275 
have also seen what I take to be the same thing in Malacca. It is 
a greenish long-legged bug about an inch long, very variable in 
colouring. While it is in the young wingless state it sucks the 
juices of the stem causing it to wither. The adult settles on the 
rice and sucks out the juice of the seed itself. (India Museum 
Notes, Vol. I, p. i). What I take to be this insect is very com- 
mon here in long grass, and I find it always on plants of Panicum 
plicatum , grown in the Botanic Gardens. The male, however, 
is much darker than any forms described in the latter publica- 
tion, the wings being quite dark brown, edged with green, the 
body green. It emits the usual horrible odour of the ordinary 
bugs. s 
Hymenoptera, 
Rose sawfly. — Hylotoma victorina, Kirby. Very destructive, 
occurring in great quantities, devours the leaves. Caterpillars 
when full-grown £ an inch long, smooth with a few scattered 
bristles especially on its head. Head round, shining greenish 
brown, body green with black spots on the back in about 7 longi- 
tudinal rows, 6 forelegs long, the others short, side flaps 4 with 
black spots. At rest it curls up its tail like most sawflies and 
when walking drags it behind as if injured. It forms a net work 
cocoon of fine silk f inch long in which the chrysalis remains 
about a week and then hatches out. The fly is ^ inch long, the 
head and thorax shining blu 1 black, abdomen yellow and shorter 
than the wings, which are black. The antennae rather stout and. 
as long as the thorax, cylindrical blunt black, the legs short black. 
It may be found sitting on the leaves of the rose bushes and being 
very sluggish is easily caught. 
It is destroyed by hand-picking. 
A species of leaf-cutter bee ( Megachile ) also sometimes attacks 
rose bushes, cutting semicircular pieces out of the leaves to make 
its nest with a tube-shaped structure concealed in the ground. 
The insect is not very common but sometimes occurs in sufficient 
abundance to quite spoil the appearance of the rose bushes. 
The carpenter bees Xylocopa often do a good deal of damage 
to timber, especially rafters and poles by boring into them to 
make their nests. The most destructive is the large black one, 
X. latipes , but much injury is often caused by the smaller one 
X. oestuans , of which the female is black with a yellow thorax, 
and the male light brown. They should be knocked down and 
killed and their holes blocked if found doing much damage. All 
however do a good deal of useful work in fertilizing many plants 
especially those with large flowers, so that unless absolutely in- 
jurious are best left unharmed. 
Ants . — One often hears from planters of trees being destroyed 
by ants, but it may be very much doubted as to whether in these 
cases the ants have anything at all directly to do with the death 
of the tree, but where from decay or other cause a hole or tunnel 
is produced in a tree, ants often utilize the perforation as a suit- 
able position for a nest. This is commonly the case where 
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