225 



JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY. 



Vol. 14. OCTOBER, 1914. No. 8. 



MOLLUSCAN RUBBER PESTS. 



By G. C. ROBSON, B.A. 



(Published by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum). 



(Read before the Society, Sept. gth, 1914). 



I AM indebted to Prof. R. Newstead, F.R.S., and Mr. E. Ernest 

 Green for information on the following instances of damage occasioned 

 by MoUusca in rubber plantations in Jamaica and Ceylon. These 

 cases have been more fully recorded elsewhere but through the courtesy 

 of Prof. Newstead and ]\Ir. Green I am enabled to draw the attention 

 of students of the MoUusca to them, and at the same time to state that 

 I shall be very glad to receive information of similar instances of 

 ravages caused by MoUusca. 



In the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society (vol. xxxvi., pt. i, 

 19 10) Prof. Newstead described the depredations of a large flat slug 

 in Jamaican plantations of Para and Central American rubber, in 

 which quite a large percentage of young trees had their foliage 

 injured by the slug. Specimens of the latter were forwarded to the 

 British Museum this year and identified by the author as Veronicella 

 vittata Ckll. 



In the " Circulars and Agricultural Journal of the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Ceylon" (vol. v., no. 22, 1911) Mr. E. E. Green describes 

 the damage to Singhalese rubber plantations caused by a Zonitoid of 

 the sub-family IIeHcarioni?iae, Mariaella dussuiiiieri Gray, and other 

 short references to the same pest occur in the "Tropical Agri- 

 culturalist," xxxiii., 2 and 5, and xxxvi., 1909-1911. 



Mr. Green likewise calls the author's attention to the case of a 

 species of Parmarion that is alleged to drink rubber latex in Java 

 and Sumatra. 



