THE COFFEE BUG. 59 



escape when mature by cutting a small round hole in 

 the dorsum of the scale. 



It is not till after this pest has been on an estate 

 for two or three years that it shows itself to an alarm- 

 ing extent. During the first year a few only of the 

 ripe scales are seen scattered over the bushes, generally 

 on the younger shoots ; but that year's crop does not 

 suffer much, and the appearance of the tree is little 

 altered. The second year, however, brings a change 

 for the worse. If the young shoots and the underside 

 of the leaves be now examined, the scales will be found 

 to have become much more numerous, and with them 

 appears a multitude of white specks, which are the 

 young scales in a much less forward state. The clusters 

 of berries now assume a black sooty look, and a great 

 number of them fall off before coming to maturity ; 

 the general health of the tree also begins to fail, and 

 it acquires a blighted appearance. A loss of crop is 

 this year sustained, but to no great extent. The third 

 year brings about a more serious change ; the whole 

 plant acquires a black hue, appearing as if soot had 

 been thrown over it in great quantities. This is caused 

 by the growth of a parasitic fungus* over the shoots 

 and the upper surface of the leaves, forming a fibrous 

 coating, somewhat resembling velvet or felt. This 

 never makes its appearance till the insect has been a 

 long time on the bush, and it probably owes its exist- 

 ence there to an unhealthy condition of the juices of 



* Kacodium, species of this genus are not confined to the coffee 

 plant alone in Ceylon, but follow the " bugs " in their attacks on other 

 bushes. It appears like a dense interlaced mesh of fibres, each mad 

 up of a single series of minute oblong vesicles applied end to end. 



