18 



THE 'SHOT-BORERS' OF BAMBOOS AND WOOD-BORERS 



OF PINUS LONGIFOLIA. 



By 



e. p. stebbing, l.r.s., f.r.s., f.z.s., f.e.s. 



In Volume XVII, p. 526 of our Journal, Mr. Norman F. T. Troup 

 asked some questions relative to the attacks of bamboos by the ' shot- 

 borer' beetles and the riddling of the wood of Pinus longifolia by the 

 same or similar species of beetles. 



Mr. Troup draws attention to the fact that the inhabitants of 

 Kumaun hold that the bamboos and trees are only attacked by the 

 borers if they have been felled during the period of the month when the 

 nights are lit by the moon's radiance, and that, if fellings take place in 

 that portion of the month during which the nights are dark, the bam- 

 boos and timber will remain unaffected. 



That such an opinion is held by natives in many parts of India, as far 

 as the immunity of bamboos is concerned, I am well aware. I have 

 collected together the information extant on the subject and published 

 a paper in the Indian Forester (Vol. XXXII, p. 534) entitled ' The 

 effect of the moon's phases on the period of felling bamboos,' a copy of 

 which I attach to this note. 



The two common 'shot' borers of the bamboo are species of Dino- 

 derus, D. pilifrons and I), minutus, both members of the family of 

 beetles known as the Bostrychidce. 



Mr. Troup's remarks concerning the borers attacking the Pinus 

 longifolia are of very considerable interest, as during a tour in Jaunsar 

 and up the Tons Valley in the North-West Himalaya made in September- 

 November of last year (1906), I carried out a series of preliminary in- 

 vestigations into the life histories of some of the Pinus longifolia bark and 

 wood-borers. These beetles, for they are all coleoptera, are in no way 

 related to the Bamboo Dinoderus beetles ; they belong to a very 

 different family, the Scolytidoe, a family which contains some of the 

 most pernicious pests to trees known to science. The worst amongst 

 them are-two bark-boring beetles, i.e., beetles which oviposit in the 

 green bast layer or inner layer of the bark. These consist of a 

 new species of Tomicus, which 1 have named Tomkus longifolia, and a 

 species of Polygraphus as yet. unnamed. The life histories of these 

 insects I have partially worked out. It will not be necessary, however, 



