ii6 



FAMILY CUCUJIDAE 



This family of beetles contains representatives having totally dissimilar 

 habits in the forest. Some, such as Silvanns, feed on dry or decaying 

 materials ; in one case a species of this genus appears to produce curious 

 excrescences or galls on the leaves of the teak-tree. Species of Loemophloeus 

 are commonly found in decaying bark and other parts of the tree. 

 Laemotmetus, on the other hand, are found feeding at the sap of cut 

 stumps and wounds on trees, the beetles being often confused with bark 

 beetles, although in reaUty of course they do no or little harm in the forest 

 so far as is yet known. Yet another genus, Hedarthrum, has quite dis- 

 similar habits, as the members at present known in the forest are all 

 predaceous, feeding upon various kinds of bark- and wood-eating beetles. 



Hectarthrum. 



A genus of elongate, narrow, shining black beetles with prominent 

 antennae, mandibles, and more or less deeply channelled and punctate 

 elytra. The insects are predaceous. 



Hectarthrum heros, Fabr. 



Reference. ^Fabr. Syst. Eleuth. ii, p. 92. 



Habitat. — Central Provinces, Burma. 



Habits.— The beetle has apparently a fairly wide distribution in India. 

 I have taken it in Seoni and Mandla in the Central Provinces and also very 

 plentifully in Tharrawaddy and Tenasserim in Lower Burma. Lefroy 

 {Indian Insect Life) mentions it as common under the bark of trees without 

 giving any localities. 



I have found this Hectarthrum predaceous upon Sinoxylon crassum 

 in Terminalia toinentosa and T. chebula in the Central Provinces (p. 166). 



In Burma it would appear to feed upon a variety of wood- and bark- 

 boring insects, including termites. I took it in Adina sessilifolia feeding upon 



the Platypus suffodicns which riddles the wood of this 

 tree (p. 621), and in Anogeissus latifolia feeding on 

 termites and other bark and wood insects, both in 

 Tharrawaddy. I also took it in pyinkadu on the 

 Salween River feeding on the pyinkadu platypid 

 (see p. 634). 



Hectarthrum trigeminum, Newm. 



Reference. — Newm. Ann. Nat. Hist. p. 393 (1839). 



Habitat. — Siwaliks, Dehra Dun. 

 Habits. — Student B. C. S. Gupta (now of the 

 Bengal Provincial Service) took specimens of this 

 insect under the bark of a dead Lagerstromia parvi- 

 FiG. %o.^HeciaHhnon tri- P^^' tree at Bulawala in the Siwaliks on 17 Feb- 

 ^eminum, Newm. Siwaliks. ruary 1902. The insect is probably predaceous. 



