December i, 1889.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 383 
by the closaly allied Leptocorisa jtliformis, Fabr. ; in 
Central and North America, by L. tipuloides, De Geer ; 
in Africa by L, apicalis, Westw. ; and in Australia by 
Mutusea brevicornis, Dallas. The general colour of the 
Iudian species varies from virescent (which in old 
specimens fades to sordid yellow) to testaceous, and 
even brownish-testaceous : the rings, at the base of 
the 2-4 joints of the antennas, vary in the space occu- 
pied by them, and, in colour, from white to fulvous 
and testaceous, and are sometimes very faint ; the first 
joint of tbe antennae is sometimes entirely testaceous : 
abdomen above reddish orange, beneath entirely Haves- 
cent or with a row of four brown spots on each side. 
Those without spots beneath are smaller, aud, in the 
Indian Museum collection, are from Assam and Sikkim ; 
the spotted forms are from Calcutta, Behar, Tinnevelly 
andOeylon, but in some of these latter specimens the 
spots are so nearly obsolete as to be barely traceable. 
Mr. D. J. Macpherson, c. s., of Bankura, writes that 
this insect appeared in the sudder sub-division of his 
district, where it is called bhoma, and damaged the 
early rice crop when ripenuing (Sept.) In the Proceed- 
ings of the Agri-Horticultural Society (18th May 1871) 
it is noticed that seedlings from some experimental 
sowings of Carolina paddy were attacked by the 
gandhi, whilst the indigenous seedlings escaped. The 
pest was also reported from Partabgarh in Oudh, and 
is there described as greenish-brown, haying an offen- 
sive smell : it settles on the rice when milky and sucks 
out the juice, leaving the husk dry: as many as six to 
ten of these insects have been seen on a single ear. 
The Deputy Commissioner of Hazaribagh also reports 
the rice-bng (Gandhi makkhi) as attacking the gora 
andbadhi rice while in the ear ; it destroys up to three- 
fourths of the crop and generally appears in a year 
when the rain sets in early (May.) The insect in the 
larval state is most destructive, sucking out the juices 
from the halm, which withers and turns yellow, but 
we know nothing of its life-history, how many broods 
there are; where the eggs are laid and apparently 
hibernate ; whether any attempts at destroying tbe 
pest have been made aud with what result. Smoking 
the fields attacked by burning vegetable refuse to wind- 
ward might be tried, but the area is too large for the 
ordinary methods of insecticide preparations. 
"We have seen the Sinhalese drawing ropes covered 
with a glutinous substance over their fields, to capture 
this or an allied peat. — Since writing the above, we have 
received from Mr. Drieberg, Supt. of the School of 
Agriculture, the following response to queries of ours:— 
I am sorry that my teachers cannot supply the 
Sinhalese and Tamil names of the insects mentioned as 
pests in Ceylon, and they seem to think there are no 
distinctive names. I enclose a note on the rice sapper 
by Mr. Jayawardene: — 
The rioe sapper (Leptocorisa acuta, or varicornis). 
Sinhalese name — yoyan messa, Tamil name — vandu. 
This insect is commonly known in Oeylou as the 
" paddy fly " but it is a member of the bug family, and 
possesses the characteristic offensive smell. Perhaps it 
has gained its Indian name of yandhi on account of 
this offensive smell- Ganda in Sinhalese too means a 
bad smell. 
The pest is very destructive to paddy. Sometimes 
large tracts of fields have to be left without cutting as 
there is no crop to be gathered, the insects having 
sucked out the juice while the grains of paddy were 
still young and leaving the husk dry. On approaching 
an infested field the preseuce of the pest may be 
made out by the offensive smell which prevails. They 
are found in such numbers in some fields that I have 
seen the ears of puddy actually bending under the 
weight of the insects on them. 
Both the " yala '' and " maha " paddy are attacked. 
The insects were found in a plot of dholl in the school 
garden sucking the juices from the immature pods. 
The insects were fouud paired on the dholl trees, and 
a female was placed under a bell for observation and 
laid eggs but these were very unfortunately destroyed 
by ants. 
There ia no doubt that the pest breeds in paddy. 
fields, as I have observed the insect in all the stages of 
paddy plants. An alternative brood is hatched in the 
jungle when the fields lie fallow. 
Methods employed for destroying the pest. 1. Charm- 
ing (!) is resorted to with very great success according 
to the villagers. Probable explanation of success when 
each is the case — a change in the weather. High 
winds and rain drives the pest from the fields to seek 
shelter in the neighbouring jungles. 
2. Smoking by burning certain aromatic herbs and 
resinous substances to windward — very often attended 
with great success. 
3. Ropes saturated with resin oil or kerosine oil is 
drawn over the fields with doubtful succcess. 
4. Bokuycma which is the only effectual way of 
getting rid of the pest. A paddy winnow is taken and 
a glutinous substance, generally the coagulated milk of 
the jak, is rubbed ou the inside. This is tied to a long 
pole und the ears of paddy are brushed with it, when 
the insects are found adhering in large numbers. The 
winnow is now held over a fire and the insects killed. 
The process is repeated over and over again. 
Choka-Poka. 
A bottle containing specimens labelled Chor-poka 
received from Mr. R. Cornish, C. S., of Balasore, con- 
tained the larvas of several species of Rhynchota belong- 
ing to different families. The local report states that 
when the sesamum* crop is gathered and stacked on 
the threshing-floor, the insects appear in vast num- 
bers and eat out the kernal of tbe seed, leaving only 
the husk. To prevent the attacks of the insect, the 
stalks are steeped in water for a day, and thus in- 
duce a partial decomposition which produces a bad 
smell that appears to bo distasteful to the insects 
and checked their progress. Amongst the insects 
found in the bottle are the small pentatomid, Carbula 
biyuttata, Fabr., — a species belonging to the family 
Lygseidfe,— and the larvae of several species in too 
early a stage for iudentification. Is not considered 
probable that any of these insects are concerned in 
eating out the interior of the sesamum seed. 
The Gbeen Bug. (Nezara viridula, Linn.) 
Atkinson, Jl. As. Soc. Ben., Pt. II, p. 119, (1888). 
This cosmopolitan insect, found almost in every 
country in the world, has been reported as occurring 
on potato halms in Bangalore (Mr. J. Cameron.) 
CAPSlSffi. 
Mr. Atkinson has under preparation a monograph 
of the genus Helopcltis, Sign., to be illustrated with 
figures of all the described species of this genus. It 
is well-known' to all interested in the tea industry aa 
the ' mosqmto-bligbt ; ' aud would seem to be of great 
economical interest, both in Assam and all other tea- 
growing countries, t 
Disphinctus liumeralis, Walker. 
Monalonion id, Walker, Oat. Lep, Het. vi, p. 162 (1873.) 
This is another pest belonging to the family Capsidse, 
which has been recently discovered attacking the cin- 
chona at Muugphu in Sikkim. It does net, however 
seem to have done much damage, and has for some 
time disappeared. 
Walker's description is as follows : — 
" Red, slender, shining, very finely punctured : head 
short, triangular, eyes black, prominent: rostrum 
reaching the intermidiate coxte ; antennas black, very 
slender; first joint piceous, rather stout, a little 
shorter than the head ; second joint more than thrice 
as long as the first ; pronotum contracted in front, 
with two transverse furrows, and with a large black 
B pot on each side posteriorly : legs luteous, slender, 
(.orium and membrane hyaline, brownish cinereous ; 
v eins brown." 
Long., 8g mill. Reported from Malacca. 
Notes on mango bugs we do not quote, as mangoes 
in Ceylon do not Beem to suffer mater ially from 
* Uingelly.— Ed. 
t We shall look with great interest for this publi- 
cation, reproducing the most important portions, for 
the information of our readers,— Ed 
