An Appendix in cost of opening an estate in Ceylon closes the 
work; useful, but we should like to see a similar one added for 
cost of opening in the Malay Peninsula, the future headquarters 
of the rubber cultivation. 
The whole work is good, useful and full of information, besides 
being very suggestive. The next edition we shall hope *° see 
including the latest works on the subject and rather fuller of some 
of the older observations which have been made by ULE and others 
in the Amazons forests. Information grows daily, and the amount 
of important little facts published in various journals and papers 
from day to day is extremely large. 
H. N. RIDLEY. 
ON THE LIFE HISTORY OF TERMES (COPTO 
TERMES) GfESTROI. 
THE HEVEA RUBBER TERMITE. 
By E. P. Stebbing (Dehra Dun, United Provinces, India.) 
For some years past it has been known that the rubber plant 
Hevea braziliensis in the Malay Archipelago has been subject to 
the attacks of a species of termite known as Termes ( Coptotermes ) 
Gestroi. This insect had been reported from Borneo and Singapore 
and also subsequently from the Straits Settlements. In 1898 the 
late G. D. Haviland wrote as follows upon this termite: — “This 
species is remarkable for its habit of killing live trees. It encloses 
the trunk with a thick crust of earth ; under cover of this crust it 
eats through weak spots in the tree to the heart of the wood. ” 
In a note in the Agricultural Bulletin of the Straits and Federated 
Malay States, H. N. Ridley, the Editor, mentions that Para rubber 
trees when growing in grass appear to suffer just the same from 
the attacks of this pest. In a subsequent issue R. PEARS corrob- 
orates this statement and says that the same is the case when the 
trees are growing in “lalang.” Neither the grass nor the “lalang” 
appear to form any hindrance to them “as they carry on their 
labours as vigorously as ever, destroying several adjacent trees as 
they would do if the ground were clear. ” From the observations 
detailed below the reason for this behaviour will appear. Since the 
insect work beneath the ground the presence or absence of vegeta- 
tions round the trees can have little effect upon their operations. 
In May of last year I received u communication from Mr. F. B. 
MaNSON, at the time Conservator of Forests in Tenasserim, inform- 
ing me that he had received a report from the Manager of the 
Mergui Rubber Plantation (Mr. J. W. Ryan) stating the trees were 
