No. 1.] • Fruit Trees. 63 



NOTES ON INSECT PESTS FROM THE ENTOMOLOGICAL 

 SECTION, INDIAN MUSEUM. 



By the Editor. 



I.— Insect Pests of Fruit Trees. 



Insects infesting the MANGO {Mangifera indica). 



1, Monophlebus stebblngi var. mangiferce Green. 



Order, Rhynchota. Family, Coccidce. 



This insect is one of those scales which in their older stages feed 

 upon the woody parts of shrubs and trees. When full grown the 

 female scale insect is a large, thick, succulent, white coccid, its real 

 yellow colouring being hidden beneath a powdery white mealy 

 substance. It has two antennae and three pairs of legs. The male 

 is a small two-winged fly having a red body provided with several 

 terminal appendages, no mouth parts and a pair of small black 

 wings in which are a few white streaks. Figs. 5 and 5c in Flate 

 xx, Vol. 5, show the female and male insects of M. stebbingi of 

 which species the present insect is only a variety. The damage 

 is done by the female insects sucking out the sap of the twigs and 

 branches. 



Early in the cold weather in Northern India a careful examina- 

 tion of infested mango trees will show minute yellow objects, the 

 size of a pin-head, clustered round the veins or ribs of the leaves, 

 generally upon the underside. With a lens it will be seen that these 

 little dots of colour are insects, each being furnished with three pairs 

 of short legs, a pair of yellowish feelers or antennae and each having 

 its proboscis buried in the tissue of the rib of the leaf. These are 

 the young Monophlebus scales which have already begun their attack 

 upon the mango. Some 6 to 8 weeks are thus spent feeding upon the 

 leaves, the insects moving but little during this period of their exist- 

 ence. Whilst in this very minute stage they may be spread about 

 from tree to tree by small mammals, birds, or insects. Whilst 

 feeding the insects pass out copious amounts of a sugary secretion 

 which thickly coats the leaves and twigs with a sticky material j this 

 dries under the sun's rays giving the leaves the appearance of having 

 been varnished. In fact the scales are little more than animated 

 siphons, the sap from the leaves passing through their bodies in a 

 continuous stream which clogs up the transpiration pores of the 

 .leaves. 



Thus even when quite young the scale has made its presence 

 felt on the tree. The damage is small as yet, since the trees are 



