FAMILY CARABIDAE 



97 



like mandibles. Thoracic segments with three pairs of legs. Posterior segment terminates 

 in two corneous processes, calliper-shaped, tiie under-surface of segment forming a kind of 

 pseudo-pod. Length. 5 mm. 



I first took specimens of this very active beetle from beneath the bark 

 of a dying chir-pine log in the Tons Valley. The insect 



Life History. was found in large numbers in the tunnels and galleries, 



and appeared to be predaceous upon the wood- and bark- 

 infesting insects of this tree. These specimens were taken on 8 June 1902. 

 The tree was attacked by the Tomicus and PolygyapJius bark-borers and the 

 Platypus wood-borer. The larvae of the carabid were also numerous. They 

 are rapid walkers, using the thoracic legs and the pseudo-pod. Their jaws are 

 e.xtremely powerful, and they are very tenacious of their grip once having 

 got a firm purchase. When they had seized a piece of stick with which 

 I poked them about I could lift them clean up by their jaws, as they 

 refused to let go (pp. 527, 561). 



On 22 January 1905, in Burma, I again took specimens of a minute 

 carabid, which has been identified as this species of Tachyta, from beneath the 

 bark of a large felled Anogcissiis latifolia tree. This tree had been cut down 

 in a tounggya clearing in the Kadin Bilin Forest in Tharrawaddy. I again 

 on this occasion recorded a note to the effect that the insect was exceedingly 

 active and appeared to be carnivorous. Here it probablv attacks the 

 Platypus rectangulatus (p. 623) of the Anogcissus and other bark-borers. 



Omphra ? sp. 



Habitat. — North-West Himalaya. 



Habits. — This carabid is predaceous upon the caterpillars of the deodar 

 geometer moth. These " looper " caterpillars seriously defoliate the deodar 

 in parts of the North-West Himalaya in June-July, sometimes entirely 

 stripping all the needles from the trees. In July 1901 Mr. E. M. Coventry, 

 of the Indian Forest Service, found this carabid feeding upon the caterpillars 

 in the Kalela Forest of the Simla Division. The greater part of this forest 

 was entirely defoliated that year. 



9003 



