69 



achat ina, a very common insect. In India it is accused of serving 

 tea, jute and rice in the same way. This little dark brown cricket 

 is extremely abundant in the Botanic Gardens among the grass 

 beneath the rubber trees, but it does not attack the rubber seedlings 

 there probably because there is lots of grass and other weeds for it 

 to eat. It is the insect identified by Dr. HANITSCH as Gryliacris 

 tessellata, (Bulletin 1905, p. 457), and is an insect I saw caught in 

 abundance in Province Wellesley by a light over a pan of molasses. 

 Another cricket sent by Dr. LlM BOON KENG proved to be a young 

 specimen of Gymmogryllus elegans, about half grown. This is a 

 blacker colored beast than the Brachytrypes. The adult says Mr. 

 WATERHOUSE has bright yellow wings and is one of the handsomest 

 crickets. 



Dr. Lim BOON Keng says it behaves in just the same way as the 

 Brachytrypes, biting off the tips of the seedlings and carrying them 

 off to its burrows. 



H. N. R. 



The Bark Fungus of Para Rubber. 



A specimen of this fungus described in the Bulletin for December, 

 1905, p. 45 7, has been identified by Mr. GEORGE MASSEE at Kew 

 Gardens as Corticiutn calceum, Fr. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Mr. Stanley Arden has resigned his post as Superintendent of 

 the Experimental Gardens at Batu Tiga in Selangor, in order to 

 take up the managership of the large Rubber estate being formed 

 at Pulau Kukub in Johore. 



A new publication of interest to those engaged in agriculture and 

 commerce in the tropics has lately been received. It is the 

 Quarterly Journal of the Institute of Commercial Research in the 

 Tropics, of the Liverpool University. The object of the Institute 

 is to collect and tabulate all kinds of information about raw pro- 

 ducts, trades, industries which can be of service to commerce the 

 study of the Natural History of Tropical Countries especially in 

 relation to commerce, investigating problems in connection with 

 this, training experts in these branches of applied science, and sup- 

 plying information to all interested in these subjects. Explorations, 

 research work and publication of reports and monographs, form 

 part of the work of the Institute which has enrolled the services of 

 a large number of well known scientific men and experts to assist 

 in its labours. A number of notes on specimens received, are pub- 

 lished in the first number of the Journal. The dried juice of the 

 Chiko (Achras sapota) it is suggested might be used in the manu- 

 facture of jam. 



