The Tea insects of India. 43 



" Ttese are all Hymenoptera of the most minute description, presenting under 

 the microscope the most elegant forms, and for the most part the most brilL'ant metallic 

 colours. The Marietta, for instance, is shotted or ocellated all over black and white, 

 like a leopard. They can easily be obtained by putting a bugged branch, cut in 

 convenient lengths, into a bottle, when after some time the little wasps will be found 

 flying about inside, having made their escape from the bugs. The mother parasite 

 lays her eggs amongst the bugs ; when hatched, the young larvas find their way easily 

 to the soft underside of the bugs, where they attach themselves like leeches, and, pro- 

 tected aud fed by the body of the bug, remain until they reach the perfect state. A 

 bug thus attacked produces of course no eggs, and, instead of the young bugs, in course 

 of time there escape these little wasps. The shells of the eld bugs are frequently found 

 with one or two holes ; it is from these that the parasites have escaped. I have seen 

 as many as six larvae (belonging to difierent species of Hymenoptera) attached to one 

 single bug. These larvae can easily be seen on turning up some old bugs with the point 

 of a penknife ; they are little white or yellowish eyeless and footless maggots, some of 

 which can leap to a considerable distance by doubling themselves up and spasmodically 

 extending themselves again to their full length." 



THYSANOPTERA. 



Thrips Sp. ? A representative of this group of minute insects has 

 been recorded by Green as feeding* upon the leaves of the tea plant in 

 Ceylon, where it causes unsightly patches, especially on the backs of 

 the leaves. As in other species of the family Thripidse, the eggs are 

 said to be laid on the leaf, where the larvse and adults are also to be 

 found. The adult may be recognised hy the curious narrow hair-fringed 

 wings which are characteristic of this family of insects. Green notices 

 that the same species also attacks rose bushes and fuchsias in Ceylon. 

 He found it to be subject to the attack of a minute hymenopterous 

 parasite, 



ORTHOPTERA. 



ACRIDID^. 



Between the years 1889 and 1891 almost all the tea districts in 

 India were visited by stray flights of the locust Acridium peregrinum, 

 Oliv., from the deserts of the Punjab and Rajputana. The insect often 

 settled in countless numbers upon the tea bushes, but seems to have 

 disliked the flavour of the tea leaf, and to have occasioned no perceptible 

 damage. It is unnecessary, therefore, to do more than refer to it amongst 

 the various insects which attack the tea plant in India. 



The same does not hold of other species of Acrididse which aie 

 usually spoken of as " locusts," though they frequently differ in important 

 points from the migratory forms. 



In February 1892 injury of the kind to young tea plants was 



