MAY 22 1887 

 Vol. I.] [No. IV. 



NOTES ON INDIAN ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY. 



RHYNCHOTA. 



BY 



E. T. ATKINSON, b.a., c.s., c.i.e. 



MOSQUITO BLIGHT. 



In this paper, reference is made principally to the species of the genus 

 Helopeliis of the family Capsida, belonging to the sub-order Hemiptera- 

 Heteroptera of the Rhynchota, The genus comprises the insects so well 

 known as the ' mosquito blight' in Assam and Sikkim, as the 'roest' or 

 'rust* in Java, and under similar names wherever the tea plant is culti- 

 vated. Species of this genus have been reported from the Philippine 

 Islands, Java, the Eastern Archipelago, Ceylon and India, and are of con- 

 siderable economical interest from the ravages that they commit. It was 

 my intention to prepare a monograph of the entire genus, but this could 

 only be done with fresh materials, and it appears to be desirable to sum- 

 marise here what is known regarding the genus, and ask those interested 

 to forward fresh specimens in weak alcohol for a fuller description of tho 



species. 



Genus Helopeltis, Signoret. 



Ann. Soc. Ent. France (3 s.), vi, p. 502 (1858). 



First joint of the antennae as long as the head and the pronotum 

 taken together, second joint longest, 3 — 4 joints short : scutellum with 

 a spine on the disc: sides of the abdomen reaching beyond the hemelytra. 

 Signoret placed this genus in the subdivision ' unicellules/ formed to 

 contain those genera in which the membrane has but a single cellule, the 

 head transverse and truncate beyond the eyes, the antennae long and 

 slender, ocelli wanting, and the pronotum narrowed anteriorly. The 

 division to which Helopeliis apparently belongs is represented in Central 

 America by Distant' s ' Valdasaria ' (Biol. Cen. Am. Hem., p. 242), 



Helopeltis antonii, Signoret. 

 Plate XII, fig. 5. 

 Helopeltis Antonii, Signoret, A. S. E. F. (3 s.), vi, p. 502, t. 12, II, 

 £. 2 (1858) ; Walker, Cat. Het. vi, p. 165 (1873) : Waterhouse, Proc. Ent. 

 Soc,, p. xxvii (1885) ; id. 3 Trans. Ent. Soc, p. 458, t. 11, f. 5, 5a (1886). 



