i?o*ES. 159 



5. Millipede lulled hy Reduviid hug. — "While watching a large 

 millipede crawling over my lawn I noticed an immature 

 specimen (nymph) of the Reduviid bug (Physorht/nchus linncei^ 

 Stal.) following and mancBuvring about it. Suddenly the bug 

 closed and fastened upon the hinder extremity of the millipede, 

 plunging its proboscis into the intersegmental tissue on the 

 ventral surface between the legs. The millipede immediately 

 writhed about apparently in great pain, but failed to dislodge 

 its enemy. It tried to crawl away, but rather more than half the 

 body and limbs were paralyzed. After feeding for about a 

 minute the bug left its victim, which I then picked up and 

 confined in a box, meaning to note how soon the paralyzing 

 effects would pass off. Twelve hours later the millipede, instead 

 of having recovered, was found to be quite dead. The victim 

 measures 5| inches in length with a proportionate thickness. 

 The predatory bug was scarcely | of an inch long. The bite of 

 many of the Reduviid bugs is — as I have experienced — extremely 

 painful ; but I was astonished to find its action so fatal in this 

 case. The poison evidently acted directly upon the ventral 

 nerve cord. 



Peradeniya, May, 1905. E. ERNEST GREEN. 



6. Remedies adopted against the Paddy Fly. — One of the great- 

 est enemies of the paddy plant {Oryza sativa) is the so-called rice 

 sapper or paddy fly (JLeptocorisa varicornis), called in the vernacular 

 goyan-messa. 



The common remedy adopted against this pest is smoking the 

 fields by smother-burning vegetable refuse to windward. The 

 suffocating effect of the dense smoke that is thus raised is some- 

 times intensified by adding to the burning mass such substances 

 as tar, sulphur, tobaccoi leaf, and margosa oil (from Azadiraclita 

 indica). 



The paddy fly is believed to object strongly to the odour of 

 resin, and for this reason cultivators often draw a rope saturated 

 in melted resin across the field. 



The flies are sometimes captured by means of " bird-lime," in the 

 following manner. A winnow smeared with the sticky latex of 

 the. jak tree (^Artocarpus integrifolia) is fixed to the end of a pole 

 and drawn over the tips of the plants. The flies as tli ey are captured 

 are collected in a pot strung to the waist of the operator and after- 

 wards destroyed. Tbe process is carried on in the early morning 

 or late in the evening. 



A method of decoy is also employed thus. An earthenware 



