Jan. 1, 1901. J 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
U7 
dorsal stripe. The spines on three or four of the 
tufts on each side near the head are blackish ; all 
the others are green. The head, as usual in this 
' family, can be withdrawn into a little pocket, and the 
caterpillar has no legs. When iuUgi-own it is little 
more than half an inch in length. It rests on the 
under surface of the leaves. 
Oocoou ; broadly oval, almost globular, dull reddish- 
brown, smooth. The moth escapes by a lid-like 
opening at one end. The cocoons are attached 
either to the leaves or twigs of the plant, or to the 
fallen leaves and rubbish below the tea. 
Moth ; male, pale ochreous, the middle of the 
fore-wing covered by a rcdJish brown patch, in the 
centre of which is a black spot. Antennae strongly 
feathered. Expanse J inch. Female, dull brownish- 
ochreous, fore-wing darker. Antennae thread-like, 
Expanse 1 inch. 
iMoths in captivity emerged from the cocoons 
after 17 days. 
The CJva tea districts seem to enjoy almost a 
monopoly of this spfcies as a tea pest. Though it 
is a widely distributed insect throughout the Island, 
and certainly occurs in all the tea districts, yet I 
have received no reports of damage to tea or of its 
occurrence in unusual numbers in the Central 
Province.* My first acquaintance with it — in its 
character of a pest — was in November, 1897, when I 
received specimens from Badulla. And quite recently 
several estates in Passara have suffered severely 
from the same insect. A correspondent writing on 
the 10th January, says; — 
The pest WJ/sfi -jt niti'ed on this estate early in 
Ja"y Is^s' yeai , when the caterpillars were half-grown, 
alo'ng the roadsides, under the Grevilla trees. They 
gradually spread over almost the whole estate, 
stripP'Hn ftbont 100 acres of all leaves. For some 
time 500 coolies were collecting a bushel a day of the 
cocoons from under the fallen leave?. They seem to 
turn to chrysalis, moth, and caterpillar simultaneously 
in all parts of the estate, and run through the 
changes of their existence in about two months. 
Early last November, in many of the fields, clouds 
of the moths appeared at dusk. The moths were in 
existence also early m September. They completely 
disappeared for about three weeks while the eggs 
were hatching. I have never identified the eggs. 
At the time I write there are still a few cater 
pillars to be found, but I hope, if January con- 
tinues wet, the damp may kill the survivors, as it 
has done before. I found them also on many jungle 
trees near the tea fields." 
This correspondent adds memoranda of the monthly 
rainfall, from which it appears that the broods of 
July, August, and September occurred during the 
spell of comparatively dry weather, but the brood 
that was so noticeable early in November followed 
a distinctly wet month, October showing a fall of 
15"94 inches. 
In April of the present year I personally visited 
the Passara district and the estates that had been 
subject to this pest. The bushes had completely 
lecovered from the attack, and no permanent dam- 
age was noticeable. The superintendent, however, 
was of opinion that there was not such good wood 
to cut into at the next pruning as should ha/e 
been found in a healthy field. I was infocmed that 
the cocoons were nearly always found under fallen 
leaves b elowthe bushes — often attached in clusters 
of five or six to dead Grevillea leaves, seldom on 
the leaves or twigs of the growing plant. 
During my visit moths of Natada nararia were 
flocking into the verandahs of the bungalow at dusk, 
attracted by the lights. I experimented with a simple 
moth-trap, a coconut lamp in the middle of a basin 
of water. But very few moths were captured in 
this way, possibly owing to the presence of a bril- 
liant moon at the time. This plan should be tried 
again on moonless nights. 
* Specimens have since been received from the 
Eangalla district. 
No. 8.— The Red Slug," Heterusia cingala Moore* 
iiigg : narrow, elongate, very pale yellow. I have 
never found the eggs in situ in the field, But some 
moths that were kept in a breeding cage for the 
purpose of study deposited their eggs loosely on the 
Hoor of the cage. It is possible that in nature 
they are deposited in crevices of the ground at the 
i\ m, ® plants upon which the caterpillar is to 
teed. The young larvae hatch out in four weeks' time. 
baterpillar: broad and comparative'y short. 
Krownish red to bright brick red. With six lonsi- 
tudinal series of small tubercles, on the summits 
of which are two or three short hairs and one or 
two pores which secrete a globule of clear viscid 
• n ' ^m'?^ ^ '^^"'y appearance to the living cater, 
pillar. There are tne normal number of legs, sis 
on the front ard ten on the hinder part of the 
body. Length of full-grown caterpillar slightly over 
one inch. a j 
The cocoon is formed in the fold of a leaf. Itia 
tough and closely woven, of a pinkish straw colour. 
It contams a creamy white chrysalis. Ca,terpillara 
that formed their cocoons in mv breeding cage on 
January 2 emerged as moths on the 22nd of the same 
month. 
Moth : fore-wing black with metallic green re- 
flections, with a creamy white patch at the base, 
a broad creamy white bar just before the middle, 
and some creamy white spots towards the extremity, 
Mind-wing peacock blue suffused with black, with a 
very broad pale primrose-yellow band across the 
middle, and some yellowish spots towards the extre- 
mity Anterior half of the body peacock blue and 
black, posterior half bright yellow. In the male the 
antennae are broadly, in the female narrowly 
feathered. The expanded wings measure U inch in 
the male and IJ inch in the female. 
The moth flies in the daytime, and might easily 
be mistaken for a butterfly on acco ant of its bright 
colours. When handled it emits some frothy matter 
which has a strong pungent smell very like that of 
ladybird beetle, which is thought to 
attord the insect protection by making it distasteful 
to buds, &o, I have received reports of injury by 
this pest from the Pussellawa, Pundalu-oya. and 
Kangalla districts, and more recently from Passara 
and Liuuugala. On some estates in the latter dis- 
tnct the attack appears to have been very severe 
Acres of tea bushes were completely defoliated, and 
u fields were said to have looked as if 
they had been burnt. The caterpillars were observed 
in large numbers in November, in the following 
January, and again in April. I have been unable to 
determine the exact length of the caterpillar stage, 
but the complete life-history of the insect appears 
to occupy about ten weeks. 
These caterpillars have no stinging hairs, and may 
u without any unpleasant results. They 
should be collected and destroyed whenever seen, to- 
gethe- with the cocoons, and all dead leaves should 
tie swept up from below the bushes and burned. 
The caterpillars are fortunately subject to the 
attacks of a parasitic fly (Exorista heterusii:, Coquillet.) 
Ihis fly fastens its eggs upon the back of the 
caterpillar, the young maggots penet-a.e the body 
ot their host and feed upon its contents, takin" 
care not to touch any vital spot until they are 
ready to undergo their own transformations. The 
disea.sed caterpillar has usaally sufficient strength 
to spin Its cocoon, but collapses without turning 
into a chrysalis. The sudden disappearence of thi" 
pest after reaching its climax is usually due to the 
work of this useful parasi ,e, though sometimes a 
bacterial disease is still more effectual in the work 
of extermination, 
Bagwoems and Faggotwohms. 
These are the larva of various species of motha 
belonging to the family Psychidce, They have a'l 
very similar habits, though differing considerably 
in appearance. The caterpillars construct for them 
selves cases in which they pass the greater part ot 
