THE AGRICULTURAL PESTS OF INDIA. 35 



before the husk has become hard. It is a species of 

 Cimex, or one of the Scutellerida3, and whole fields of 

 rice are sometimes abandoned in consequence of the 

 devastation it commits. Some of the bugs are most 

 attractive in colour ; a green one is often seen on leaves. 

 They are quite inoffensive if unmolested, but if irritated 

 exhale an offensive odour. Hem Chundra Dutta of 

 Calcutta says that if mulberry trees be grown in the 

 coffee plantations, the coffee bug forsakes the coffee plant 

 for the better-liked mulberry leaf. E. T. See Cimicidae. 



Bunka, of Hindustan. A hairy caterpillar that eats the 

 leaves of the cotton plant ; it has not been identified. 



Buprestis is a genus of insects of the order Coleoptera, 

 family Serricornes. The larvae are very destructive to 

 living and dead vegetable substances. The Buprestidaa 

 are peculiarly forest insects, and in Northern India attack 

 the timber of coniferous trees. 



A small species of Buprestis, along with a Cerambyx, 

 attacks the wood of the Shorea robusta, in the forests of 

 Kamaon and Garhwal. The grubs of the Buprestidaa 

 family exist in timber for a number of years before turn- 

 ing out the perfect insect. After acquiring maturity, they 

 bore into the timber to the depth of two or three inches, 

 and then undergo their metamorphosis. These beetles 

 often render timber unfit for use. They commence 

 underneath the bark. The larvae of a species of Buprestis 

 was found by Mr. R. Thompson boring two or three 

 inches into felled logs of sal (Shorea robusta), in the 

 Kotree Doon. He found another Buprestis in the dead 

 timber of a living acacia catechu tree, and another in the 

 trunk of a living mango tree. A small Buprestis of a 

 shining colour is frequently found in the timber of the 

 Cheer pine, Finns longifolia, quite destroying the logs 



