FAMILY HISTERIDAE 103 



I have taken this Niponius in the galleries of Sphaerotrypes siwalikensis 

 in the sal in the SiwaHks and United Provinces Terai forests; in those of 

 Sphaerotrypes coimbatorcnsis in Ano<^eissus latifolia in Coimbatore, in Madras; 

 again in sal, attacking S. assaincnsis, in Assam, and S. globulus in sal in the 

 Central Provinces. 



Writing from a knowledge of the habits of this insect, but without 

 having been able to verify my opinion, it will probably be found that in the 

 Bombay Presidency this insect is present in Anogeissus latifolia, feeding 

 predaceously on S, globulus in that tree (vide p, 480). 



Niponius canalicollis, Lewis. 



References.— Lewis, Atin. Nat. Hist, viii, p. 370 (1901); Stebbing, Depart. Notes, p. 248, pi. 13, f. 6 (1903); 

 Lewis, Ann. Nat. Hist, xiv, p. 151, pi. 6, f. i (1904). 



Habitat.— North-West Himalaya; North Zhob, Baluchistan; Sulieman 

 Mountains. 



Habits. — Next to the clerid Thanasimus himalayensis, I look upon this 

 Niponius {vide fig. 6) as the most important of the predaceous foesof the bark- 

 boring beetles of the conifers of the North-West Himalaya, and the forests 

 clothing the mountainous region in the North of Zhob and the Sulieman 

 Mountains. The distribution of the insect, so far as my personal observations 

 have gone, extends from Kumaun in the Himalaya on the east to the Sulie- 

 man Mountain Range on the extreme west. Within this area I have taken 

 the insect in the Pinus longifolia in Kumaun, Jaunsar, Tehri Garhwal, Simla, 

 Bashahr, and Chamba ; in the deodar, blue pine, and spruce in Jaunsar, 

 Tehri Garhwal, Simla, Bashahr, and Chamba ; and in the Pinus gerardiana 

 in the North Zhob and Sulieman Mountain forests. 



Mr. G. Lewis suggests* that the Zhob Mountains are " probably the 

 western geographical limit of Niponius as Japan is of its eastern boundary." 



The insect feeds predaceously upon the following scolytid bark- and 

 wood-borers : — ■ 



In Deodar: Scolytus major, Scolytus minor. 



In Blue Pine: Polygraphus major, Polygraphus pini, Tomicus ribbentropi. 



In Blue Pine and Spruce : Hylastes himalayensis, Rhyncholus himalayensis. 



In Pinus longifolia : Tomicns longifolia {vide p. 507). 



HOLOLEPTA. 



Hololepta baunlyi, Mars. 



Refeken'CE.— Mars. Mon. p. 399, pi. 10, f. 9 (1857). 



Habitat. — Siwaliks, North India. 



Habits.— Specimens of this histerid (fig. 66) were taken by Student 

 B. C. S. Gupta, of the Imperial Forest School, Dehra Dun. He found them 

 under the bark of a dead Lagerstromia parviflora tree at Bulawala, in the 



Dehra Dun, on 17 February 1902. 



=* Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 7, vol. xix, April 1907. 



