PREFACE. 



In January 1894^ at the instance of the Hon. Mr. James Buckingham, 

 C.I.E., Chairman of the Assam branch of the Indian Tea Associa- 

 tion, a letter was addressed to the Trustees of the Indian Museum by the 

 Governmeut of Indin, in ihe Revenue and Agricultural Department, 

 suggesting the desirability of publishing in a collected form the informa- 

 tion already brought together in the Indian Museum upon the subject 

 of tea blights. The matter was favourably received by the Trustees, 

 and the following report has been drawn up under their instructions. 



Attention was first directed to the insects and mites which attack 

 the tea plant in India by Mr. S. E. Peal, then a tea planter in the 

 Sibsagar District of Assam, who published a valuable paper on 

 " mosquito blight " in the Journal of the Agricultural and Horticultural 

 Society of India, Vol. IV, 1873. Mr. Peal described the effect of mosquito 

 blight and warned the planting community of the extent of the injury 

 likely to be occasioned by it. He further traced the insect through its 

 various stages of development subsequent to emergence from the egg. 

 In 1881 the late Mr. James Wood-Mason, at that time Deputy Superin- 

 tendent of the Indian Museum, was deputed to Assam to investigate 

 the matter. Mr. Wood-Mason's report appeared in 1884*. In it he 

 confirmed Mr. Peal's observations on the subject of mosquito blight, and 

 added an account of the Q^g which he was the first to discover. He 

 also traced the mite popularly known as " red spider " through its trans- 

 formations upon the tea leaf. 



Numerous other species have since been complained of by tea planters 

 as causing injury to the bushes, and from time to time specimens 

 have been sent to the Indian Museum with inquiries as to their 

 indentity. 



Some years since the study of the matter was taken up by the writer 

 of this note as part of an extended investigation of the insects which 

 attack crops generally in India. At first, owing to the unarranged con- 

 dition of the general entomological collections of the Indian Museum, 

 very few of the species that were forwarded in connection with injury to 

 crops could be determined. Little by little, however, the collections 

 have been largely arranged and the identity of the more important 

 species a'^certained. 



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