The White or Mealy Bug is the Pseudococcus adonidum. The male insect is of a dirty brownish colour, and slightly hairy. It is very minute (very much smaller than the female, only about half a lino long), and resembles certain small Epheineridte or May-flies. The female is oval, brownish-purple, covered with a white mealy powder, which forms a stiff fringe at the margin and at the extremity of the abdomen two seal The larvae and pupa3 are active, and move about. The insects, in all stages of development, are found in Ceylon all the year round, chiefly in dry and het localities, on the branches of trees, and on the roots to one foot under ground. Mr. Nietner says it is identical with the species naturalized in the conservatories of Europe. It is preyed upon by the Scymnus rotundatus, a minute beetle of the ladybird tribe, of the size of a pin's head, black and pubescent ; also, the yellow-coloured and common Encyrtus Nietneri and the black-coloured scarce Chartococcus musciformis, two minute Hymenoptera (wasps), only long, and the minute whitish mite, Acarus translucens. Of the members of this family of insects, the Coccidm, some, as the cochineal and lac insects, are of great economical importance, but others, as the sugar cane blight of the Mauritius, the Aspidiotus, and the coffee bug, are excessively baneful to the gardener and agriculturist.
The male of the Brown or Scaly Bug, Lecanium coffea3, is of a clear light pinkish-brown colour, slightly hairy, and very pretty. It is more delicate than the male Pseudococcus. The females when young are yellowish, marked with grey or light brown ; and old individuals aro light brown, with a dark margin. It affects cold, damp, and close localities 3000 feet in height, and the propagation, as in the white bug, is continuous. The brown bug is much infected with parasites, amongst which the most common are eight minute Hy menoptera (wasps) with brilliant colours; but a mite, the Acorns translucens, and the larva of the Chilocorus circumdatus, a kind of ladybird, also feed on the bug. In the larva state, the male and female brown bug are not distinguish able. The number of eggs produced by a female brown bug is about 700. Those of the white bug are not so numerous, but their propagation in Ceylon is continuous throughout the year, and this explains their great abundance compared with cold countries, where the produce is one generation of young annually. The brown bug, particularly the full-grown female, is dreadfully infested with parasites, which thus greatly help the planter. Indeed, it is a question whether coffee-planting could be carried on without their aid in the destruction of the bug.
The Black Bug is Lecanium nigrum, but the female only is known. In colour it is from yellowish-grey to deep brown, and almost black in age, and of a shield-like shape. It occurs alone, but also intermixed with the brown bug, but it is much less abundant, and therefore not demanding the planter's attention. Its occupation
of a coffee or any other tree gives rise to the appearance of a glutinous saccharine substance, which has received the name of honey-dew. This is either a secretion of the bug, or the extravasated sap which flows from the wounded tree, or pro bably a combination of both. A fungus, or two fungi, the Syncladium Nietneri and Triposporium Gardncri, seem to depend on this for vegetation, as the honey-dew and the fungus disappear with the bug.
Another bug, the Strachia geometrica, of a yellowish colour, but marked with grey and orange on the upper side, was found at Badulla. It feeds upon the juice of the young berries, three per cent. or more of which were said to have suffered from it. It is allied to the green or foetid bug ; but though it may occasionally cause de struction, there is no fear of it ever becoming a serious nuisance.
One of the Aphidm, Aphis coffem, the coffee louse, is found in small communities on the young shoots and on the under side of the leaves of the cocoanut tree, but the injuries it occasions are insignificant.
Several caterpillars,. the Aloa lactinea, the Orgyia Ceylarnea, Euproctis virguncula, the Trichia exigua, Narosa conspersa, the Limacodes graciosa, and a species of Drepana, are found on the coffee trees, but they do not cause much injury. Another caterpillar, however, though fortunately not abundant, the Zeuzera coffem, destroys many trees, both young and old, by eating out the heart. It resembles the caterpillar of the goat-moth of England, and is as thick as a goose quill. It generally enters the tree 6" or 12" from the ground, ascending upwards. The sickly drooping of the tree marks its presence.
Black Grub.—The larva of the moth called Agrostis segetum is the very destructive black grub. This pest is about an inch long, and is most abundant from August to October. The caterpillar lives in the ground, but comes out at night. to feed, and is very common and injurious. They attack not only coffee trees, but all sorts of vegetables and flowers, and are very destructive to gardens and in the field, as they eat every thing that is artificially raised, despising grass and weeds. They generally appear only on certain fields, and will not go over an estate. The insect is not confined to Ceylon ; its ravages are well known in India, at the Cape of Good Hope, and in Europe, where it injures the grain and beet root crops. In Ceylon it only attacks young coffee trees, gnawing off the bark round the stem just above the ground. Where the trees are very small, they are bitten right off, and the tops some times partially dragged under the ground, where the grubs may easily be discovered and dislodged. The damage which they inflict on plantations may be estimated, when it is mentioned that Mr. Nietner lost through them in one season, in certain fields, as many as 25 per cent. of the young trees he had put down.