55o 
INSECT NOTES. 
The following insects were found attacking the Gutta percha 
plants planted out on the slopes of Bukit Timah, and were identi- 
fied for me by Mr. C. O. WATERHOUSE of the British'Museum. 
Dalpada oculata, Ff. (Hemiptera) a shield shaped bug f inch, 
long and ^ inch, broad, antennce very slender '5 jointed joints long 
black minutely hairy, bases of the upper joints white. Head nar- 
rwly oblong blunt, eyes prominent. Thorax triangular with two 
short processes at the basal angle, broad. Scutellum triangular 
large with the two upper corners smooth and conspicuously creamy 
white. The transparent ends of the elytra blackish. The head, 
throax and wings otherwise are brown in appearance, buLunder the 
lens are cream colour or brownish cream colour densely dotted with 
round black pits. Forelegs not very long, hairy, bases reddish, 
joints and tips black. Body beneath dirty reddish and olive 
yellow colour. Beak long slender black half the length of the body. 
The abdomen above is black and red, projecting beyond the wings 
when they are closed. 
This is a very common shield bug, occurring also in India. It 
sucks the sap of the plants with its long beak and so injures them. 
Cetonia mandarinea , is a small chafer about half an inch long 
dark brown elega - iy reticulated with gold. It is very common 
and my attention was called to it at the . Residency in Malacca, 
where numbers were to be seen' on rose and other bushes where it 
was eating the leaves 1 was puzzled to know whence it came, when 
I observed that the Cannas grown in tubs hard by were become 
very weak and shabby. The gardeners/ were changing.the earth 
in the tubs, and on examining this I found it swarming with grubs 
of this beetle. The grubs are about an inch long when full grown, 
of the usual form of all the grubs-of beetles of this group dirty white 
in colour, with a thickened tail, and powerful c.hesnut coloured head 
and jaws. They had been devouring the roots of the Cannas and 
so caused their deterioration. I have previously seen the same in- 
sect in tubs of palms which they had injured in the same way. 1 
believe that they are first attracted by manure put into the tubs 
with the soil. In cases where such plants in tubs or large pots 
deteriorate and get weak from no visible reason, the soil should be 
cleared but and these grubs looked for. 
A dead-leaf cockroach Epilampra . de pi anal a, Walker, was also 
found on the plants and as its mouth was full of gutta, it seemed 
certain that it had been biting - the plants. The animal is a large 
flat cockroach of a light brown colour, the colour of dead leaves. 
It is not very rare here as 1 remember to have taken it before, 
among dead leaves and on bushes, but Mr. WATERHOUSE says 
there is only one other specimen in the British Museum but that it 
may be only a variety of E. Gongrua. Very little is I believe known 
as to the habits of these large jungle cockroaches, but they are 
generally to be found hiding between leaves of bushes, flying off 
quickly when disturbed and concealing themselves among the dead 
leaves on the ground. 
