84 THE AGRICULTURAL PESTS OF INDIA. 



to be by far the greatest enemy of the coffee trees with 

 which the planter had to contend, as he- never knew a 

 single tree recover after their attack ; and he adds that 

 they had destroyed, at Eambodde, in two years, between 

 eight and ten thousand trees of fine old coffee. Mr. 

 Gordon used to dig up the soil at the foot of the trees 

 and take out such grubs as he could find. K Thompson. 



Melophagus ovinus is the sheep tick. See Ixodes. 



Mites. Cheese mites can be eaten with impunity. See 

 Acarina. 



Mollusca inflict injury on man and his industries. 

 "Woodward, writing in England, says : ' All the land snails 

 are vegetable feeders, and their depredations are but too 

 well known to the gardener and farmer ; many a crop of 

 winter corn and spring tares has been wasted by the 

 ravages of the small grey slug.' ' They hold white mustard 

 in abhorrence, and fast or shift their quarters while that 

 crop is on the ground.' Dilute lime-water and very 

 weak alkaline solutions are more fatal to snails than 

 even salt. 



The genus Octopus, one of the Cephalopoda, destroys 

 many of the Crustacea, and its long arms cling to the 

 arms and legs of people in the water. The habits of the 

 predatory mollusca of India await examination. Among 

 the mollusca, the cone species, the genus pleurotoma, 

 inflict bites which inflame and become dangerous. 



Monochamus soongna, a Longicorn beetle, attacks the 

 ' seemul ' Bombax heptaphyllum, the ' soongna ' Moringa 

 pterygosperma, and the c roongrah ' Erythrina suberosa. 

 It is a magnificent beetle of the tribe Cerambycidse ; and 

 its large larvae, armed with powerful mandibles, are very 

 destructive to the woods of these trees. Out of a six- 

 foot log of moringa, Mr. Thompson collected forty-three 



