374 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Dec. 1, 1900. 
Weeks the moth appears. In this stage it may be 
observed running about upon the lea leaves, or 
resting with the head and anterior parts erected 
and the body supported by the lirst two pairs of legs 
only, the other legs and the antennae being closely 
folded along the body. Several species of Ichneu- 
mon wasps prey upon the caterpillar. In wet 
weather many of the caterpillars are drowned by the 
water that accumulates in the cavities of the rolled - 
up leaves." 
This insect does not often assume the importance 
of a pest, though it is always present in moderate 
quantities. But I have on more than one occasion 
received notice of rather serious attacljs from the 
Badulla, Bandarawela, and Udapussellawa Districts. 
I quote from a recent letter giving particulars of one 
of these attacks : — 
"Bandarawela, 6th January, 1900. — The leaf-roUer 
was prevalent here last season to a marked degree. 
It seems to appear on the arrival of the north-east 
monsDon. The injury became very noticeable about 
January. Every affected leaf was plucked off— as 
advised— and I found by about the end of February 
that the pest had disappeared, partly owing to my 
having pulled off ths rolled leaf and partly owing to 
the grub being drowned by the rain. On the setting 
ia of the last north-east monsoon I noticed the 
caterpillar again starting work. I immediately gave 
to each of the pluckers a cooty sack to contain all 
the rolled leaves, which they were instructed to 
take off. I am pleased to say the estate is now 
practically free. I notice that the grub makes 
specially for young leaf on young tea. Into the 
older tea it has made very little incursion." 
For this pest hand-plucking is the only practical 
remedy. The caterpillar is too well protected to be 
reached by any insecticide. The fact that in rainy 
weather it becomes drowaed in its retreat suggests 
that a plentiful spraying with plain water might 
bring about the same happy result, but such 
spraying would have to be repeated many times to 
produce anything approaching the conditions of a 
rainy season. 
" Nettle-grub " is a popular term applied to a 
certain family of caterpillars provided with tufts of 
stinging hairs. When the caterpillars are accidentally 
or carelessly handled the sharp points of these hairs 
enter the skin, break off, and at the same time some of 
the highly irritant fluid that occupies the swollen base 
of the hair is expressed into the wound. This action 
has its advantages as well as its disadvantages from 
our point of view. The coolies, when plucking the 
tea bushes, will become quickly apprised of the pre- 
sence of the caterpillars : the spot can be marked, 
a careful search made at once, and the brood exter- 
minated before it spreads. Four separate species of 
these "Kettle-grubs," have attracted attention as 
pests within recent years. 
No. 4.— The "Blue-stkiped Nettle-grub," Parasa 
lepitla, Oram. 
Eggs : laid in clusters of from 15 to 20, closely 
overlapping each other like the scales of a fish, 
which they resemble also in their flattened oval shape. 
They are almost transparent ; the embryo can be seen 
through the shell. 
Caterpillar, broad and comparatively short ; rounded 
in front and behind : bright yellow-green, with a 
rich lilac stripe along the middle of the back and a 
bright blue stripe on each side, each stripe bordered 
by a darker line of the same tint. The poisonous 
spines are arranged in tufts along the body ; they 
are pale green, four tufts near the head and another 
pair near the tail tipped with scarlet ; there are 
lour large black spots at the hinder end of the body. 
Specimens that have been feeding upon tea are 
much more brightly coloured than those that have 
been .reared upon coffee leaves. The latter are 
ornamented with green stripes and spines upon a 
pale greenibh ground. They might easily be mis- 
taken for a distinct species. The legs of these 
caterpillars are ruclimentary. 
Cocoon , hemispherical, dark brown, closely resem- 
bling the tea stems upon which it is usually placed ; 
thin, but very comptct. The chrysalis is contained 
in this cocoon. 
In from four to five weeks the moth makes its 
appearence, escaping from the cocoon by a lid-like 
opening at one end. It is a pretty insect ; the foie- 
wings chocolate brown with a broad emerald green 
band stretching obliquely across tbem ; the nind- 
wings buff, tmged with chocolate at the margins ; 
front and sides of the thorax emerald green : and a 
small spot of the same colour at the base of the 
two front legs. 
The caterpillars are gregarious, and are sometimes 
present in such large numbers as to completely defol- 
iate the trees upon which they are feeding. A 
neighbour who seut me specimens told me that more 
than fifty of them had been removed from two adja- 
cent tea bushes. In another instance, a group of four 
or five trees were left quite bare, and the saperinten-- 
dent, searching for tiie cause of the mischief, re- 
ceived practical demonstration of the stinging pro- 
perties of the caterpillars. 
I have had no recent complaints of damage from 
this species. It usually contiues its attacks to a few 
trees only. The grubs when found should be removed 
and destroyed, but under the circumstances some 
other method than handpicking will be found advi- 
sable. — Royal Botanic Gardens, 
( To be concluded,) 
GREEN TEA— HOW TO MAKE IT. 
I have read with interest the various letters that 
have appeared in your columns lately on the above 
subject, and, being an old green-tea maker myself, 
a few words of advice from me might be of use to 
those intending to try their hands at it. In my 
opinion, there is no necessity to make the slightest, 
alteration in existing machinery, or in any way 
add to it ; nothing could be better than a sirocco at 
a rather high temperature for withering the leaf. 
Treated in this way the leaf is in a far better 
condition for rolling than steamed leaf, and will keep 
for hours in the wet state without showing the 
least sign of fermenting. 
There is no reason why every planter, when he 
finds himself blocked with leaf in very wet weather, 
as often happens ("and, is one of the chief causes of 
poor qxiality owing to an imperfect unther leaf hemg kept 
too long), should not turn some of the leaf into green 
tea, and thus get rid of the excess and make better 
black teas of the balance. But, though this would be 
very convenient and useful to many during the worst 
months of the monsoon, it would never do to depend 
on it entirely for all the green tea we want to make. 
We wish to capture a market already occupied by 
China and Japan, and to do this we must make tea 
that will equal theirs in appearence, as well as beat 
it in purity and strengh, and, to do this, we must 
alter our system of plucking and pruning. Anyone 
wishing to make green tea should set apart a portion 
of his estate to be treated exclusively for green tea 
and in doing this it is well to remember that the 
large leaf indigenous is not so well suited for 
green tea as the China or (so called) low-class hybrid 
jat. Most of the older estates in Ceylon have fields 
of this class, and these are the fields that should be 
chiefly devoted to green tea. 
In plucking for green tea, the Chinese never pluck 
the shoot with the stalk, as we do for black tea. They 
take the tip and then the leaves, the stems being left 
on the bushes. They do this even for their finest 
quality hlach teas, and, if we did the same, we should 
doitbtlcss t/et better prices and there would he no need 
io make green tea at all, as this system of plucking 
tuould in itself reduce the yield fully SO per cent. 
But, though this would be a very simple way out 
of the difficulty of over-production, planters are not 
iikely to adopt it on a large scale, yet for gi^eq 
