6 9 
achatina, a very common insect. In India it is accused of serving 
tea, jute and rice in the same way. This little dark brown cricket 
is extremely abundant in the Botanic Gardens among the grass 
beneath the rubber trees, but it does not attack the rubber seedlings 
there probably because there is lots of grass and other weeds for it. 
to eat. It is the insect identified by Dr. HANITSCH as Gryllacris 
tesseilata , (Bulletin 1905, p.457), and is an insect 1 saw caught in 
abundance in Province Wellesley by a light over a pan of molasses. 
Another cricket sent by Dr. Lim Boon Keng- proved to be a young 
specimen of Gymmogryllus elegans , about half grown. This is a 
blacker colored beast than the Brachytrypes . The adult says Mr. 
WATERHOUSE has bright yellow wings and is one of the handsomest 
crickets. 
Dr. Lim Boon Keng says it behaves in just the same way as the 
Brachytrypes , biting off the tips of the seedlings and carrying them 
off to its burrows. 
H. N. R. 
Tlie Bark Fungus of Para Rubber. 
A specimen of this fungus described in the Bulletin for December, 
1905, p.457, has been identified by Mr. George MASSEE at Kew 
Gardens as Corticiiim calc earn, Fr. 
NOTES AND NEWS. 
Mr. Stanley Arden has resigned his post as Superintendent of 
the Experimental Gardens at Batu Tiga in Selangor, in order to 
take up the managership of the large Rubber estate being formed 
at Pulau Kukub in Johore. 
A new publication of interest to those engaged in agriculture and 
- commerce in the tropics has lately been received. It is the 
Quarterly Journal of the Institute of Commercial Research in the 
Tropics, of the Liverpool University. The object of the Institute 
is to collect and tabulate all kinds of information about raw pro- 
ducts, trades, industries which can be of service to commerce the 
study of the Natural History of Tropical Countries especially in 
relation to commerce, investigating problems in connection with 
this, training experts in these branches of applied science, and sup- 
plying information- to all interested in these subjects. Explorations, 
research work and publication of reports and monographs, form 
part of the work of the Institute which has enrolled the services of 
a large number of well known scientific men and experts to assist 
in its labours. A number of notes on specimens received, are pub- 
lished in the first number of the Journal. The dried juice of the 
Chiko ( Achras sapota ) it is suggested might be used in the manu- 
facture of jam. 
7&f 
