Abstract

As a result of intensive work during the past half-a-century, we have a large number of published records regarding the insect fauna, pest occurrences and their life-history studies, etc., in relation to ali important crops grown in our State. The two publications of Ayyar T. V. R., "Annotated list of insects affecting the important cultivated crops of South India (1932) and "Handbook of Economic Entomology for South India" (1940) give considerable information on entomological problems of South India. These are of inestimable value to guide future work. More recent achievements are in the field of insecticidal method of control. These and related progress, are to some extent brought out in the Departmental Memoirs of 1950. Appreciable work had also been done in the biological method of insect control and the pioneer work on the control of the cottony cushion scale in the Nilgiris and the Black-headed caterpillar of coconut carried out by Y. R. Rao and others (1944 and 1950) stands to the credit of the Madras State. "Bee-Keeping in South India" is another departmental publication, which is serving a very useful purpose by embodying valuable information on apiculture, relating to bees.

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