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XV. Life-history of Tessaratoma papillosa, Thunberg. 
By J. C. Kersuaw, F.Z.S. With Notes on the 
stridulating organ and stink-glands by FREDERICK 
Moir, F.E.S. 
[Read March 20th, 1907.] 
PLATE XXIII. 
As the early stages of the life-history of this Pentatomid 
have not been described, so Mr. G. W. Kirkaldy kindly 
informs me, it may be of interest to give a fairly complete 
account of the metamorphoses. The mature nymph, how- 
ever, says Mr. Kirkaldy, was figured by Gray in Griffiths’ 
“Cuvier’s Animal Kingdom,” xv, Plate XCIII, fig. 1 (1832). 
This bug is distributed from India to China, and is exceed- 
ingly common in South China, where it might well be called 
the “longan bug,” for it particularly infects the longan and 
- lichee trees, and seems to do them much damage, for the 
leaves of these fruit trees are to a great extent shrivelled, 
blackened and otherwise injured, as shown in the plate. 
No doubt part of this is due to other causes, but fungus 
probably attacks sooner or later the minute punctures 
made by the sete of the bug, and I believe the greater 
part of the injuries are caused by this insect ; it swarms on 
the trees all through the summer or wet season, tainting 
the air in the neighbourhood with its nauseous smell; and 
many may be found in a semi-torpid condition clinging on 
the foliage in the winter or dry season. 
On June 15th a f and $ were taken in the morning 
and put into a breeding-cage on a spray of longan. In 
the evening about 6 p.m. they were im cop. They separ- 
ated before 7 a.m. on the 16th. By 9 am. on the 21st 
the 2 had laid six green eggs on the under-side of a leaf 
(the usual locality for eggs of this bug) close together or 
actually touching one another. As each egg was deposited 
the bug took a step forward and felt with the tip of the 
abdomen where to place the next egg. By 10.15 a.m. it 
had laid fourteen eggs, and it then shifted slightly to one 
side of the batch and remained motionless for several days. 
The eggs hatched on the 30th, so that, roughly speaking, 
they hatch in about ten days. Some little time after the 
TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1907.—PART II, (SEPT.) 
