lasts for 20-43 days. Mating starts one to two days later, and egg-
laying beginning in a further two to three days.
 The pest is pan tropical and is present in all islands of the
 Lesser Antilles and all the warmer parts of the Americas. It has
 also been recorded in cotton (Gossypium barbadense), sweet
 potato (Ipomoea batatas), beans (Phaseolus spp.), tomato
 (Lycopersicon esculentum), pepper (Capsicum annuum), okra
 (Hibiscus esculentus), squash (Cucurbita spp.), eggplant
 (Solanum melongena), spider plants (Cleome spinosa and
 Cleome viscosa), stinking miss (Gynandropsis gynandra) and
 several other cultivated and wild plants.
 In Barbados and the East Caribbean islands, the eggs are
parasitised by Trissolcus (= Asolcus) sp., Trissolcus (= Asolcus)
basalis (Wollaston) and Telenomus sp. (Scelionidae).

 2. The Green and Brown Stink-bug, Edessa meditabunda
(F.) (Hemiptera:Pentatomidae).
 Generally this is a minor pest. The nymphs and adults suck sap
from the stems and pods.
 Adults are bright green, somewhat polished. Eggs are about
 1mm high, pale green, approximately spherical.
 The eggs are laid on the leaves, usually in a cluter of about
fourteen, arranged in two rows of seven eggs each. These hatch in
about five days. Newly hatched nymphs are orange-yellow, with
dark markings, These remain congregated near the empty egg-
shells for some time and then disperse and start feeding. There
are five nymphal instars. The life-cylce occupies about a month.
 The pest has been reported from Trinidad, the Leeward and
Windward islands, Haiti and Suriname. It also attacks beans
(Phaseolus spp.), cotton (G. barbadense), eggplant (S.
melongena), Black nightshade (Solanum nigrum), wild tomato
(Solanum torvum), okra (H. esculentus), tomato (L.
esculentum), citrus (Citrus spp.), English Clammy cherry (Cordia
alba and Cordia obliqua), white broomweed (Parthenium
hysterophorus) and several other cultivated and wild plants.
 The eggs are parasitised by Trissolcus sp. and Telenomus sp.

 3. The Leaf-hoppers, Empoascafabae (Harris) and Empoasca
fabalis (DeLong) (Hemiptera:Cicadellidae).
 These are important pests. The nymphs and adults suck sap
from the leaves and pods. Because of their abundance and role as
disease carriers, these pests need special attention.
 The adult is about 3mm long, slender and wholly green. The
egg are laid into the stems or in the leaf midribs. Incubation
period is about ten days. The young nymphs are bright green,
feed on the underside of the leaves, and run rapidly if disturbed.
Before reaching the adult stage, the insect passes through five in-
stars in 12 to 15 days. Four days after mating, the female starts
laying eggs. An individual female lays two to three eggs at a time,
and may live for three to four weeks. The insect is capable of
transmitting a virus disease of beans (bean yellows).
 These species are widely distributed in the Lesser Antilles and
have also been recorded from beans (Phaseolus spp., P. vulgaris),
woolly pyrol (P. mungo), bonavist bean (L. niger = D. lablab),
and a number of cultivated and wild plants.
 Fennah (1947) reported Anagrus empoascae (Doz.)
(Mymaridae) as an egg-parasite, in the West Indies. C. sanguinea
and Nephus sp. (Coccinellidae) and Chrysopa sp., C. lanata and
C. limitata, feed on nymphs and adults.

 4. A Cottony-cushion Scale, Icerya sp. prob. purchase
 (Maskell)(Hemiptera:Margarodidae).
 This is generally a minor pest but occasionally large popula-
 tions occur on ratoon plants. The nymphs and adults suck sap
 from the stems. During heavy infestations, leaves and stems are
 covered with characteristic white, fluted, cylindrical insects. In-


tested leaves turn yellow and many of them drop prematurely.
36


Young, heavily infested shoots die quickly. The scale produces
enormous amounts of honeydew, which under dry climatic condi-
tions, look like white globose cyrstals.
 The mature female is 4-8mm in length, and is covered with
 white wax. The anterior and posterior filaments are long and
 thick, the remainder very short, not pointed. A large, white,
 fluted egg sac produced by the female can be two and a half times
 larger than the scale insect. The large egg sac produces 600-800
 reddish eggs, over two to three months.
 The eggs hatch in a few days. The newly hatched nymphs are
 reddish-brown in color and pass through three instars before
 reaching the adult stage. The young crawlers settle on leaves and
 twigs with some initial yellowish wax formation, and soon acquire
 a reddish-brown color. The full-grown insects settle, often in
 large numbers, on the branches, twigs and young shoots. Sexual
 differentiation takes place during the second instar. Males are
 rare.
 The pest is distributed in the Caribbean, and has been
 reported from Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles and Trinidad.
 It has also been recorded on citrus (Citrus spp.), guava
 (Psidium guajava), Spanish oak (Inga laurina), saman (Samanaea
 saman), shrubs (Acacia spp., and Acaciafarnesiana), Locust berry
 tree (Byrsonima coriacea var. spicata), Barbados evergreen (Ficus
 retusa var. nitida), an erect herb (Acalypha poiretii), and several
 other cultivated wild plants.
 The predators recorded in Barbados are Chilocorus cacti (L.),
Diomus sp. and Rodolia cardinalis (Muls.) (Coccinellidae), which
prey upon nymphs and adult females.
 5. Black scale, Saissetia oleae (Bernard) (Hemiptera:
Lecaniidae).
 This pest is believed to be of African origin and has spread
throughout the world. The females and nymphs suck sap from
the stems of pigeon-pea. The female is about 4mm long and
2.5mm high, dark-brown or black in color.
 A female lays about 1,000-4,000 eggs under its body. Freshly
laid eggs are white in color, changing to orange or brown in color
later. The young nymphs are flat, elongate-oval and pinkish-
brown in color. The crawlers begin feeding a few hours after
emergence. Whereas the adults usually occur on shoots and
twigs, the crawlers prefer to settle on the underside of the leaves
and on shoot tips. The males, which are rare, pass through a
pupal stage. Ordinarily, reproduction occurs without fertiliza-
tion.
 It has been reported from the Greater and Lesser Antilles and
Trinidad.
 The pest has also been recorded on cotton (G. barbadense and
 Gossypium hirsutum), guava (P. guajava), citrus (Citrus spp.),
 hog plum (Spondias mombin), oleander (Nerium oleander),
 avocado (Persea americana), small red trubba (Solanum
ficifolium), Barbados or Indian almond (Terminalia catappa),
henna (Lawsonia inermis), black-eyed susan (Thunbergia alata
and Thunbergiafragrans).
 In Barbados, it was parasitised by Lecaniobius cockerellii
Ahmead (Eulophidae).

 6. A number of minor leaf sucking pests recorded were:
Saissetia coffee (Walker), Saissetia hemispherica (Targioni-
Tozzetti), Asterolecanium cajanus and Asterolecanium pustulans
(Cockerell) (Asterolecaniidae), Howardia biclavis (Comstock)
(Diaspididae), Megalotomus rufipes (Westwood) (Coreidae),
Aphis sp. (saphididae), Liriomyza sp. (Agromyzidae), and
Tetranychus sp. (Tetranychidae).

SUMMARY
 Amongst the defoliators, the velvet bean caterpillar, Anticarsia
gemmatalis (Hub.), the sugarcane root-borer, Diaprepes ab-
breviatus (L.) and Promecops lunatus (Fhs.), occasionally appear


in large numbers causing serious damage to the crop.

 PROCEEDINGS of the CARIBBEAN FOOD CROPS SOCIETY-VOL. XX