INSECT PESTS. 
105 
cigarettes we may sometimes observe the harm that 
is done by the weevils. 
8. Often the caterpillars feed on the green parts 
of plants; one kind destroys the growing tobacco 
leaves, another eats the bud of the palm, another 
prefers to feast on the soft ears of corn, while the 
coffee-leaf ‘Miner’ causes the rusty-coloured blotches 
often seen on the coffee leaves. 
9 . Very different in appearance from the grubs 
and insects already mentioned are the numberless 
Scale-insects that fix themselves on many of our 
plants. There are five hundred varieties of these 
insects, and according to their kind, they attach 
themselves to leaves, bark, or roots, and suck up 
their juices. They are very small creatures, mostly 
white, brown, or black in colour; and though very 
small, they increase in number so fast that they 
are a pest to be dreaded by the planter. 
10. Some of them have a mealy-looking covering, 
others have a scale over them. The males move 
about, while the females remain fixed to one spot. 
It is noticed that they mostly attack weakly plants. 
On the coffee, orange, palm, and mango trees they 
are common, often causing the planter great labour 
and expense in syringing the trees to get rid of 
them. 
11. It would take a long time to tell of all the 
various pests, such as the ticks, plant-lice, ants, the 
cotton-stainer, and many others. 
