272 SPICES 



CHAP. 



occasionally to be found attacking pepper plants, and 

 I have seen vines in Singapore quite denuded by these 

 animals, which are almost omnivorous. The caterpillar 

 is easily distinguished by its great size and its pale 

 sea-green body, powdered with white and armed with 

 thorn-like processes, which, however, are not poisonous. 

 It is a most voracious feeder, very soon eating up every 

 leaf on its food plant, and stripping it quite bare. It 

 pupates in March in a tough, egg-shaped cocoon which 

 is attached to a leaf or twig. The moth is of great size, 

 often over 9 in. across the wings, and of a variegated 

 rufous brown and grey colour, with a small angled 

 transparent "window" in each wing. The caterpillars 

 are best destroyed by hand picking. 



The flowers and fruits of the pepper plant do not 

 escape attack by various pests. On a plant cultivated 

 in the Singapore Botanic Gardens I found a number 

 of fair-sized bugs, sitting upon the pepper spikes, and 

 apparently sucking them. The bug was ^ in. long, 

 with slender antennae about as long as the body, black, 

 with the base of the last joint emerald green, head 

 small, green, thorax four -angled, wedge-shaped, back 

 margin broadest, with two short points at the angles, 

 green, entirely punctate, upper wings greenish olive, 

 strongly ribbed scutellum green, punctate, under wings 

 dull red, visible when it flies, abdomen pale-green, legs 

 long and green. There were a number of pepper fruits 

 destroyed, black, dry, and shrivelled on the plants on 

 which this bug was settled, but whether this was due 

 to the attacks of the insect or a fungus, I could not be 

 sure. The bug belonged to the group Coreidae and 

 apparently to the genus Pendulina. 



Mr. Hewitt mentions a number of insect pests which 

 attack the flowers and setting fruit in Borneo. The 

 worst of them are the small plant bugs (Hemiptera). 

 When the flower spikes appear there may be seen a 

 number of small black insects, each armed with a long 

 spine on the back and one on each shoulder. They 

 settle on the flower spike and feed on the flowers. 



