6 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [July 1, 1899. 
riant in India, It may, however, serve a useful 
pacpose, if I attempt to indicate : — 
(a) The insects described in the Indian Museum 
Notes {including Mr. Cotes' special paper) as 
actually found on the tea plaut in India. 
(The pests of this section will for the most 
part be found dealt with in Mr. Cotes' 
Insects and Mites, etc.) 
(6) The insects found on the tea plant in Geylon, 
and which persumably may in the future be 
found ill India, 
(c) The insects discovered by me in addition to (a) 
and including also those which prior to the 
date of my explorations have been treated 
under the position (6) above. 
These particulars will be brought out by the 
letters (a), (b) or (c) being placed alongside of the 
serial given to the species dealt with. My object in 
BO doing is to exemplify once more the very remark- 
able fact that the pssts and blights of the tea plant 
are rapidly becoming diffused over the world's areas 
of tea cultivation- A large percentage of these insects 
have never been seen by entomologists, except on the 
cultivated tea plant, though many are common 
enemies to both tea and coffee. It need hardly be 
repeated thatthese very striking circumstances point 
unmistakably to cultivation having produced the 
conditions necessary for the appearance and distribu- 
tion of these pests, the more so since the wild tea 
plant has been found to bear but a small percentage 
of these pests. {Conf. with iiaras. 11 also 4:1 to 49). 
As a matter of convenience, I shall quote (at 
the end of the paragraph of references under each 
species) the resgistration numbers assigned to all 
pests collected by me and, when preserved in fluid, 
shall quote also the numbers engraved on the bottles 
or tubes in which they have been stored. These 
numbers, it will be understood, are given for Museum 
purposes only, and are of little interest to the general 
reader, except as indicating by their absence pest and 
blights of which specimens have not been procured 
and of which contributions would, therefore, be very 
acceptable. 
OOLEOPTEBA. 
The Beetles. 
Id this Order of insects both the grub and 
the perfect beetle may injure crops. The mag- 
gots or grubs are sometimes devoid of legs, but more 
frequently have three pairs of jointed legs— one pair 
on each of the three segments of the body near the 
head, and a pair of sucker-feet near the anal extremity. 
The chrysalis looks like a deformed beetle, curled up 
and motionless. The perfect insect or beetle has 
an upper pair of hard wing-cases, called the elytra, 
and below these a pair of large membraneous wings 
that fold underneath the wing-cases. 
There would seem to be five well-known species of 
beetles found on the tea, with perhaps three or four 
more that might be regarded as occasional enemies. 
The Cockchafer, or White Grub, in its larval stage 
eats the roots of the plant, and in its mature form 
would appear to devour the leaves as well. Then 
there are at least four species of leaf-feeders, that often 
do considerable damage to the crop when prevalent. 
Lastly, a wood-borer found in Ceylon, but not as 
yet in India. In Sibsagar district I came across a 
a longicorn grub which is perhaps a by no means an 
uncommon tea-borer, though, so far as I can discover, 
it has not as yet been described. 
I. {A.) LAOHNOSTERNA IMPRESSA, Burm. 
The Cockchafer or White Grub. 
References.— yea Cyclopccdia, 44 ; Notes on Tea in 
Darjcelinij, 04 ; Tea Planter's Vande Mecum, p. 
100 ; ISambcr, Clicni. and Agri, Tea, 243; Ind. 
Mus. Notes, Vol. 1,00; Vols. II., 149; III., 3, 122; 
Cotes, Ins. and Mites on Tea Plant in India, 5-7. 
{/teg. No. 21, tubes Nos. 264 and 233.) 
Eibtory — The first mention of this beetle, as 
tnemy to tlie tea jplaut, sg far as I have besn 
able to discover, is contained in a letter by a Darjeel- 
ing Planter (1874; which will be found reprinted in 
the Tea Cydopcedia. The author of Notes on Tea in 
Darjeelinrj (18S8), gives it the vernacular name of 
Kumla. Mr. Bamber says, ''it occurs in all the tea 
districts," but does not tell us whether he had 
actually found it in Assam. Moreover, he makes the 
somewhat puzzling remark, " with the aid of lamps 
collecting the grubs at night when out to feed, would 
probably prove a satisfactory method for lessening 
their numbers." So far as I am aware the grubs of 
this beetle never under any circumstance come 
above ground and have no occasion to do so since 
their food consists of the young roots of the plant. 
Mr. Cotes remarks that it appeared in vast numbers 
in Darjeeling in 1891 (vide letter from Messrs. 
Davenport & Co., October 1891, Ind. Mus. Notes, III.) 
3). " Its prevalence in other years," Mr. Cotes adds, 
" is shown by the fact that in 1883 no less thaa 
2,695,000 individuals were collected and destroyed in 
the public gardens, Darjeeling [vide Ind. Mus. Notes, 
Vol. I., 09). But Mr. Cotes makes no mention of its 
being found in Assam. It was collected by me in a 
few gardens of the Sibsagar District, more especially 
at Khumtai and Ligri Pukri. Mr. Obole {Tea Text- 
Book, pp. 84 and 222) incorrectly gives the scientific 
name of this beetle to the cricket. 
Depredations. — Like most of the predatory 
Melolonthin beetles this species lives in its larval 
stage on roots. The eggs are laid in the ground. 
From these the white grubs escape and very possibly 
attack the roots of weeds in the first instance. Ulti- 
mately they penetrate to the depth at which they are 
able to discover the roots of the tea plant and these 
they devour. Mr. Cotes suggests that the eggs are 
likely to be laid about the beginning of the rainy 
season in Northern India. " How long is spent by 
the grubs in the ground before they become full 
grown we do not know, but the fact that the Euro- 
pean species Melolontha vulgaris, Fair., spends 
more than three years in this stage, while the Ameri- 
can species, Macrodactylus suhspinosus, Fair., 
spends the greater part of one year, leads to the 
supposition that an equally long period may be 
required in India." {Cotes.) A tea-planter, whose 
opinion will be found quoted below under the para- 
graph on " Remedy." thinks the Indian white grub 
may live in the ground for two or three years. At all 
events these grubs never come to the surface until 
after they have passed into the pupal stage, when in 
due course they emerge as the mature or copper- 
brown-coloured beetle. 
At Khumati on the 7th of April I witnessed this 
i nsect making its eseape from the ground and found 
several of the mature beetles apparently eating the 
leaves of the plant. A large assortment of grubs in 
all stages of growth were sent me in December 1895 
from another garden in the Sibsagar District. These 
were turned up while heavy hoeing, and the manager 
very properly thought that thoy had better be 
picked out. He accordingly sent me a selection and 
desired to be informed if they were insects reported 
hitherto to injure the tea. These larvEe I submitted to 
the Entomological Department of the Indian Museum, 
as there seemed to me to be at least two, if not three 
species. The reply obtained was to the effect that 
" the larger grubs are the larvs of a Melolonthin 
beetle probably belonging to the genus Lepidiota, 
and the smaller are apparently the immature forms of 
Lachnosterna impressa. The mud ball sent is the 
pupal cell of a Copris beetle." Mud balls or nodules, 
of the size of a large hen's egg, are frequently thrown 
up from th3 ground, during the hoeing of tea gardens, 
when the soil consists of a fairly heavy clayey loam. 
They are commonly seen on the faces of road 
cuttings and may easily be mistaken for the mud 
cells of queen white-ants. On being broken open 
they will be found to contain a grub of a brown 
colour that may sometimes be 2 to 3 inches long. 
The nodules are stratified and closely compacted, the 
inner layer being sometimes of a darker colour than 
the outer layers. 
Appearance of the Bush.— When beetles of 
this family attsicli (oa, the plant sit fii-'st is seen 
