PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIED ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 669 



We are much obliged to Dr. Shiraki for sending us a paper for our Mr. Fletcher. 

 Meeting. Many of the insect pests of tea in Formosa are identical 

 with ours in North-East India and in other cases they are very similar, 

 and it is of considerable interest to us to learn what damage is done 

 ^nd what control measures are found effective in Formosa. 



I may add that Dr. Shiraki expresses a hope that he will be able 

 to take part personally in our Fourth Meeting and that is a hope which 

 I am sure we shall all endorse. 



30.— HELOPELTIS THEIVORA, WATERH. 



By E. A. Andrews, B.A., Entomologist to the Indian Tea Association. 



Helopeltis theivora, the Tea Mosquito, is the worst insect pest of 

 tea, and is responsible for enormous losses every year. 



The insects suck the young leaves and shoots. At first the portion 

 sucked shows as a round pale area on the leaf, and generally a tiny drop 

 of liquid can be seen at the spot where the proboscis of the insect was 

 inserted. Later, the extreme edge of the area, and the central spot, 

 turn brown, and the brown colour gradually extends all over the area 

 until the patch shows as a light-brown spot. This gradually darkens 

 until it becomes absolutely black, and by then the texture of the patch 

 has become hard and dry. By the coalescence of a large number of 

 such patches on the leaf the whole leaf becomes black and shrivelled, 

 and eventually falls off. But the damage does not stop here. The 

 discoloration extends down the centre of the shoot, and I have known, 

 in severe cases, new shoots twelve inches long to be killed right back. 

 When one shoot has been killed off, the bush attempts to throw out 

 another, which is likewise killed off, and in badly attacked tea there 

 is often a broom-like growth of blackened shoots at the top of the 

 branches, and the bushes look as if they had been scorched by fire. 



The life-history of the insect is somewhat as follows : — The insect 

 hatches from the egg as a small amber-coloured spidery-looking larva, 

 which bears a superficial resemblance to the adult, but is wingless and 

 without any trace of the scutellar horn characteristic of the genus. At 

 first the larva is covered with conspicuous hairs, which gradually dis- 

 appear as the insect becomes older. After the first moult the scutellar 

 horn appears, and after the second moult the wing-buds can be made 

 out.. There are two more larval stages, and after the fifth moult the 

 adult insect emerges. Copulation takes place shortly after emergence. 

 The male generally dies after copulation, but I have on several occa- 

 •eions got one male to fertilize two females in captivity, and the female 



