THE 'SHOT-BORERS' OF BAMBOOS AND WOOD-BORERS. 19 



to allude to them further here, since they do not come within the 

 province of* Mr. Troup's queries. 



The wood-borers belong to that curious family of beetles known as 

 the Platypodce. These insects have been held by many scientists to be 

 a sub-family of'the Scolytidce — more, I think I am right in saying, from 

 a want of knowledge of the habits or of a real study of the species known 

 than from any other reason. They differ from true Scolytidce very con- 



ERRATUM. 



Mr. E. P. Stebbixg has drawn our attention to the mistake in 

 the letters — L.R.S., F.B.>S. which appeared after his name in the 

 title of his paper on " The Shot-borers of Bamboos and Wood- 

 borers of Plans longifolia" at page 18 of the last Journal 

 —(No. 1, XVIII). 



These letters were due to a printer's error and should have 



been I.F.S., F.L.S. 



EDITORS. 



standing sickly trees. The object of the attack is to enable the beetle 

 to lay its eggs down in the heart wood of the tree. To do this the 

 insect bores straight through the bark into the sap wood, carrying its 

 tunnel for an inch or so into this latter before going off at an anole; 

 from this point onwards the gallery may have several sharp zigzags in 

 it. When completed, or nearly complete, a male and female beetle will 

 be found in the tunnel, which is kept entirely free of wood dust, this 

 latter being pushed up and ejected on the outer surface of the wood or 

 bark. As many as 20-30 eggs are laid by the beetle and from them 

 hatch out minute white dots, the size of pins' heads, which ultimately 

 grow into small elongate larvse with yellowish heads. They do not 

 feed on the wood, but on a kind of fungus with which the tunnel bored 

 by the beetles is lined : from this habit they have been given the name 

 of " Ambrosia " feeders. The life cvcle of this beetle is about 6 week» 



