SeH'.  2,  1895.] 
'i'lll-:  TKOPICAL  AGRlCUL'l’URlSr. 
153 
ally)  called  “ blight  ” by  the  Cachar  planters)  on 
some  tea  plants  at  Uarjeeliiig.  lie  c.iierully  e.\- 
aiiiined  the  diseased  bushes,  and  could  find  no 
diseased  leaves  in  any  other  stage  of  the  disease 
but  that  forwarded  to  Mr.  lierkley.  He,  how-ever, 
found  several  leaves  with  a small  insect  lying  uiuIol' 
the  epidermis  of  the  leaf,  and  he  supposed  that 
this  insect  must  have  devoured  the  parenchyma  and 
caused  the  transparent  spots  (■'  blight  ”)  with  wh  ch 
the  leaf  was  covered  Dr.  Anderson  exhibited  some 
of  these  leaves  with  the  insect  in  posiiion;  also  a 
few  leaves  with  minute  eggs  cf  an  insect,  collected 
in  patches  on  the  surface  of  the  caf.  Dr.  Anderson 
said  that  he  found  many  of  the  indigenous  plants 
in  the  forest  adjoi  iug  those  tea  estates  in  which  blight 
had  been  observed  were  also  affected.  He  parti- 
cularly noticed  Gordonia  Wallichi  a ternstroemiaceous 
plant  neirly  al  ied  to  tea  a Polygonum,  an  Osbeckia 
and  Moesa  Montana  as  suffering  much  from  the 
blight.  Dr.  Anderson  showed  youug  leaves  of 
Chiuchoua  Succirubra  from  a toa  estate  at  Dar- 
jeeling ; these  leaves  wore  covered  with  blight  spots 
Since  the  meeting  was  held,  Dr.  Anderson  has 
examined  the  insect  with  the  microscope,  and  finds 
that  it  is  the  pupa  of  an  insect,  probably  a beetle, 
and  that  it  lies  under  the  epidermis  Probably  the 
destruction  of  the  parenci  yma  is  cause  1 by  the 
hma,  and  thus  the  almost  microsco]nc  eggs  o 1 the 
oihtr  leaves  may  belong  to  the  same  species. 
The  Secretary  subn  itted  the  following  extract  of 
a letter  from  Mr.  Grote  on  this  t iibject  : — 
*•  Now  about  your  tea  bug,  which  on  r ferriug  to 
your  Gardener’s  Chronicle,  ‘21st  Pebruary  yon  will 
find  I brought  before  our  R.  H.  S.  Scientific  Com- 
mittee I now  enclose  a letter  from  Mr.  Moore  which 
expresses  an  opinion  in  support  of  West  vood,  and 
assigns  the  bug  to  Helopeltis,  a genus  described 
by  Signoret,  who  has  figured  a Ceylon  species  I 
have  viointed  out  to  Mr.  Westwood  that  his  proposed 
remedies  are  hardly  applicable  to  large  acres  of 
plantation.  I hope  that  the  pessimist  view  of  the 
hug's  ravages  may  not  be  borne  out  by  results. 
Similar  insect  visitations  have  occurred  and  again 
disappeared  in  the  coffee  plantations  of  Cejdon  and 
the  VVynaad” 
The  follow ing  are  Messrs.  Westwood  and  Moore’s 
letters  above  referred  to  : — 
“ It  is  well  known  to  me,”  observes  Mr.  Westwood 
‘‘from  the  very  reimrkable  upright  horn  011  the 
scute'lum.  It  belongs  to  the  Cimicideous  family 
(Capsidae)-  and  is  closely  allied  to  a species  which 
sucks  our  chrysanthemum  buds  and  greatly  dama- 
ges the  blooms.  The  only  ch  nee  of  checking  it 
see-ns  to  me  to  ascertain  the  p’ace  of  deposit  on 
and  destruction  of  the  eggs  if  possitle.  Another 
plan  (which  has  been  suggested  for  checking  the 
ravage.s  of  the  Vine  Tortrix)  is  to  burn  green  weeks 
to  windward  of  the  plants.  I should  also  think 
that  if  bird  limed  strings  were  stretche  t over  the 
plants,  great  numbers  would  be  trapped,  or  light 
bags  V itli  the  insides  coated  with  seme  sticky 
material  run  along  the  top  of  the  plants,  like 
fishermen's  landing  nets,  the  flies  would  be  thrown 
and  caught  in  the  nets.” 
I have  made  several  references  to  ‘‘  mosquito 
blight,”  and  1 shal  next  proceed  to  give  you  a snort 
account  of  this  insect,  which  is  even  more  destruc- 
tive than  the  former  pest  It  is  so  named  from 
its  reseiiiblancG  to  the  ordinary  mosquito,  although 
there  is  no  relationship  between  there.  It  punctures 
the  leaves  and  absorbs  the  juices  leaving  nothing 
but  the  upper  and  lower  epiderm  s sticking  together. 
After  a lime  the  loaf  appears  covered  all  over  with 
bro.Mi  spots  which,  hovvever,  soon  change  to  black. 
The  effect  of  this  is  to  retard  the  growth  of  the 
plant,  and  although  it  makes  a vigorous  fight 
against  its  enemy  it  slowly  succumbs  to  tl  e attack. 
This  pest  makes  its  appearance  early  in  the  rains, 
and  gradually  increases  in  numbers  until  the  month 
of  yeptember.  when  it  is  in  full  force.  By  the 
end  of  this  m mih  n any  gardens  in  the  Terai  have 
to  stop  manufacture,  as  ilie  tea  bushes  have  en- 
tirely ceased  to  grow.  Its  effects  are  felt  more  or 
less  in  all  the  tea-growing  districts,  but  its  ravages 
are  greatest  in  the  Terai  and  lower  Darjeeling  Hills. 
The  first  to  draw  attention  to  this  particular  pe  t 
was  Mr.  S.  E.  Beal,  a well  known  planter  in  Assam, 
whose  description  of  it  appeared  in  the  I’roceediugs 
of  the  Agricultural  and  Horticultural  Society  of  Indri 
for  1872.  There  are  eleven  differ  nt  species  of  this 
insect  in  various  parts  of  the  world,  but  only  one 
so  far  has  been  recorded  in  India. 
Another  blight,  known  as  “ green  fly,”  is  reported 
from  various  places,  but  appears  to  be  mo.st  pre- 
valent in  Daijeeling.  It  attacks  the  young  shoots 
and  prevents  their  opening  ou‘,  and  develop  nent, 
whereby  the  outturn  is  considerably  diminished. 
On  the  o her  hand,  this  retarded  growth  undoubtedly 
improves  the  quality  of  the  yield,  as  tho  tea  made 
from  such  leaf  is  always  prettier  in  appearance  and 
more  tlavoury  in  cup  and  usually  reali-ies  extra- 
ordinary high  prices.  This  pe.st  therefore  cannot  be 
looked  upon  with  the  same  degree  of  disfavour  as 
the  previous  two. 
Scale-insects  made  their  appearance  in  the  Kangra 
Valley  and  Assam  in  1889,  as  several  specimens 
were  sent  to  me.  I will  read  you  a short  note 
which  I wrote  at  that  time : — 
‘‘  Since  18(38  when  they  first  began  to  attract 
attention,  the  family  of  Scale-insects  have  made 
th  mselves  notorious  as  one  of  the  most  dreaded 
and  destructive  of  all  the  known  enemies  of  plant 
life  First  noticed  in  Australia,  they  travelled  on 
to  Cape  Colony,  and  final'y  appeared  in  Ca'ifonia, 
and  as  soon  as  the,'  had  established  themselves  in 
a new  district  proceeded  to  spread  in  a'l  directions. 
In  Cape  Colony  and  California  the  principal  sufferer 
was  the  orange  tree,  and  so  great  was  the  damage 
done,  that  many  owners  of  orange  groves  were 
ruined.  In  Ceylon,  the  Scale-insect  has  done  inl- 
mense  damage  to  the  coffee  pla  it,  and  many  plant- 
ations have  been  closed  in  consequ;uce. 
‘‘  In  order  to  mark  its  comin;<  of  age,  so  to  speak 
it  has  turned  its  attention  to  tea,  and  already  it 
has  done  n ' inconsid?rabIe  amount  of  damage  to 
the  bushes.  It  first  appeared  on  two  gardens  in 
tho  Kangra  Valley  in  the  early  part  of  this  year 
(1889),  and  has  since  been  reported  from  As^am 
but  there  is  nothing  to  show  the  man-  er  of  its 
introduction  in  cither  district.  There  is  reference 
in  part  I.  Vol.  I Indian  Insect  Pests,  to  a new 
coccid  found  on  cinchona  in  Sikki  n which  matures 
about  April,  and  as  the  Scale-insect  was  first  observed 
on  tea  about  that  time,  there  may  be  some  connection 
between  the  two. 
“ There  is  little  to  describe  about  the  actual  insect 
as  it  has  not  yet  been  observed  in  a free  slate! 
When  a plant  is  attacked  it  soon  becomes  covered 
with  little  brown  scales  about  one  eighth  of  an  iimii 
in  diameter,  which  adhere  closely  to  the  stem  of  the 
plant,  but  can  be  casi  ly  removed  by  inserting  the  biade 
of  a penknife  under  them.  Tinder  the  microscoiie 
these  appear  to  be  cases  only,  as  there  is  no 
structure  apparent,  and  in  several  1 have  detected 
a small  puncture  through  which  I imagine  the 
imago  escape.  The  insect  appears  to  be  most  active 
in  bright  weather  and  almost  disappears  iu  the  rains 
Some  specimens  foiwarded  to  me  iu  November  last 
were  of  quite  a different  character  to  those  described 
above,  the  scale  being  soft  and  pulpy  and  covered 
on  the  outside  by  a thick  coating  of  soft  white 
waxy-locking  substance.  This  may  prove  to  be  the 
female. 
Its  effect  rn  the  tea  plant  is  somewhat  similar 
to  that  caused  by  the  tea  bug,  but  more  marked 
as  the  Scab -insect  appears  to  absorb  the  juices  of 
the  plant  through  tho  stem,  and  the  bush  immedi- 
ately begins  to  sicken,  and  would  soon  die  down 
unless  prompt  measures  were  taken.  'J  he  most 
effective,  remedy  is  the  kerosine  emulsion  which 
has  been  used  with  very  goo.l  results  in  the  United 
States  and  Ceylon,  against  the  form  of  Scale-insect 
attacking  the  orange  tree  iu  the  former  and  coffee 
m tho  latter  country. 
“The  formulm  for  ■prep.iring  the  kerosine  emulsiou 
recommended  by  the  TI.  S.  Department  of  Ao,icul 
tnre,  were  reproduced  iu  Vo'.  VTI.,  Barts  II.  and 
III.,  of  the  Society's  Journal. 
“I  have  already  discovered  a parasite  of  the  Scale- 
iDsect  which  closely  resembles  Coccophagua  call- 
