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crops and vegetables. It has a prominent beak ; oval body ; 

 large meso-thorax ; the scutellum or shield very large, cover- 

 ing nearly the whole of the wings and abdomen. (2) 

 Leptocorisa acuta (Fig. 69 a), the rice-sapper (Gan- 

 dhi or Bhoma) has a small triangular scutellum ; long and 

 slender body, yellowish brown in colour. (3) Dysdercus 

 cingulatus, which has a very short scutellum, is a conspicuous 

 red-coloured insect, about the size of a wasp. It attacks 

 cotton, bottle gourds, musk-mallow, cabbages &c. (4) Oxy- 

 carenus lugubris which is very like the clinch bug of America 

 (Blissus leucopterus), is a small, black, fly-like insect with a 

 short scutellum, which commonly attacks cotton plants and 

 cotton bolls. (5) Lohita grandis (Fig. 69 b) which attacks 

 cotton plants, (known as kapasi-poka in Nuddea), is also a 

 slender insect with hard wings and short scutellum. (6) 

 Another bug (Physopelta schlaubuschii), known as kuti pokd 

 in Nuddea attacks rice plants. (7) The so called 'mosquito 

 blight' (Helopeltis theivora) of tea, is also a bug. (8) The 

 Blissus gibbus is a bug which spoils the sugar-cane leaf and 

 growing canes by feeding on the sap or juice. 



1,214. Of homopterous insects may be mentioned the 

 following: (i) Aphis brassicae, the jab pokd of mustard &c. 

 and other aphides. Aphides secrete a sweet honey-like 

 substance for which they are much sought after by other 

 insects. This is a wise provision of nature to keep them 

 down. The fully sexual forms have large wings but they are 

 mainly propagated a-sexually. Some live on leaves, others 

 suck the juice of green stems and leaves, others again live on 

 roots. They are green or brown, or black, in colour. Phyl- 

 loxera vastatrix is the vine aphis which attacks both roots and 

 leaves and produces little galls also. The tea-aphis (Ceylonia 

 theaecola) is a blackish insect which sucks up the juice of 

 young tea leaves and causes their edges to curl up (Fig. 70 a.) 

 (2) The Psyllid-e the larvae of which are covered by a cottony 

 secretion, are small leaping bugs. Like aphides they subsist 

 JJJJ 



