192 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



is obsolete, whilst that at the apex of the first median nervine is 

 short but distinct. 



This species will be figured in the Appendix to my ' Rhopa- 

 locera Malayana.' 



REVIEW. 



Report on the Tea-mite and the Tea-bug of Assam. By J. Wood- 

 Mason. London : 1884. 20 pp. Royal 8vo, with three 

 coloured plates. 



In his introduction the author says, " Of the numerous 

 animals which prey upon the Tea-plant, two only are at present 

 known to do such injury to it as materially diminish the profits 

 of owners of tea-estates ; these are the Tea-bug or ' Mosquito- 

 blight,' and the Tea-mite or 'Red Spider' of planters. The 

 former of these two formidable pests damages the young and 

 tender shoots required for manufacture into tea . . . while the 

 latter of them confines its ravages to the full-grown leaves, and 

 by so injuring these organs as to unfit them for the performance 

 of their important functions, checks the growth of green shoots, 

 and prevents the bushes from flushing." 



The Tea-mite, which has not hitherto been described, 

 Mr. Wood-Mason proposes to name Tetranychus bioculatus, in 

 allusion to its double (really two pairs of) eyes. This is a very 

 minute animal, and to the naked eye appears only as a dull-red 

 speck, but its ravages seem to be very widely spread and serious 

 to the planters, old gardens suffering to a greater extent. No 

 satisfactory remedy appears to have as yet been discovered. 



The Tea-bug is a member of a genus of Capsidae, which 

 is characteristic of the Indo-Malayan Fauna, and has been 

 named by Mr. F. Moore Helopeltis theiovora. The author gives 

 an interesting account of this animal also. It appears that a 

 variety of the tea-plant imported from China is alone attacked, 

 while the indigenous species is free from the pest. The latter 

 shrub produces a liquor " much more pungent and rasping " 

 than the imported variety, so that some chemical difference in 

 the plants may cause the " bugs " to avoid the native plants. 



altogether Mr. Wood-Mason has given us an interesting 

 contribution to Economic Entomology. — J. T. C. 



