boisduval's fig-tree borer, 135 



CHAPTER CXXXII. 



Boisduval's Fig-tree Borer. 



(Batocera Boisduvali, Hope.) 



Order : Coleoptera. Family : Cerambycidce. 



This fine Longicorn beetle is a denizen of the great 

 scrubs, now fast disappearing, of Northern New South 

 Wales and South Queensland. Mr. Illidge, the well- 

 known Brisbane entomologist, says, " It is only found 

 upon the Giant Fig-trees (Ficus macrophylla and F. aus- 

 tralis) growing in these vast forests." Healthy trees, he 

 says, are not subject to its attacks, but the stems and 

 larger branches of damaged and freshly- fallen trees are 

 those selected by the female upon which to deposit its 

 eggs. The grub, which we figure, upon emergence from 

 the egg, burrows through and under the bark to the sap- 

 wood, upon which it feeds, rapidly growing in size, and 

 boring in deeper, until there is no visible sign of its presence 

 upon removal of the bark. 



In the following season, the greater number of the 

 larvae are ready for the change to the pupal stage (see 

 Fig. II.), though a few still remain for a few months longer, 

 and rarely for a second year in the larval state. The 

 pupal stage is not of great duration, usually about three 

 weeks or a month. No cocoon is formed, but a ver) r 

 carefully-made puparium is prepared by the grub before 

 the change takes place. (Mr. Illidge speaks of having 

 made false puparia for the grubs, after cutting them out 

 of the wood, from suitable glass-topped metal boxes about 

 •1 inches in diameter, lined with blotting-paper, and worked 

 by the finger as nearly as possible to the form of the 

 puparia.) In these glass-topped boxes the transformations 



