56 SCALE PESTS OF COFFEE 



In India, the first record appears to have been pub- 

 Hshed in the Indian Museum Notes for 1896, in an account 

 of Scale Insects Collected in Madras in 1892-93. About 

 the same time. Watt recorded it on tea in Assam. It is 

 highly probable that the insect was in existence in India 

 at a much earlier date. 



Status as a Pest. 



Though long known, the brown bug has not been 

 looked upon as a serious pest of the more important crops 

 at any time in India. Mann, in describing the relation of 

 brown bug to tea in» North India, points out that the 

 pest usually occurs in sheltered positions and that the 

 damage done by it has been light. It is more often 

 found on the young woody twigs of the tea less than one 

 year old but also on the underside of the leaves. The 

 damage hitherto attributed to this insect is small. In 

 South India it stands in much the same position. In 

 relation to tea, Green says, "It causes some injury to 

 individual bushes but usually confines its attacks to plants 

 that are sheltered from rain by over-hanging rocks." 



With reference to brown bug as a pest of coffee in 

 South India, Lefroy writes, " The bug infects the coffee 

 plant to so great an extent that the sap of the plant is 

 drained away and the plant dies." The description is ap- 

 parently of individual bushes and sporadic outbreaks rather 

 than of any permanent relation of the insect to the plant. 

 The only serious and persistent outbreak which has come 

 to the knowledge of the Department is on an estate where 

 it has, in company with green bug, practically overrun the 

 entire area and has defied all measures of control that have 

 been used against it. Outside of this estate the bug has 

 nowhere been found to attack more than a few plants at a 

 time. 



Description of Brown Bug. 



The appearance of the insect has already been de- 

 scribed in an earlier part of the bulletin. 

 The following is Green's description : — 



