174 
SPICES 
CHAP. 
be repeated or the alga will return, and in unsuitable 
localities inland the pest becomes hopeless. 
In some cases there is persistent death of the 
terminal buds, which turn black when hardly in. long 
and die. Usually, if the tree is strong, a side bud is 
produced, grows for a time, and dies ; then another 
axillary bud is produced and the same thing happens, 
until the branch dies away altogether. In some cases 
the production of lateral buds is so extensive that 
the ends of the boughs form a kind of brush or small 
bush. In all the cases I have seen such trees are in- 
fected with Cephaleurus, but I am not quite certain that 
this is the cause of the destruction, as I have not been 
able to get good specimens of the pest fruiting on the 
buds. The treatment with copper sulphate advised for 
the one would, however, in any case, be suitable for the 
other. In looking over various trees and shrubs of 
other species for the Ceplialeurus, I did not find it upon 
tea bushes in the neighbourhood of the cloves, nor on 
Calophyllum or other coriaceous leaved plants except 
on the cassia bark, Cinnamomum cassia^ but it does 
not seem to be very injurious to this plant. 
Borer- Caterpillar. — This pest is not uncommon in 
Penang, where I saw it seriously damaging trees at 
Penara Bukit. The caterpillar was black, with yellow 
rings, and covered with rather sparse long hairs. It 
is about in. long when nearly adult. 
It bores into the branches, more rarely the main 
stem, tunnelling up the centre and eventually killing 
the branch. Two or three may occur in one branch. 
The entrance to the burrow is protected by a web en- 
closing the small pellets of excreta. These boring 
caterpillars are very difficult to rear, and I failed to get 
them to develop into the moth. The usual Chinese 
treatment for this pest is to cut into the branches and 
hack out the caterpillar, but this is very injurious to 
the tree. The simplest method of dealing with this 
insect would be to spear it in its burrow by passing a 
thin wire up. This is not difficult, as the tunnel is 
