FAMILY BOSTRYCHIDAE 



155 



the tunnel at i-ija:ht 

 angles to its former 

 direction, eating out 

 the gallery just be- 

 low the external 

 surface of the sap- 

 wood, and leaving 

 but a thin lamella 

 of wood between it 

 and the outer air, 

 the gallery running 

 round the circum- 

 ference of the tree 

 for a varying dis- <^ 



tance. Thedn-ection Fig. los-^Galleries of Shioxylon '^''^/'^ J!^,^ ^^f^l^"^ 

 • .u u ^^ o,.^ Pterocarpux marsupuim. an, $ and $ entnince -tunnels , 



is then changed, and ^^^ pairing-chamber ; 6 f, egg-tunnels ; d d, position of eggs, 

 the tunnel, with one Mandla, Central Provinces. (E. P. S.) 



or more curves in it, • r j 



is carried hito the heart-wood of the tree. The male is at times found 

 in this egg-tunnel, and I think it is probable that he pairs with the female 

 more than a single time. Also he fertilizes more than one beetle, as I 

 have found cases where more than one tunnel takes off from the painng- 

 chamber and yet there was but one entrance-hole on the outside, aUhough 

 there was a female beetle in each egg-tunnel engaged in hollowing the 

 latter out. These egg-tunnels vary in length, being occasionally several 

 inches and when bored in the harder heart-wood they are often found 

 to run' horizontally round the softer part of a " ring " of the wood, as shown 



in the diagram of a section of 1 crminaha 

 chebula. The end of the tunnel is usually 

 parallel to the long axis of the tree. The 

 eggs are laid at or near the bottom in 

 masses of powdered wood-dust. This egg- 

 gallery takes from four to eight days to 

 construct, the eggs hatching out within 

 forty-eight hours or so. The operations 

 of the beetle in the tree or log are usually 

 easily seen by the heaps of sawdust which 

 are pushed out from the tunnel through 

 the entrance-hole and project in small 

 cylinders or cover the bark with sawdust. 

 The larvae feed entirely on the wood, 



r 1 eatino- out tunnels in the long axis in an 



Fig. 104.— Cross section of a log earin^ uul lu ^ 



of Tenninalia chebula, showing irregular manner, which coalesce and re- 



{a) entrance and {c\ egg tunnel of j^^g ^j^g wood substance to powder. In 



^SXvrncSr'tE. p. sf"""' the case of old large trees these tunnels are 



