244 GA^irOLA AXD THE COFFEE REGIOXS. [Fart YII. 



NOTE. 



THE COFFEE BUG. 



(Lecanium Cofece, ^Talker.) 



The following notice of the Coccus, known in Ceylon as the 

 " coffee-bug," and of the singularly destructive effects produced 

 by it on the plants, has been prepared chiefly from a memoir 

 presented to the Ceylon Grovernment by the late Dr. Gardner, 

 in which he traces the history of the insect from its first 

 appearance in the coffee districts, until it had established itself 

 more or less permanently in all the estates in full cultivation 

 throughout the island. 



The first thing that attracts attention on looking at a coffee 

 tree which has for some time been infested by this coccus, is the 

 number of brownish wart-like bodies that stud the young shoots 

 and occasionally the margins on the underside of the leaves. 

 Each of these warts or scales is a transformed female, containing 

 a large number of eggs which are hatched within it. 



\Mien the young ones come out from their nest, they run 

 about over the plant looking very much like diminutive wood- 

 lice, and at this period there is no apparent distinction between 

 male and female. Shortly after being hatched the males 

 seek the underside of the leaves, while the females prefer the 

 young shoots as a place of abode. If the under sm'face of a 

 leaf be examined, it will be found to be studded, particularly 

 on its basal half, with minute yellowish-white specks of an 

 oblong form. These are the larvas of the males undergoing 

 transformation into pupag, beneath their own skins ; some of 

 these specks are always in a more advanced state than the others, 

 the full-grown ones being whitish and scarcely a line long. 

 Some of this size are translucent, the insect having escaped; 

 the darker ones have it still within, of an oblong form, 

 with the rudiment of a wdng on each side attached to the lower 

 part of the thorax and closely applied to the sides ; the legs 

 are six in number, the four hind ones being directed backwards, 

 the anterior forwards (a peculiarity not occurring in other 

 insects); the two antennie are also inclined backwards, and 

 from the tail protrude three short bristles, the middle one 

 thinner and longer than the rest. 



When the transformation is complete, the mature in- 



