No. 4.] Rhynchota. 181 



insects, in Java, repose during the day near streams and in moist ground, 

 and feed by night, though a few may be found during the day in shady 

 positions on the shrubs, but not on the ground. The garden referred to 

 was surrounded by paddy-fields and near a river, and seemed to be more 

 liable to attacks in cold and wet weather. The insects in Assam are to 

 be found to repose in shady positions beneath the shrubs, and do not 

 leave the area attacked. Tlie observations of Dr. Aleyboom would 

 therefore appear to be not of general application, but to have reference 

 to the particular position of the garden referred to. 



H. tkeivora is the form with which we are chiefly concerned in India, 

 and Mr. S. E. Peal of Sibsagar was the first to bring to notice (Journ. 

 Agri.-Hort, Soc, Calcutta, IV (i), p. 126, 1873) that the " black blight/' 

 "smut," &c, on tea was the work of this insect and not a spontaneous 

 fungoid growth. Further investigations have shown that the attacks 

 of these insects occur under all conditions of soil and climate, in high 

 land and low, dry or wet, rich or poor, in a dry season as bad as in a 

 wet one, and as frequently with good culture and clean tea as with the 

 reverse. That it is not due to " shade " or u want of cultivation " is shown 

 by the fact that in the two worst cases, one had the garden particularly 

 open, and in the other it was quite clean. It is difficult from one 

 year's attack to say where the insect will appear the next year : all places 

 appear to be equally liable to its ravages, but it seldom is seen over an 

 entire garden at once. 



Mr. Peal states that the young leaf alone is first attacked, and the 



. ■ ; . more tender and succulent the shoots are, the 



Diagnosis. , • ' 



more they sutler. The shrubs show the shoots 



brown and withered in a garden that has for some time felt the attacks 

 of the insect ; but if only recently attacked, the general appearance is 

 normal, and only on the youngest shoots and twigs are a few small brown 

 spots seen, the size of the spots varying with the age of the insect 

 causing them. If the insect be very young, the punctures are minute 

 and close, and the consequent discolorations coalesce and become con- 

 tinuous. When the larva attains its full growth, these spots become 

 one eighth of au inch in diameter. When the punctures are recent, the 

 colour is pale brown and darkest at the edges; but if one or two days 

 old, the spots are dark brown, verging on black, the entire leaf curling 

 up and withering completely if they be at all close. Where the shrub 

 has suffered for some time and severely, the symptoms are often less 

 visible at first sight. The dead leaves have for the most part fallen off 

 and the minute shoots at the leaf -axils above show the damage, all 

 being dried and dead; there is less dead leaf showing, but dead "tips" 

 appear everywhere. Further examination will show that the affected 

 shrub, ere it ceased entirely to shoot out, had made many efforts to 



