抄録
Notes are given on four species of black caterpillars of the tea plant in Japan, i. e. Pyralid, Tamraca torrirlalis LEDERER, Herculia pelasgalis WALKER, and an unidentified species, which attack the twig. bark of the tea plant, and the NCetuid, Nodarw niphonna BUTLER, whose larvae live among the fallen foliages and feed on them.
Tamraea torritlalis is a serious pest of the 2-3 year-old tea garden after pruning, at Kamiasala mura, Shizuoka-prefecture which emerges one generation a year in Japan, the larvae pass winter, hatch on June and July usually, the moths emerge on July and August, the eggs are laid on the back of the leaf. The larvae spin webs on the branches and bite the twigs, making them dead. The full grown larvae make cylindrical cocoons with fragments of leaves and twigs fastened by silky thread and suspended on webs.
Herculia pelasgalis has similar habit to the former species and is not seen so abunduntly.
The unidentified species of the Pyralid, recorded by Dr. C. SASAKI (1899) at Shiga-preferture has not yet been caught by the writer. (9, Feb, 1953)
