June, 1912.] 



529 



PLANT SANITATION. 



THE PADDLE-LEGGED BUG, (LEPTO 

 GLOSSUS MEMBRANA CEUS). 



By E. Ernest Green, 

 Government Entomologist. 



Until a few weeks ago, I had regarded 

 this insect as a rare curiosity. In a 

 period of thirty years, during which I 

 have been collecting Geylon insects of all 

 kinds, I had taken only three adult ex- 

 amples of the species. Quite recently, it 

 has cropped up as a troublesome pest of 

 fruit and vegetables, and numerous speci- 

 mens have been sent in — almost simul- 

 taneously — from various parts of the 

 Island, from Haputale, Nuwara Eliya, 

 Maskeliya, Panadura, and Galle. The 

 same species has been collected in the 

 Kandy district. 



All reports tell the same tale of serious 

 injury to unripe fruit, especially Orange3. 

 Other fruits attacked are :— 



Tree Tomato (Cyphomandra betacea), 

 Passion fruit, Peaches, Plums, and 

 Cape Gooseberry (Phy salts peruviana). 

 Amongst vegetables, Beans, Peas, and 

 Vegetable Marrows have suffered. Even 

 Cabbages are attacked, but the damage 

 in this ease is not so marked. The insect 

 takes its nourishment by thrusting its 

 beak deep into the fruit and sucking the 

 juices. The result is that the punctured 

 fruit drops off long before it is ripe. In 

 the case of Beans and Peas, the im- 

 mature pods shrivel and wither. One 

 correspondent writes : — '* They swarm on 

 the oranges, sometimes ten or twelve to 

 one fruit, and suck the juice." 



The species is not confined to Ceylon, 

 but occurs also in various parts of India. 

 In the Andaman Islands, the Nicobar 

 Islands, Burma, throughout the Malayan 

 Archipelago to Australia, and in Trop- 

 ical and Southern Africa. 



It is difficult to explain this sudden 

 local increase of such an insect as Lepto- 

 glossus. It belongs to the bug tribe Hem- 

 iptera), a family that is generally pro- 

 tected by a noisome smell (and probably 

 an equally objectionable taste.) Birds 

 67 



are not partial to insects of this tribe, 

 nor are bugs commonly subject to 

 internal parasites. Under these circum- 

 stances, it is perhaps still more remark- 

 able that the insect has hitherto re- 

 mained so scarce. It is certainly not 

 held in check by any restriction of 

 food, for its taste in fruit appears to 

 be wide and diverse. They may pos- 

 sibly be decimated by some fungal or 

 bacterial disease : but the factors that 

 govern the increase or restriction of 

 many of our insects are still obscure. 



The accompanying figure will give an 

 idea of the appearance of the insect : — 



f 



It is of a dull brown colour above, with 

 a reddish yellow band across the front 

 part of the body, a minute ochreousspot 

 in the centre of each wing-cover, and a 

 row of ochreous spots on the lateral mar- 

 gins of the hind-body. The whole under- 

 surface is thickly mottled with reddish 

 yellow spots, and the antennae are con- 

 spicuously barred with the same colour. 

 The enlarged hind legs, each with a flat- 

 tened expansion on the tibia, distinguish 

 this species from any of its allies and 

 afford a character which suggests 'Pad- 

 dle-legged Bug' as an appropriate popu- 

 lar name. The adult insect measures 

 from three-quarters to seven-eighths of 

 an inch in length. 



The only common bug with which it 

 may be confused is the ' Dadap Bug,' 

 Anoplocnemis phasianus (see T. A., 

 September, 1905, p. 410). That insect 



