[Illustration:  THE COFFEE BUG.  Lecanium Coffeae.]

It is not till after this pest has been on an estate for two or three years that it shows itself to an alarming extent.  During the first year a few only of the ripe scales are seen scattered over the bushes, generally on the younger shoots; but that year’s crop does not suffer much, and the appearance of the tree is little altered.

The second year, however, brings a change for the worse; if the young shoots and the underside of the leaves he now examined, the scales will be found to have become much more numerous, and with them appear a multitude of white specks, which are the young scales in a more or less forward state.  The clusters of berries now assume a black sooty look, and a great number of them fall off before coming to maturity; the general health of the tree also begins to fail, and it acquires a blighted appearance.  A loss of crop is this year sustained, but to no great extent.

The third year brings about a more serious change, the whole plant acquires a black hue, appearing as if soot had been thrown over it in great quantities; this is caused by the growth of a parasitic fungus[1] over the shoots and the upper surface of the leaves, forming a fibrous coating, somewhat resembling velvet or felt.  This never makes its appearance till the insect has been a considerable time on the bush, and probably owes its existence there to an unhealthy condition of the juices of the leaf, consequent on the irritation produced by the coccus, since it never visits the upper surface of the leaf until the latter has fully established itself on the lower.  At this period the young shoots have an exceedingly disgusting look from the dense mass of yellow pustular bodies forming on them, the leaves get shrivelled, and the infected trees become conspicuous in the row.  The black ants are assiduous in their visits to them.  Two-thirds of the crop is lost, and on many trees not a single berry forms.

[Footnote 1:  Racodium? Species of this genus are not confined to the coffee plant alone in Ceylon, but follow the “bugs” in their attacks on other bushes.  It appears like a dense interlaced mesh of fibres, each made up of a single series of minute oblong vesicles applied end to end.]

This Lecanium, or a very closely allied species, has been observed in the Botanic Garden at Peradenia, on the Citrus acida, Psidium pomiferum, Myrtus Zeylanica, Rosa Indica, Careya arborea, Vitex Negundo, and other plants.  The coffee coccus has generally been first observed in moist, hollow places sheltered from the wind; and thence it has spread itself even over the driest and most exposed parts of the island.  On some estates, after attaining a maximum, it has generally declined, but has shown a liability to reappear, especially in low sheltered situations, and it is believed to prevail most extensively in wet seasons.  While in its earlier stages, it is easily transmitted