B.E.S.T. Conference Hall.

A number of antlers, horns, and skeletons of many different

mammals, which had been lying in the Society’s godown for many

years, were distributed to some 14 colleges and institutions in India

for display in their Zoology Departments.

PUBLICATIONS

The second edition of THE BOOK OF INDIAN ANIMALS is now in the

press but. as most of the coloured plates are being replaced, it will

—

PROCEEDINGS AND ACCOUNTS, 1958 VASAIe 687

be at least another year before it is ready. THE SYNOPSIS OF INDIAN

BIRDS by Dr. S. Dillon Ripley is making progress and should be ready

by the end of next year.

NATURE EDUCATION

The Nature Education Scheme financed by the Government of

Bombay is now in its Ilth year. Though limited by the funds

available, the usual activities were continued. Some 3400 children

were taken over the Natural History Section of the Prince of Wales

Museum (44 visits), the Taraporevala Aquarium (9 visits), and the

Municipal Gardens (4 visits). Nine field trips to different places, e.g.

Kanheri Caves, Powai Lake, etc., were arranged for the Nature Study

clubs.

In addition to the talks accompanying these excursions, 65 talks on

different natural history subjects were delivered at the Museum and

40 conversational meetings held in the schools. .

A series of eight lectures on ‘Plant Life’ with demonstrations was —

thrice arranged for teachers. They were also given the benefit of a

course in geology by Dr. R. N. Sukheshwala of St. Xavier’s College.

This included two field trips into Salsette Island. |

A meeting of children to celebrate Wild Life Week was called on

7th October when films were shown and Dr. Sdlim Ali and Fr. H.

Santapau addressed them.

REVENUE ACCOUNTS

In the latter part of 1957 the entrance fee of Rs. 25 for membership

of the Society was reduced to Rs. 5 with the object of attracting more

members. It is perhaps still a little too early to say, but this move

does not appear to have been particularly successful and the increase

in.membership during 1958, although slightly larger than in the past,

has not been significant. Efforts to attract more members, however,

continue and it is becoming increasingly apparent that the reduction in

entrance fees will have to be supplemented by other measures before

a larger growth in membership can be achieved.

As at the end of 1958 the register showed a total membership of

1255 but this is misleading in that approximately 274 members have

either not paid their subscription or cannot now be traced. Although

efforts are continuing to ascertain their whereabouts, it seems likely

that most of them will have to be struck off the membership rolls in

the near future.

During the year under review the income of the Society was Rs.

47,374 as against Rs. 50,992 in the previous year. This drop of

20A

688 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

Rs. 3618 was due almost entirely to the Society not having received

the usual annual grant of Rs. 8000 from the Government of India and

attempts are still being made to secure these funds from the Govern-

ment both in respect of 1958 and for the future.

The operations of the Society during 1957 had, as you already

know, shown a deficit of Rs. 9542 and, though attempts were made to

prevent a recurrence, the delay in receipt of the Government of India

grant to the Society has led to the showing of a further deficit of

Rs. 11,448 as at the end of the year under review. A promised re-

covery of Rs. 3210 from the Prince of Wales Museum (half the salary

of the Acting Curator who has now been taken over by the Museum)

has not been taken into account as the amount had not been received

before the close of the year. Had it been possible to effect. this

recovery in time, the deficit for the year would have been reduced to

to Rs. 8238.

Expenses during the year amounted to Rs. 58,822, a drop of

Rs. 1711 as compared to the previous year. This is very satisfactory

if it is borne in mind that the increased responsibilities of the Society

necessitated a small increase in the staff, resulting in an increase of

Rs. 2559 in expenditure on staff, despite which an overall saving has

been achieved.

As for the future, it is still hoped that there will be no one dinar

of the Government of India grant, but the seriousness of recurring

deficits cannot be ignored. This matter is already engaging the

attention of the Executive Committee and ways and means are being

explored of cutting expenses without impairing the work being done

by the Society, or in any way reducing the facilities it affords to its

members.

STAFF

The Committee wishes to record its appreciation of the willing

co-operation of the entire staff in the activities of the Society.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Committee’s thanks are due to Mr. J. L. Bernard who continues

to look after the Society’s interests in United Kingdom.

PROCEEDINGS AND ACCOUNTS, 1958 689

APPENDIX TO THE HONORARY SECRETARY’S REPORT

COVERING THE PERIOD JANUARY TO AUGUST 1959

This report for January to August 1959 is in several ways supple-

mentary to that for 1958.

The agreement with the Prince of Wales Museum has been signed

and the Reference Collection, consisting of some 21,000 mammal

skins, 20,000 birds, 3,500 fish, 4,000 reptiles, 1,000 amphibians,

80,000 insects and a large number of miscellaneous items, has been

brought over to the Society’s premises where it is now available to

members and other research students. The Society retains two re-

presentatives on the Board of Trustees of the Museum and it is hoped

that the apparent separation will not lead to any dissociation from

the management and maintenance of the Natural History Section of

the Museum which is accepted as the best in India, if not in Asia.

It has not yet been possible to appoint the additional staff

necessary for the proper maintenance, working, and development of

the collections. The salary of a Senior Research Assistant is to be

paid out of the annual grant from the Government of Bombay and

the scale provided under the Government notification is insufficient to

enable us to secure a suitable person. We are trying to persuade

Government to increase the grade.

- In the meantime, we have had the opportunity of sending members

of the staff into the field with foreign and other expeditions. P. W.

Soman, Junior Research Assistant, spent several months in Nepal

with. Mr. Klavs Becker-Larsen of Denmark while two members of

the junior staff were attached to an American Museum expedition

to Madhya Pradesh where they have had excellent instructions and

practice in the preparation of bird and mammal skins. Later

P. B. Shekar was attached to the Virus Research Centre’s trip to

Kashmir for the collection of some birds in the course of their

investigations and he has brought in 73 birds for our collection.

The Virus Research Centre at Poona is _ investigating the

Kayasanur Forest Disease which occurs in restricted areas in Mysore,

some parts of Russia, and of which traces have been found in

Kathiawar. From this distribution it is suspected that the disease,

which is sporadic, is carried by migratory birds and large numbers

of many species will have to be captured for the examination of

their blood. |

Dr. Sdlim Ali attended a WHO Conference at Geneva and

negotiations are in progress to secure their financial co-operation for

a relatively large project for the capture and ringing of birds on

migration in the Rann of Kutch. Some preliminary investigations

690 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

have been made and a trial project is going into operation next

week. If this shows promise, a much larger effort will be made next

spring.

From the funds made available by the Rockefeller Foundation,

the Society has offered financial assistance for specific pieces of field

work in natural history to be completed during the current year.

Unfortunately, as has been our experience in the past, most of the

applicants have a very poor idea of what they propose to do and

very few have made any definite proposals. The majority of the

applications are yet to be considered but some of those already

sanctioned and completed may be of interest. Mr. E. P. Gee whose

photographs are familiar to you .was commissioned by the Survival

Service of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and

Natural Resources to inquire into the present status of the Great

Indian Rhinoceros in Nepal. The Society contributed Rs. 250

towards his expenses and I hope that you will be able to read Mr.

Gee’s report in the December number: of our Journal.

We helped Dr. Salim Ali with his travelling expenses on a trip to

Uttar Pradesh in search of Finn’s Baya. This species was discovered

and named by Hume in 1869 and then rediscovered by Finn in 1901°

in the Calcutta Bazar. Though it occasionally turned up in the bird

markets both at Calcutta and in Bombay, it had never been found

again in a wild state and the Indian Board for Wild Life placed ‘it

among the rarer of our birds, completely prohibiting its export, dead

or alive. Dr. Salim Ali saw large numbers in the Kumaon terai

and also obtained photographs and movie films some of which we

hope to be able to show you in the near future.

The pioneer bird banding project in Kutch to which I referred

earlier is also being assisted to the extent of Rs. 5000.

Dr. Gardiner Bump of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is in

India on a two-year visit to study the ecology and habits of some

Indian game birds which it is proposed to introduce into the United

States. Attempts are being made to collaborate with him: and have

the food of these species studied. The results would be of consider-

able importance and interest in India itself. Dr. Bump showed to

our members a most remarkable film on “The Bobwhite Quail’ at

the U.S.LS. Auditorium, on 19th March. This was follows 3B | a

talk on Game Preservation.

I am sorry to have to announce the death of Lt.-Col. E. G.

Phythian-Adams who was.a member since 27-10-1909 and has beer

actively associated with our Advisory Committee since January 1930.

Mr, M. -J..Dickins, our Honorary Treasurer since 1950, has

PROCEEDINGS AND ACCOUNTS, 1958 691

retired from India and the office taken over by Mr. Surendr Lall.

We would like to record our deep gratitude to Mr. Dickins for the

help which he has rendered to the Society not only as Honorary

Treasurer, but also as a constant adviser and consultant while the

Society’s offices were at Messrs Phipson & Co. Ltd. Mr. Dickins has

presented to the Society a large meeting table as also photographs

of the earlier Directors of Phipson & Co. who were also closely

associated with the administration of the Society since its inception.

The negotiations with the Ministry of Scientific Research and

Cultural Affairs for a building grant are progressing very slowly, but

it is hoped that in due course it will be possible to put up a new

building in the Museum premises and increase the extent of the

educational and research work which we can sponsor or handle.

The wall charts for the identification of poisonous snakes in

English, Marathi and Gujarati are ready and g Diospeciuses will go

out to members shortly.

Since the last Annual General Meeting 102 members have joined,

47 in 1958 and 55 during the current year.

NEW MEMBERS

The following 102 members have joined since the last Annual

General Meeting:

From 19 JUNE TO 31 DECEMBER 1958

Mr. H. B. Fossey, London; Mr. Gerald Malcolm Durrell,

Hampshire; The Peermade Game Association, Peermade; Mr. C. S.

Machia, Mudis; Mr. R. C. Patil, Mugar; Mr. Pratapsinh R. Morarji,

Bombay; Mr. B. R. Dave, Bombay; Mar Ivanios College, Trivandrum;

Mr. Abdul Rahman M. Yusuf, Bombay; Mr. S. S. Podar, New Delhi;

Mr. Oden Meeker, New Delhi; Messrs Sarabhai Chemicals, Baroda; Mr.

K. Sivaloganathan, Kandy; Central Botanical Laboratory, Allahabad;

Mr. Kamal Singh, Dumraon; Officers’ Mess, Bengal Engineer Centre,

Roorkee; Mr. Edwin T. Goodridge, New Jersey; Gorakhpur University,

Gorakhpur; Mr. J. S. Lall, New Delhi; Central National Herbarium,

Howrah; Mrs. Harold Tufty, Bombay; Director of Indian Aid Mission

in Nepal, Kathmandu; Union Club, Raipur; Mr. Syed Shamsuzzoha,

Comilla; Government College, Sirohi; Mr. A. C. Thimiah, Virajpet;

Shan & Kayah States, Taunggyi; Dayanand College, Sholapur; Institute

of Pre-University Course, Gadag; Fr. Joe Rodrigues, Poona;

Conservator of Forests, Junagadh; Lady Shri Ram College for Women,

New Delhi; Dr. Gardiner Bump, New Delhi; Mr. Sanit Tongsanga,

Calcutta; Mr. Yakubali Mohamedali, Bombay; Mr. K. Becker-Larsen,

New Delhi; Mr. Yashwant H. Talcherkar, Sironj; Miss Ellen Drake,

New Delhi.

692. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

From | JANUARY TO 31 AUGUST 1959

Mr. T. N. Mehrisi, Sendhwa; Mr. David Livingstone, Palayamkottai;

Col. S. S. Bhatnagar, Bombay; Mr. A. F. Burdett, Dehra Dun; Mr.

H. F. Bartsch, Jamshedpur; Mr. H. A. R. Eadie, Digboi; PMC.

Officers Mess, C/o 56 APO; Mr. S. I. Hassan, Mombasa; Mr. Bijay

Narain Sinha, Latehar; Mr. J. &. Matthews, Marangi; Mr. Sergei

Postupalsky, Michigan; Dr. G. K. D. Roy, Arunachal; Messrs.

Davidoss & Co., Bangalore; Miss E. 1. Campbell, Balaghat; Mr.

P. S. M. Molyneux, Coonoor; Mr. D. M. Holmes, Bombay; Mr.

Georges Gogel, Bombay; St. Thomas Inter College, Shahganj; Mr.

Urendra T. Mehta, Bombay; Mr. Walter Mink, Bombay; Government

Degree College, Mandsaur; Bombay Veterinary College, Bombay:

Mr. Dix Campbell, Mass.: Maharaj Kumar Fatehsinh of Kutch,

Bhuj; Mr. N. K. C. Parish, Town Khalispur; St. Xavier’s College,

Ahmedabad: Indian Botanical Gardens, Howrah; Chief Wild Life

Warden, Lucknow; Mr. K. S. Sadananda, Barsikatte; Mr. Kalyan

Kumar Gupta, Shillong; Major Kumar S. N. Rai Deb, Calcutta; Mry

Mohamed Aminuddin Khan, Munnar; Mr. Jan Roger van Oosten,

Washington; Mr. R. G. Brown, North Lakhimpur; Karachi University

Library, Karachi; Mrs. William H. Mathers, Long Island; Fisheries Re-

search Officer, Udaipur; Mahatma Gandhi Memorial College, Udipi;

Mr. Wayne H. Bohl, New Delhi; University College of Ghana, Accra,

Ghana; University of Jammu & Kashmir, Srinagar; Mr. Jagdish Narain, .

Moradabad: Yuvraj Digvijaysinh, Wankaner; Divisional Forest Officer,

Tirap; Mr. Nar Singh Sidhu, Tamkote; Divisional Forest Officer, Tezu:

Jamal Mohamed College, Tiruchirapalii; Mr. A. N. C. Lothian, New

Delhi; Mr. P. K. Basu, Dalsingpara; Mrs. Martha Howe Gogel,

Bombay; Dr. Chas E. Klontz, Vellore; Duke University, Carolina;

College of Science & C. B. Patel’s Arts Institute, Nadiad; Dr. Bankay

%. Lall, Sabour; Wild Life Preservation Society of Northern India,

Dehra Dun; Mr. R. A. S. Melluish, Madras: Mr. L. A. Woodfall,

Bombay; Holkar College, Indore; Dr. Edward W. Taylor, Kansas:

Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Udaipur; Mr. J. MacLellan, Calcutta:

Mr. S. M. Zubair, Bombay; Delaware Museum of Natural History,

Delaware; Mr. A. A. Salunkey Patil, Damoh.

693

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698 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 56 (3)

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE

BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY HELD IN THE

B.E.S. & T. CONFERENCE HALL, BEST HOUSE, ORMISTON

ROAD, BOMBAY 5 ON MONDAY 3lst AUGUST 1959 AT

5.45 p.M. WITH REV. FR. H. SANTAPAU, s... IN THE CHAIR -

|. The Honorary Secretary’s Report for the year ended 31st

December 1959 which was circulated among members prior to the

meeting was taken as read and adopted.

ae a eee

2. The Balance Sheet and Statement of Accounts presented by

the Honorary Treasurer were approved.

3. The Honorary Secretary then read a Supplementary Report on

the activities of the Society from January to August 1959.

4. After completion of the formal business the following films

were exhibited and greatly appreciated :

(1) WHERE THE TIGER PROWLS.

(2) JOURNEY IN SPRING.

5. The meeting terminated with a vote of thanks to Mr. Saul

Blickman of New York for the gift of the tiger film and to the British

Information Services for the loan of the film JOURNEY IN SPRING.

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY V. M. PHILIP AT THE DIOCESAN FRESS

18 CHURCH ROAD, VEPERY, MADRAS—18-2-1960. C2916

EDITORS: SALIM ALI, AND H. SANTAPAU

91 WALKESHWAR ROAD, BOMBAY 6

THE SOCIETY’S PUBLICATIONS

Mammais

The Book of Indian Animals, by S. H. Prater. With many coloured and black and

white plates. 2nd (revised) edition. (Jn preparation)

; Birds

Game Birds of India, by E.C. Stuart Baker. Vol. III. Pheasants, 1st Edition. Rs. 20

has (Price to Members Rs. 15)

The Book of Indian Birds, by Salim Ali. With 64 coloured and many black and white

plates, 6th edition, revised and enlarged. (Jn preparation) Rs. 20

Fishes

Circumyenting the Mahseer and Other Sporting Fish in India and Burma, by A. St. J.

Macdonald. With coloured and black and white plates. Rs. 15

(Price to Members Rs. 12)

} Snakes

Identification of Poisonous Snakes. Wall chart in English, Gujarati, and Marathi.

Rs. 10

(Price to Members Rs. 8)

Miscellaneous

Some Beautiful Indian Trees, by Blatterand Millard. With many coloured and

monochrome plates. 2nd edition. Revised by W. T. Stearn. Rs. 20

at, (Price to Members Rs. 16)

Some Beautiful Indian Climbers and Shrubs, by Bor and Raizada. With many coloured

and monochrome plates. Rs. 22

. (Price to Members Rs. 17.50)

Butterflies of the Indian Region, by M. A. Wynter-Blyth. With 27 coloured and 45

monochrome plates. Rs. 28

| - (Price to Members Rs. 22.50)

Indian Molluscs, by James Hornell. With 2 coloured and many monochrome plates,

and text figures. Rs. 6

: (Price to Members Rs. 4.50)

Glimpses of Nature Series Booklets : ; :

Our Birps, 1 (with 8 coloured plates) in English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, and

Marathi. ; : Rea) 62 nP

Our Birps, 2 (with 8 coloured plates) in English, Gujarati, Hindi, and Marathi.

62 nP

Our BEAUTIFUL TREES, 3 (with 8 coloured plates) in English, Gujarati, Hindi, and

Marathi. ; 62 nP

Our Monsoon PLANTS, 4 (with 8 coloured plates) in English. $0 nP

Back numbers of the Society’s Journal. Rates on application.

Obtainable from :

The Honorary Secretary, A

Bombay Natural History Society,

ne) 91 Walkeshwar Road, Bombay 6.

_Agents in England :

Messrs. Wheldon & Wesley Ltd.,

Lytton Lodge, Codicote, Nr. Hitchin,

Herts., England.

The Society will gratefully accept back numbers of the Journal, particularly

numbers prior to Vol. 45, from members who may not wish to preserve them.

TERMS OF MEMBERSHIP

Life Members pay an entrance fee of Rs. 5 and a life membership fee of Rs. 500.

Ordinary Members pay an entrance fee of Rs. 5 and an annual subscription of Rs. 30.

The subscription of members elected in October, November, and December covers

the period from the date of their election to the end of the following year.

MEMBERS RESIDING OUTSIDE INDIA

The terms are the same for members living outside India. Such members should

pay their subscriptions by means of orders on their Bankers to pay the amount of the

subscription, plus postage—in all Rs. 32.50—to the Society in Bombay on the ist

January in each year. If this cannot be done, then the sum of £2-10-0 should be paid

annually to the Society’s London bankers—The National Overseas & Grindlay’s

Bank Ltd., 26 Bishopsgate Street, London, E.C. 2.

CONTENTS 3

| a » PAGE

THE NON-VIOLENT SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF Birps. By J. B.S. Haldane : : 375

‘THE VEGETATION OF KODAIKANAL GRASSY SLOPES. By K. M. Matthew, s.J. ie Se

FISHING METHODS FOR THE INDIAN SHAD [Hilsa ilisha (HaMILToN)] IN THE |

INDIAN REGION. Part II. By S.Jones .. ie re + 423

WILLIAM JACK, THE BOTANIST (1795-1822). By D. Chatterjee Aes .. 449

OBSERVATIONS ON FINN’S BAYA (Ploceus megarhynchus HUME) RE-DISCOVERED —

IN THE KUMAON TERAI, 1959. By Salim Ali and John Hurrell Crook .- 457

THe GREAT INDIAN RHINOCEROS (R. unicornis) IN NEPAL. REPORT OF A

FACT-FINDING SURVEY, APRIL-MAY 1959. By E. P. Gee bs .. 484

BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY OF ORIENTAL TERMITES (ISOPTERA) No. 4. THE Dry-

WOOD TERMITE, Coptotermes heimi (WASM.) 1N INDIA. By M. L. Roonwal 511

A Strupy OF THE VEGETATION OF AJIT SAGAR BUNDH, RAJASTHAN. By N.C.

Nairand K.C. Kannodia .. 4: ae ry as oe

ON THE PARAKEET Psittacula intermedia (ROTHSCHILD) [Aves : PsITTACIDAE].

By Biswamoy Biswas ed us e Le ‘as

SOME NEW IsOPOD PARASITES ON FisHES. By D. V. Bal and U.N. Joshi .. 563

AN ORNITHOLOGIST REVISITS WEST NEPAL, (MARCH 21-25, 1959). By Robert

L. Fleming ic x: oe 3 4 .. 570

ALBINISM AND PARTIAL ALBINISM IN TIGERS. By E. P. Gee 5 .. 581

A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE FLORA OF VISNAGAR, N. GUJARAT, AND ITS

ENVIRONS. By S. G. Bharati Rs ad ae .. 388

REVIEWS... . a - iy ‘5 bt

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES a ‘ is os -. 624

GLEANINGS. . ae Bs oes , - -» 679

NOTES AND. NEws se es .s a he .. 682

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOMBAY NATURAL History SOCIETY FOR THE YEAR

ENDING 31sT DECEMBER 1958 .. al Re ee -- 684

STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS OF THE BOMBAY NATURAL History SOCIETY 2 693

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING oe a .. 698