VIII 
PEPPERS 
271 
not the same, was sent to me from Port Dickson in 
Negri Sambilan, Malay Peninsula.^ This insect ate the 
bases of the leaves and shoots, and though it did not 
actually kill the plants, prevented their bearing. The 
caterpillar was 1 in. long and very thick and slug-shaped. 
Its back, all but the head, was bluish white, covered 
with radiating tufts of blue or white spines. Its head 
and abdomen are dirty yellow, and at its tail above was 
a yellowish patch with four black velvety spots in a ^ 
transverse row. The spines on its back are poisonous, 
and the caterpillar like all of this set can sting rather 
badly with them. I failed to rear any of the moths 
from these caterpillars, as they were too much injured 
in travelling, but I have often seen them attacking 
soursop trees, and it is certainly a common species. 
There are a number of these stinging caterpillars in the 
East, and they are popularly known as nettleworms. 
They are very troublesome to get rid of, as they are too 
well defended for hand picking. They can be removed 
or killed with small pieces of stick or splinters of bamboo. 
Wounds in caterpillars, even if slight, invariably prove 
fatal very shortly, and they can be destroyed by merely 
spearing them with a sharp splinter of bamboo. They 
do not usually occur in large numbers, but Mr. Green 
warns planters to look out for and destroy the pre- 
liminary broods of nettlegrubs in the tea estates where 
they do much harm, and suggests the use of arsenate 
of lead sprayed over the leaves at once to prevent a 
sudden increase of the pest. Planters must, however, 
remember that this substance is poisonous and pepper 
fruit sprayed with it might be dangerous to health. It 
would perhaps be better to use some form of nicotine 
or tuba root. 
Another caterpillar, or perhaps the same, is recorded 
as attacking pepper in Assam, and the “ Cinchona 
caterpillar ” is mentioned by a writer in the Singapore 
Free Press (1888) as being an enemy to pepper. The 
great caterpillar of the Atlas moth [Attacus Atlas) is 
^ Bulletin, Straits Agricult, iii., 1904, p. 101. 
