No. 1. ] 



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In Aj.ril 1S91 tlie Director of the Forest Scliool, Dehra Dun, 

 Mango Psjlla. forwarded blighted shoots of mango {Matigi- 



fera indica), with the information that the 

 whole of the mango trees in a large garden near Dehra wei-e attadced 



though, strangely 

 1 enough, other trees 

 close by had not suf- 

 fered. The blighted 

 shoots were aborted, 

 so as to appear almost 

 like a series of little 

 green rosebuds upon 

 the twigs. 'J'hese 

 false buds were found 

 to contain mature 

 Psyll'idce {i.e., minute 

 fly-like Rhynchota 

 alliedto the Aphidse), 

 The insect has not 

 previously been de- 

 scribed from India, so 

 it has been sent to Mr G. B. Bnckton in England for delermination. It 



is no doubt allied to the Vsylla 

 lucri, d<^scribed in the year 

 1737 by Eeaumur, as aborting 

 the leaves of the box tree 

 much in the way that this insect 

 aborts the mango shoots 

 (R-eaumur Mem.,p.351,pl. 29). 

 With regard to remedies for the 

 pest, any of the kerosine washes 

 which are coming into use in 

 the United States and Europe 

 for destroying plant lice on 

 fruit trees would no doubt 

 also kill this insect, if it could 

 be got at, but the insect is so 

 much protected inside the 

 aborted bud-like shoots that 

 there seems little chance of reaching it witii an insecticide. Insecticides 

 might perhaps be useful for spraying the trees when the parent insects 

 are engaged inlaying their eggs, but it has still to be ascertained at 

 what time of the year this takes place — whether in the spring or autumn. 

 Clearing up rubbish around the mango trees, where the insects are likely 



