]gO Indian 'Economic 'Entomology. [Vol, 1, 



it differs from both E. bradyi and II. antonii : abdomen with more yellow 

 at the sides : rest as in S • 

 Hab, Java : on tea. 



Helopeltis theivora, Waterhouse. 

 Plate XII, jig. 2. 

 Helopeltis theiovora,? Moore, Wood-Mason, Tea-bug of Assam, p. 12 

 (1884) : Proc. Agri. Hort. Sop. Calc, 20 Kov. 1873, and v, p. xviii, 

 xxviii (1878) ; Westwood, Gardener's Chronicle, Feb. 21, 1874. 



Helopeltis theivora, Waterhouse, Trans. Ent. Soc, p. 458, t. xi, f. 3 

 (1886). 



$> Black : pronotum orange-yellow, with a black line near the anterior 

 margin, the base margined with black : scutellum brown, black at the 

 base, spine or horn long, much curved, black, at the apex brown : 

 antennae dark brown, basal joint paler, yellow at the base : femora dark 

 brown, mottled with light brown, with a light-yellow ring at the base : 

 tibiae light brown, speckled with dark brown (Walerk.). 

 Reported from Assam, Sikkim. 



Easily recognised by the long and curved spine on the scutellum 

 Mr. Moore does not appear to have described this species, so that Mr. 

 Waterhouse must be considered as having named it. 



There does not appear to be any fixed time for the appearance of the 

 insect or seasonal broods. The eggs are found apparently both in the 

 axils of the young buds and on the lower leaves, but this is a point 

 requiring further examination. The larva is about y 1 ^ inch long, obtuse, 

 soft, with a very small, clavate caudal appendage; colour amber-hyaline, 

 but after sucking the juices of the green leaf for some time it becomes 

 of a greenish colour. The head is horizontal ; the rostrum is about one 

 third to three eighths of the length of the body, and in repose lies qui- 

 escent on the pectus : two eyes, no ocelli : antennae purplish, hemelytra 

 rudimentary: gradually the insect increases in size and becomes of a 

 deeper amber or orange colour, the antennae become longer and turn tc 

 black, and the insect is less active, though furnished with complete heme- 

 lytra, which with the head and pronotum is black, whilst there is a broad 

 white band on the abdomen. 



An observer informs us that the insects seem to commence tapping in 

 February and go on till the end of August. A young larva procured 

 by nipping off the shoot, a leaf or two below the place where it was 

 seen, was placed in a bottle with a shoot containing a pekoe bud and 

 leaf and a pekoe-souchong leaf. After 21 £ hours it was found that this 

 single insect had made 58 taps on the pekoe-bud, each marked by a 

 discoloratiou of the epidermis : there were 48 marks on the pekoe-leaf 

 and 18 on the pekoe-souchong leaf. The spots at first were of a brown 

 coloui'j hut soon changed to black. Dr. Aleyboom states that these 



