COFFEE. 



43 



Bear in mind that high cultivation, once commenced, must he kept up. 

 I could furnish numerous instances of the disastrous results of starving 

 estates that had been well cultivated, in which the miserable, false, 

 and short-sighted economy practised has cost their owners thousands, 

 aye scores of thousands, let alone the deterioration of properties 

 themselves." 



Coffee Pes/s.— Coffee is a remarkably hardy plant, thriving at 

 various elevations, and under the most different conditions of mois- 

 ture, soil, and temperature. It is, however, liable to the attacks of 

 certain insects, amongst which the borer is the most formidable. 

 This has been shown by Dr. George Bidie, in a published report, 

 to be the larva of a beetle belonging to the Cerambycidse, and termed 

 the Xylotrechus quadrupes. Hardy as it is, the tree is a dreadful 

 sufferer, and there is scarcely a time when it is entirely free from 

 disease within, or from attacks of enemies from without. Grub, 

 borer, bug, drought, the damp and the leaf disease, are a few of its 

 enemies, and it will be well to touch upon some of these. 



Mr. J. Nietner has given in the Ceylon papers an interesting 

 notice of noxious insects to coffee, which it is desirable to republish 

 as furnishing a useful contribution to biographical and economic 

 entomology — a branch of the science which is now being daily more 

 and more appreciated. In judging of apparently trivial passages 

 as well as of scientific technicalities, which occur in the text, this 

 must be borne in mind. To those planters who would wish for 

 more elementary explanations I can strongly recommend * West- 

 wood's Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects,' 2 vols., 

 with numerous woodcuts, as a most excellent and exhaustive source 

 of information. 



The numerical list given below might easily be doubled by minute 

 research in the outlying districts, and introduction of unimportant 

 species. In fact the brown and white bug, and the black and white 

 grub, are the only universal and important enemies of the coffee tree 

 in Ceylon. The destructions of Arhines, Limacodes, Zeuzera, Phy- 

 matea, Strachia, the white ant and the white borer, and the coffee rat, 

 appear to be of a more local and occasional nature, and are therefore 

 of less importance. The rest of the species are nearly all enumerated 

 for the sake of scientific completeness only. 



ENEMIES OF THE COFFEE TEEE AND THEIE PAEASITES. 

 Hemiptera. 



Fseudococcus Adonidum, L. (White or mealy bug.) 



Parasites : Scymnus rotundatus. Motch. Et. ent. 1859. 

 Encyrtus Nietnen. Motch. loc. cit. 

 Chartocerns musciformis, Motch. loc. cit. 

 Acarus translucens, N. 

 Lecanium coffece. Walk. List Ins. B. M. (Brown or scaly bug.) 

 Parasites : ScuteUiata cyanea. Motch. loc. cit. 



Cephaleta purpureiventris. Motch. loc. cit. 

 „ hrunneiventris. Motch. loc. cit. 

 „ fusciventris. Motch. in litt. 

 Encyrtus par adisicus. Motch. iu litt. 



„ Nietneri. Motch. 

 Cirrhospilus coccivorus, Motch. in litt. 



