Abstract

In recent years Entomologists all over India have been devoting a good deal of atterition to the study of the insect pests of sugar- cane. The authors have been making detailed, studies of the moth borers and their natural enemies. Of the several parasites collected the results of the studies of the three larval parasites, viz., Elasmus zehntueri, Ferr., Stenobracon nicevillei, Bingh and Phaconotus scirpophagae, Wiko., have already been published by the authors 1.2, 3. The present paper deals with Stenobracon deesae, Cam. The parasite belongs to the sub-tamily Vipioninae. it was described by Cameron 4 from specimens collected by C. G. Nurse in 1902 at Deesa, Simla and Ferozepur. Dr. Ramakrishna Ayyar 5. 6. states that it is one of the chief parasites of the stem boring Pyralid caterpillars of cane, sorghum and pulses. It is reported as an important parasite of Scirpophaga by Husain 7 from Punjab. Narayanan & mentions it as a parasite of the sugarcane root borer, Emmalo.era depressella, Swinh. It has also been recorded from Formosa, Java, Sumatra, China and the Philippines by Watanabe 9. The authors have collected this parasite from sugarcane and sorghum fields from Diatraea sticticraspis, Hmps., D. venosata, Walk. Chilo Zonellus Swink and Scirpophaga sp. The Coimbatore collections contain a single specimen of deesac labelled "from paddy".

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