lateral band and green and white regular triangular 
blotches over the spiracles ; horn black. 
D. Light green with a whitish band along the back, a pmk 
side line and a green horn. 
E. Head ochre yellow, body grey, spiracles yellow with a 
white line above them, legs black, hinder ones spotted 
with yellow, horn ochre at the base, black above. 
When full-grown the caterpillar is about 3 inches long. It is 
very voracious, devouring the leaves, and when they fail attac - 
ing the unripe cherry, the bark, flowers and buds. Besides the 
Coffee bush, it feeds on the Gardenia , which appears to be its 
natural food in Ceylon. I noticed that round the cooly lines at 
the spot where the outbreak was stated to have commenced 
there were Gardenia bushes, and during the outbreak caterpillars 
were found on Gardenias in several places near Kuala Lumpur. 
The insect is known to occur in India, Ceylon and Java, but 1 
cannot find that in any of these places it has been found attack- 
ing the coffee. , . , 
Enemies .— The only enemy of this insect that I noticed was a 
large black bug, which was seen to attack not only the cater- 
pillars but was able also to seize the moth as it was laying its 
eggs on the leaves. 
The bug is about an inch long. The head very narrow, about 
x inch in length with a long, rather stout, curved beak. The 
antennae very slender over 1 an inch long. The eyes large in 
proportion to the head. The thorax broad rhomboidal dull 
black, the abdomen nearly half an inch long, broad, with the sides 
turned up, so that the wings which are of a dull bronzy metallic 
yellow, in a depressed space between the raised margins. The 
legs are long and slender (see plate). 
I have usually seen this bug flying about jungle paths, but at 
Petaling it had come from the forests and was flying about 
among the coffee bushes. It drives its long beak into the moth 
or caterpillar and sucks its juices. If handled it bites very sharp- 
ly in the same way and its bite is very painful, being evidently 
poisonous. The insect was unfortunately not sufficiently 
abundant to cope with the immense abundance of the caterpillars 
but it certainly helped to destroy them. 
Mr. Butler in his notes points out that both the Magpie robin 
and common bulbul attacked the caterpillars and destroyed 
some. 
History of the attack— The Manager of Petaling Estate stated 
that he first noticed the pest in the latter half of December, 
1898, and put on all hands to destroy the caterpillars. It is pro- 
bable however that the attack really commenced much eailiei 
in the year. In the beginning of February, six weeks after the 
caterpillars had been noticed, they had spread over from half to 
two-thirds of the estate, and in many places could be seen rows 
of from 30 to 40 trees stripped of leaves, and with the berries 
gnawed. Mr. Aldworth, in a repoik to Government, counted 
at this time 204 caterpillars on an average tree, and estimated 
