^4 



THE TROPfCAL AGRrdULTtJRrST. [March i, mj. 



aromatic in flavour as thab which ia dried by the 

 rapid hot-air draught of the " Sirocco." 



It would appear that the best withering would be 

 accomplished by strong draughts of moderately warm 

 and quite dry air j^assing over the whole surface of 

 the leaf. 



If the juices can be kept uninjured, the more the 

 leaf is withered, the better the quality of the tea. 

 The presence of water in the rolled leaf appears to 

 affect the fermentation injuriously. It is not accurately 

 known at present what chemical changes take place 

 in the various systems of manufacture, but we know 

 that we are more or less dependent on the weather, 

 and that the changes which take place satisfactorily 

 one day, will not do so on another, under apparently 

 exactly the same condition. Lightly withered leaf 

 makes tea without strength or body, and this is 

 probably due to the presence of too much water in 

 the rolled leaf which causes an injurious fermentation. 

 On the other hand, over withering, or bad withering, 

 by which the juice have been injured or destroyed 

 have the same effect ond produce weak pale liquored 

 tea. — Planters' Gazette. 



TEA, COFFEE, AND CINCHONA INSECT 

 PESTS. 



The ravages of insects on tea, coffee, and cinchona 

 p'ants of late years have been so widespread as to 

 threaten serious consequences to those who own large 

 plantations. It is, however, a curious fact that few 

 have deemed the subject of sufficient importance to 

 devote their time and attention to an intelligent 

 investigation of these insect pests, their ways, habits, 

 methods of attack, propagation, &c. ; and it is there- 

 fire with sincere pleasure we have perused an 

 interesting paper on pests of the homopterous family 

 of Coccid;e, which attack tea, cinchona, and coffee 

 plants, read by Mr. E. T. Atkinson, c. s., at a recent 

 meeting of the Bengal Asiatic Society. Mr. Atkinson 

 is not unknown in this branch of science, and his 

 paper will doubtless give rise to a proper discussion 

 of this subject. The author stated that he sought 

 to give such an account of this important family of 

 insects as will induce observers to take up its study 

 seriously. He went on to say that it comprises those 

 insects known as scale-injects, or gall-insects, which 

 are so hurtful to the coft'ee, cinchona, tea, and fruit 

 trees generally. Nothing of value has yet been written 

 regarding the species of this family that occur in 

 India, with the exception of the Carieria lacca that 

 furnishes the lac and lac-dye which form such valuable 

 articles of e.xport form Calcutta. The family is dis- 

 tributed amongst the sub-families Viagpia, Braclu/.-icelina, 

 Lecanina and Coccitui, of which some hundreds of 

 species have been described, but very few of which 

 are recorded from India. The larval form of these 

 in.sects, he said, has six legs, many jointed anteunte 

 and a rostrum, or sucking apparatus ; the adult female 

 as a rule has neither wings, legs, nor antennte, but 

 only a rostrum, while the adult male has two wings, 

 legs, and antenrje, but no rostrum, or mouth. Their 

 forms vary from flat to spherical, many are covered 

 with a white farinose filamentary substance, others 

 with a felted, waxy, nacreous, and even calcareous 

 substance. All are minute, and require much care in 

 their manipulation and preservation. The author 

 di.'^claimed all idea of purely scientific aims in this 

 popular introduction to the study of a much neglected 

 group of great economical importance to residents in 

 the East. His object was to collect facts on which 

 hereafter to base a scientific examination of the species 

 of these insects occurring in India. 



After Mr. Atkinson's paper, the President of the 

 Society brought to the notice of the meeting letters 

 addressed to him by Mr. Green of Punduloya in 

 Ceylon, regarding a new pest belonging to the 

 Homopterous family Coccidcf, which is now committing 

 great ravages on the coffee plantations there, and in 

 some cases compelling the abandonment of its culti- 

 vation. 



Mr. Green writes: — "I have been led to pay some 

 attention to the Homoptera of Ceylon, chiefly by 

 reasoi of the fearful dcslnictjon caqsed by many of 



their number to agricultural products. I am now 

 sending you under separate cover a few specimens of 

 these insects. The parcel contains: — 



"(«) A glass tube with coffee leaves, on the under 

 surface of which you will find a species of Lecanium. 

 This has only lately appeared in Ceylon, but has 

 already spread in an astonishing manner, and has 

 caused inconceivable destruction in the coffee districts. 

 It is entirely distinct from L. coffeea and L.Hniqrum 

 noticed by Mr. Neitner in his " pamphlet on ' The 

 Coffee Tree and its Enemies.' Both these species I 

 am familiarly acquainted with, though their ravages 

 are now very slight compared to the work of the 

 green insect now forwarded. I have not been able 

 to obtain the male form, though both sexes of the 

 other two are fairly common. 



''{6) Cinchona twigs with a species of Coccus, 

 lying apparently beneath the cuticle of the bark, 

 which is raised in the form of small blisters. This 

 is a most extraordinary insect, and with closely aUied 

 species, which are numerous on other plants, has 

 considerably perplexed me, especially as to the nature 

 of the integument which covers it. In the specimens 

 from cinchona, this would seem to be actually the 

 cuticle of the bark, many of the incipient cracks 

 extending right across the integument of the insect. 

 Those now sent are all females. The male form 

 closely resembles those in the tube containing spirits 

 of wine. The larvos and pupa are very similar to the 

 species found on tea-leaves. The adult female has 

 neither legs, antennas, nor eyes, the only external 

 member being a fine sucking bristle (rostrum) which 

 proceeds from a spot near the middle of the under 

 surface. In the young all the members are complete. 

 '•(c) Lorantlius leaves with allied species of Coccus 

 also apparently lying beneath the cuticle of the leaf ; 

 but on examining the integument under the microscope 

 with transmitted light, one finds no traces of cellular 

 formation, nor any stomata, all of which, however, 

 are complete in the tissues of the leaf immediately 

 below the insect. Adhering to this integument, or 

 forming part of it, are always one or more of the 

 characteristic scale of the Coccidce, which would seem 

 to be the cast skins of the insoct. The young larva, 

 after fixing itself to the leaf, soon exhibits the scaly 

 covering on its posterior half, leaving the anterior 

 part free. The scale is then shed, remaining in its 

 place, and the iusect lies freely beneath and loses all 

 its external members, except the sucking bristle. The 

 integument, under a high magnifying pover, appears 

 to be composed of an irregular network of sinuous, 

 intersecting filaments, with no trace of cellular 

 formation. 



"(rf) A tube containing both sexes of another 

 species, affecting the leaves of the Ij)ra>ithus. The 

 integument of the female is continuous with the 

 woolly covering of the leaf. The males are minute 

 red flies with one pair of two-veined semi-hyaline 

 wings, which at rest are folded straight down the 

 back, completely overlapping each other; the antennae 

 are very long and setaceous ; anal extremity without 

 filaments, but with a long central point. Both the 

 upper and the under surface of the head appear to 

 be furnished with a pair of eyes, and I can find no 

 ocelli. The lower pair of eyes correspond to what is 

 described by Neitner in his Pseudo$ocus as ' two 

 black knobs resembling blunted mandibles, representing 

 the external mouth.' These two spots are present 

 in the males of all this family, and I cannot help 

 thinking that they have been erroneously described 

 as mandibles, the external mouth, in my opinion, 

 being present only as a minute spot between the 

 anterior pair of legs, in the same position in which 

 it is situate in the female. [Mr. Green is right in 

 regarding these knobs as other than mandibles; 

 they are eyes ] If the head of the insect be macerated 

 in water and examined with transmitted light, all four 

 spots appear as colourless globules with two concentric 

 dark rings, an appearance which would be given by 

 the cornea of the eye." 



Unfortunately most of these specimens suffered so 

 much from damp in transit that they were useless 

 fnr examination. In a subsequent letter from Mr. Green 



