VIII 



PEPPERS 271 



not the same, was sent to me from Port Dickson in 

 Negri Sambilan, Malay Peninsula. 1 This insect ate the 

 bases of the leaves and shoots, and though it did not 

 actually kill the plants, prevented their bearing. The 

 caterpillar was 1 in. long and very thick and slug-shaped. 

 Its back, all but the head, was bluish white, covered 

 with radiating tufts of blue or white spines. Its head 

 and abdomen are dirty yellow, and at its tail above was 

 a yellowish patch with four black velvety spots in a 

 transverse row. The spines on its back are poisonous, 

 and the caterpillar like all of this set can sting rather 

 badly with them. I failed to rear any of the moths 

 from these caterpillars, as they were too much injured 

 in travelling, but I have often seen them attacking 

 soursop trees, and it is certainly a common species. 

 There are a number of these stinging caterpillars in the 

 East, and they are popularly known as nettleworms. 

 They are very troublesome to get rid of, as they are too 

 well defended for hand picking. They can be removed 

 or killed with small pieces of stick or splinters of bamboo. 

 Wounds in caterpillars, even if slight, invariably prove 

 fatal very shortly, and they can be destroyed by merely 

 spearing them with a sharp splinter of bamboo. They 

 do not usually occur in large numbers, but Mr. Green 

 warns planters to look out for and destroy the pre- 

 liminary broods of nettlegrubs in the tea estates where 

 they do much harm, and suggests the use of arsenate 

 of lead sprayed over the leaves at once to prevent a 

 sudden increase of the pest. Planters must, however, 

 remember that this substance is poisonous and pepper 

 fruit sprayed with it might be dangerous to health. It 

 would perhaps be better to use some form of nicotine 

 or tuba root. 



Another caterpillar, or perhaps the same, is recorded 

 as attacking pepper in Assam, and the " Cinchona 

 caterpillar " is mentioned by a writer in the Singapore 

 Free Press (1888) as being an enemy to pepper. The 

 great caterpillar of the Atlas moth (Attacus Atlas) is 



1 Bulletin, Straits Agricult. iii., 1904, p. 101. 



