FAMILY BOSTRVCHIDAE 133 



Life History. — A specimen of this clerid beetle was taken from a 

 thatched roof of a building in Dehra Dun badly infested by Sinoxylon 

 crassum and Dinodcnis pilifrois. The insect may be predaceous upon 

 the Dinodcncs. 



Tillns notatiis, described below, likewise attacks this insect. Also 

 Tribolium confusiDii (p. 238). 



Dinoderus minutus, Fabr. 

 {The smaller Bamboo Slwt-borcr Beetle.) 



References. — Fabr. Syst. Ent. p. 45 (1775) ; substriatus, Stephens, ///. Brit. Ent. iii, p. 352 (1830) ; 

 sictdus, Baudi, Berl. Ent. Zeit. xvii, p. 336 (1873) ; bifoveolatus, Zoufal {non Wollaston), Wien. 

 Ent. Zeit. xiii, p. 42 (1894); Dinoderus sp. Ind. Miis. Notes, i; Stabbing, Ind. Miis. Notes, vi 

 p. 23 (1903) ; Depart. Notes, 172 (1903). 



Habitat. — -Bombay Presidency (Andrewes) ; Calcutta, Burma, Carin 

 Cheba, 2,800 to 3,500 ft., Teinzo, Bhamo (Fea). Lesne states the species 

 to be cosmopolitan in tropical regions. It is at times found in ports and 

 large towns in temperate climes. 



Trees Attacked. — Bamboo (Dendrocalamus strictus) : Calcutta, etc. ; 

 Bambiisa spp., Smilax borbonica : He de Reunion ; Lianas (Brazil). 



Beetle. — Brown, shining, with black head and thorax, the bases of elytra liyhter-coloured, 



occasionally almost reddish. The stiff hairs on the front clypeal region always few in number 



and very short. Antennae ten-jointed, the funiculus not fringed with 



Description. hair ; the second joint of club less than one and a half times as wide 



as long. Teeth of anterior margin of prothorax more or less pointed, 



not set very close together, the middle ones most prominent ; sides posteriorly strongly and 



densely punctate, median foveoles well marked. Elytra set with short stiff reddish hairs, 



densest on the declivity ; thickly and densely punctate, punctures most prominent on basal 



portion ; suture of declivity not prominent. Length, 2.5 mm. to 3.5 mm. PI. ix, tig. i, c. 



Larva. — Pale canary-yellow, opaque, curved, corrugated, the thoracic segments swollen, 

 the prothorax tapering sharply anteriorly to head. Latter small, orange-brown with black 

 mandibles, three pairs of longish three-jointed legs on thoracic segments, the lowest joints 

 clothed anteriorly with scattered yellow bristly hairs, the legs ending in a claw. Body tapers 

 posteriorly to a blunt rounded point. Length, 3 mm. to 3.75 mm. PL ix, fig. i, a. 



Pupa. — Resembles that oi fiilifrons, but is smaller. PI. ix, fig. i, b. 



Dinoderus minutus was for some time consistently confused with D. pili- 

 frons in India, with the result that the literature con- 

 Life History. nected with the two species became so indefinite that 

 it was impossible to say what the real life histories of 

 the insects were. D. minutus was known to infest bamboos, and it was 

 thought to accompany pilifrons very often in this connection. The insect 

 had also been reported as infesting other plants. 



Two points would seem to have been established. The large series of 

 beetles reared at Dehra Dun from bamboos cut in the Siwaliks and neigh- 

 bouring United Provinces forests consisted entirely of pilifrons, whilst the 

 hundreds of beetles bred from bamboos in Calcutta during the year 1903 

 were entirely minutus. D. pilifrons exists in Calcutta, as I took it on wood 

 stacks of miscellaneous species of trees in the Botanical Gardens towards 



