CHAPTER XIII. 



NOTE. 

 THE COFFEE BUG. (Lecanium Coffee. Walker.) 



THE following notice of the Coccus, known in Ceylon 

 as the " Coffee Bug," and of the singularly destruc- 

 tive effects produced by it on the plants, has been 

 prepared chiefly from a memoir presented to the Ceylon 

 Government 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 mar- 

 gins 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. 



When 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 ap- 

 parent distinction between male and female. Shortly 

 after being hatched, the males- seek the underside of the 

 leaves, whilst the females prefer the young shoots as 

 a place of abode. If the undersurface of a leaf be 



