Oct. 1, 1899.] THE TROPICAL 
A^^EICtTLTURISt. 
1 shall be very glad of any suggestions, more 
especially whether the very large larv;e have been 
known to injure the tea in the event of their 
being pronounced distinct from the smaller torm." 
The specimens proved to belong to two different 
species of injects, namely: — The large grubs are 
the larvse of a Melolonthine beetle probably be- 
longing to the genus Lepidiota, and the smaller 
ones are apparently the immature forms of Lach- 
nosterna impressa. 
11. COCCIDS. 
Four bottles containing specimens of scale in- 
sects reported as infesting tea plants in the Dar- 
jeeling district, were received in the Museum 
through the Reporter on Economic Products to 
the Government of India. The following parti- 
culars regarding the insects are taken from his 
forwarding letter, dated 28th May, 1897 : — 
'No. 1, seems somewhat like Aspidiotus flavescens 
and is said to be the most dangerous of the 
series. It attacks the young twig of young tea, 
the scale-insects Inserting themselves below the 
bark and thus raising and distorting it, in older 
twigs the life seems sucked out of the plant 
through this rupturing of the bark and the with- 
drawal of the sap. The young insects are alive 
and seen escaping." 
" No. 2, is said to be a twig with long white 
blotchess." 
"No. 3, a twig with large wax insects." 
" No. 4, similar insect of smaller size and with 
orange-coloured central portion." 
The specimens proved to belong to four different 
kinds of Coccids, namely : — No. 1 consisted of 
badly preserved specimens of larvre apparently of 
Aspidiotus thecr. Mask ; No. 2, consisted of ex- 
amples of an unknown Coccid not represented in 
the Museum collection ; No. .3 consisted, of a 
few larva-scales probably belonging to the species 
Ceroplastes ceitfenis; and No. 4 contained speci- 
mens of a Coccid hitherto not reported as oc- 
curring in India. 
Specimens Nos. 2 and 4 were forwarded to Mr. 
W, M. Maskell for identification, and his report 
on them is given below : — 
"The two parcels of tea leaves with Coccids. 
One of these insects is evidently a Pulvinaria, 
but only the white cylindrical cottony 
sacs remain : the insects themselves (as 
usual in the genus) have fallen off : therefore I 
cannot identify the species. 
" The otlier (No. 4), of which you sent three 
specimens and a small coloured drawing, is a 
Ceroplastes, The specinjens are not sufficient for 
clearness. They seem to me to be, nearly cer- 
tainly, either C. vinsonii. Sign. (Mauritius, or 
C. jtoridensis, Comst., which Green reports on 
tea in Ceylon. Very probably both these are 
the same species ; but your insects are not in 
the full-grown stage or at least I think not. 
Every cliaracter corresponds to C. vinsonii, but 
also ncarhj all to floridcnais. If you could let me 
have undoubtedly adult specimens and larv;e, I 
should be more positive. However, the thing 
seems to be one or other of the two species 
named." 
12. Ceronema sp. [Coccid]. 
In May 1897, the same officer forwarded to 
the Museum specimens of tea, leaves attacked 
by scale-insects. No report accompanied the spe- 
cimens and no locality was mentioned in the 
forwarding note. 
The insects appeared to be new to the Museum 
CollecUoo and were forwarded to Mr, W M Maf keli 
who very kindly identified them as belongin" to 
the genus Ccroncnia. He wrote, " this is a 
peculiar and abnormal form which I have had a 
few months ago from Japan, on Ilex crcnata 
and an unnamed plant. I am very much inclined 
to attach it to my genus Ceronema of 1894 : the 
main difference from the single species Cero. banksicc 
being that the curling white processes in your 
insect spring from the medium region and curl 
outwards, while in C. baiiksice they are marginal 
and curl inwards. But I have not yet made up 
my mind, at least on some minor points." 
VI.— SOME BENEFICIAL INSECTS IN INDIA. 
The following letter from the Superintendent 
of the Indian Museum, to the Honorary Secret- 
ary to the Trustees, covers a valuable report from 
Mr. E. Barlow, the Assistant in charge of Entomo- 
logy, on this subject : — 
With reference to your endorsement No. 187- 
RE, dated 27th September, 1897, forwarding a 
letter No. 1427-.39-2, dated 18th September, 1897, 
from the Officiating Under-Secretary to the Gov- 
ernment of India, together with copies of corre- 
spondence from the Government of Madras Nos 
634 and 63i5, dated 27th July, 1897, relating to 
the very promising subject of utilizing Lady-birds 
and other natural enemies of the insects pests 
of the country, I have the honour to submit the 
following report by Mr. E. Barlow, the Assistant 
in charge of Entomology: — 
"In India there is already known a good num- 
ber of indigenous insectivorous insects belonging 
to the three orders of Coleoptera (beetles), Dip" 
tera (two-winged flies), and Hymenoptera (Ichneu- 
mon flies, etc.), which have proved to be more or 
less beneficial to agriculture by keeping down 
insect pests. 
"I.-^SOME BEETLES KNOWN TO BE DESTRUCTIVE 
TO PESTS. 
"(a) Among the Lady-birds I may mention— 
"(i) Chilocorus circumdatus Schonh, which ia 
said to prey upon the brown bug {Lecanium coffcm) 
of conee plants in Ceylon, 
"(ii) Scjjmniis rotundatus, Motsch, which is 
parasitic upon the white bug {Pseudecoccus adoni- 
dum) 01 coffee bushes in Ceylon. 
" (iii) Platynasins villosa, Mulsant, attacks the 
scale-insect {Icerya o;gyptiucum) in Calcutta. 
"(iv) Vcdalia fmnida, var. roseipennis Muls 
said to prey upon the Coccid Iceri/a ccgyptiacunl 
in Calcutta. 
The last named Avas submitted to Mr L O 
Howard, United States Entomologist, for identifi- 
cation who wrote regarding it (see Indian Museum 
Notes Vol 4, No. 1, p 28). ' It is interesting to 
find that this Coccinellid is not distantly related 
to the well-known Vedalia cardinalis, Mulsant. 
which Mr. Albert Kcebele of this department 
brought from Australia some years ago, and which 
destroyed Iccrya parehasi on our Western coast. 
It IS iMulsant s Bodoha roseipennis, wliich accord- 
ing to Crotch's revision of the Coleopterous 
family Coccinellidic, is a colour variety of B 
fumida, Muls. Accepting the nomenclature given 
by Crotcfi, the name of the insect is therefore 
vedalia fmnida, \a,Y. roseipcanis, Muls' It mav 
be mentioned that the Vedalia cardinalis, here 
referred to is an Australian species of Lady- 
bird which on introduction into America is said 
to have at once cleared thousands of orange 
trees of destructive scale-insects of the species 
