107 



An Appendix in cost of opening an estate in Ceylon closes the 

 work; useful, but we should like to see a similar one added for 

 cost of opening in the Malay Peninsula, the future headquarters 

 of the rubber cultivation. 



The whole work is good, useful and full of information, besides 

 being very suggestive. The next edition we shall hope to see 

 including the latest works on the subject and rather fuller of some 

 of the older observations which have been made by Ule and others 

 in the Amazons forests. Information grows daily, and the amount 

 of important little facts published in various journals and papers 

 from day to day is extremely large. 



H. N. RIDLEY. 



ON THE LIFE HISTORY OP TERMES (COPTO 

 TERMES) GESTROI. 



THE HEVEA RUBBER TERMITE. 



By E. P. Stebbing (Dehra Dun, United Provinces, India.) 



For some years past it has been known fhat the rubber plant 

 Hevea braziliensis in the Malay Archipelago has been subject to 

 the attacks of a species of termite known as Termes {Coptotermes) 

 Gestroi. This insect had been reported from Borneo and Singapore 

 and also subsequently from, the Straits Settlements. In 1898 the 

 late G. D. HAVILAND wrote as follows upon this termite: — "This 

 species is remarkable for its habit of killing live trees. It encloses 

 the trunk with a thick crust of earth ; under cover of this crust it 

 eats through weak spots in the tree to the heart of the wood. " 



In a note in the Agricultural Bulletin of the Straits and Federated 

 Malay States, H. N. Ridley, the Editor, mentions that Para rubber 

 trees when growing in grass appear to suffer just the same from 

 the attacks of this pest. In a subsequent issue R. Pears corrob- 

 orates this statement and says that the same is the case when the 

 trees are growing in "lalang." Neither the grass nor the "lalang'' 

 appear to form any hindrance to them ' as they carry on their 

 labours as vigorously as ever, destroying several adjacent trees as 

 they would do if the ground were clear. " From the observations 

 detailed below the reason for this behaviour will appear. Since the 

 insect work beneath the ground the presence or absence of vegeta- 

 tions round the trees can have little effect upon their operations. 



In May of last year I received a communication from Mr. B. 

 MANSON, at the time Conservator of Forests in Tenasserim, inform- 

 ing me that he had received a report from the Manager of the 

 Mergui Rubber Plantation (Mr. J. W. Ryan) stating the trees were 



