INDIAN FOREST INSECTS 



the silver tir) ; \vhilst a second confines itself to the long-leaved pine (Pinus 

 longifolia) at the lower elevation at which this latter tree grows. 



A family of wood-borers, the Platypodidae, closely allied to the Scoly- 

 tidae, has a similar distribution, one species being confined to the deodar, a 

 second to the spruce and blue pine, whilst a third restricts its attacks to the 



long-leaved 

 pine, whose 

 wood it fre- 

 quently so rid- 

 dles with shot- 

 holes as to 

 render it use- 

 less as timber. 

 The bark- 

 borers of the 

 sib'er fir are, 

 on the other 

 hand, totally 

 dissimilar to 

 those of the 

 other conifers 

 growing either 

 with it, as does 

 the spruce, or 

 in its \icinity 

 (d e o d a r and 

 blue pine). The 

 curious genus 

 Scolytoplatypus 

 (p. 604) infests 

 the wood of this 

 tree; whilst the 

 gen us Xyle- 

 boriis infests 

 the branches 

 (p. 582) ; a spe- 

 cies of Dryo- 

 coctes infests 

 the bast and 

 sapwood of the 

 spruce (p. 549)- 



Some of the true scolytid wood-borers and those of the Cossomdae 

 have not this restricted distribution so far as their host-trees are concerned, 

 for species of Hylastes and Rhyucholus infest equally the spruce, deodar, 

 and blue pine. A genus of weevils, the well-known Cryptovhynchus, mfests 



Fk;. 5.- -Egg and lar\al galleries of Tomiciis loui^ifolia^ Steb., 

 in inner bark of Piiius longifolia. North-West Himalaya. 



