55o 



INSECT NOTES. 



The following insects were found attacking the Gutta percha 

 plants planted out on the slopes of Bukit Timah, and were identi- 

 fied for me by Mr. C. O. WATERHOUSE of the British Museum. 



Dalpnda oculata, Fr. (Hemiptera) a shield shaped bug f inch, 

 long and \ inch, broad, antennce very slender 5 jointed joints long 

 black minutely hairy, bases of the upper joints white, Head nar- 

 rwly oblong blunt, eyes prominent. Thorax triangular with two 

 short processes at the basal angle, broad. Scutellum triangular 

 large with the two upper corners smooth and conspicuously creamy 

 white. The transparent ends of the elytra blackish. The head, 

 throax and wings otherwise are brown in appearance, but under the 

 lens are cream colour or brownish cream c >lour densely dotted with 

 round black pits. Forelegs not very \ -ng, hairy, bases re Idish, 

 joints and tips black. Body beneath dirty reddish and olive 

 yellow colour. Beak long slender black half the length of the bo ly. 

 The abdomen above is black and red, projecting beyond the wings 

 when they are closed. 



This is a very common shield bug, occurring also in India. It 

 sucks the sap of the plants with its long beak and so injures them. 



Cetonia mandarinea, is a small chafer about half an inch long 

 dark brown elegantly reticulated with gold. It is very common 

 and my attention was called to it at the Residency in Malacca, 

 where numbers were to be seen on rose and other bushes where it 

 was eating the leaves. I was puzzled to know whence it came, when 

 I observed that the Cannas grown in tubs hard by were become 

 very weak and shabby. The gard tiers were changing the earth 

 in the tubs, and on examining this I found it swarming with grubs 

 of this beetle. The grubs are about an inch long when full grown, 

 of the usual form of all the grubs of beetles of this group dirty white 

 in colour, with a thickened tai!, and powerful chtsnut coloured head 

 and jaws. They had been devouring the roots of the Cannas and 

 so caused their deterioration, I have previously seen the same in- 

 sect in tubs of palms which they had injured in the same way. I 

 believe that th^y are first attracted by manure put into the tubs 

 w'th the soil. In cases where such plants in tubs or large pots 

 deteriorate and get weak from no visible reason, the soil should be 

 cleared out and these grubs looked for. 



A dead-leaf cockroach Epilampra deplanata. Walker, was also 

 found on the plants and as its mouth was full of gutta, it seenied 

 certain that it had been biting the plants. The animal is a large 

 flat cockroach of a light brown colour, the colour of dead leaves. 

 It is not very rare here as I remember to have taken it before, 

 among dead leaves and on bushes, but Mr. Watkrhouse says 

 there is only one other specimen in the British Museum but that it 

 may be only a variety of E. Congnia. Very little is I believe known 

 as to the habits of these large jungle cockroaches, but they are 

 generally to be found hiding between leaves of bushes^ flying off 

 quickly when disturbed and concealing themselves among the dead 

 leaves on the ground. 



