FAMILY BOSTRYCHIDAIC 159 



beetles which appear in September and October. This is the hfe history of 

 the insect in Dehra Dan and thronghout the Siwaliks and submontane parts 

 of Garhwal and Kumaun. Here the insect attacks the sal, both the timber 

 and the green twigs and tops of green saplings, as already described ; I have 

 also found it infesting Anogeissics latifolia poles in the Horai Forest in 

 Kumaun. 



In the Central Provinces, Mr. 1'. Gleadow procured khair {Acacia 

 catechu) poles from Raipur in July 1890 which were badly infested by this 

 beetle. 



I first took this beetle in the Singbhum forests of Chota Nagpur from 

 sal beams in newly constructed forest resthouses in April 1897. In August 

 1901, whilst in Seoni in the Central Provinces in compan}- with Mr. C. O. 

 Hanson, Deputy Conservator of Forests, I noticed the borings of bostrychids 

 in Terunnalia toincntosa posts in newly constructed bungalows.* The 

 following is a brief extract from my report on the subject : — 



" The wood of this tree is used to a considerable extent for construction work in the Central 

 Provinces. At my request Mr. Hanson forwarded an infested rafter to me at Dehra Dun in the 

 following September. It was found to be infested by Sinoxylon ciassiun, an unknown 

 species of Xylopertha already alluded to, a new species of Lyctus''^ (recently described by 

 Mr. P. Lesne as Lyctus spini/rons), " and various predaceous and parasitic insects. The 

 Sinoxylon was very numerous, and was evidently the generation of beetles issuing in 

 September from the eggs laid by the July generation found Isy Mr. Gleadow." 



I found the beetle pairing and egg-laying in Mandla in the Central 

 Provinces between the end of the first and the last week of April 1909. The 

 beetle was infesting various species of trees, most of which had been cut 

 down from one to three months before on a new road alignment through the 

 forests. r^'{e\\ed Pterocarpus iiiarsupinin pole (fig. 102) examined contained a 

 number of beetles whose operations extended right through the pole, some 

 of the egg-tunnels traversing it from one side to near the outer surface of the 

 sapwood on the other. The wood was still fresh and sappy, the tree having 

 been cut into a couple of logs which were l\'ing unbarked. In several of the 

 tunnels I found a male and female beetle. In some cases here I noted that 

 occasionally the entrance-holes of the sexes were separate, those of the 

 males being smaller than the females, the separate tunnels both connecting 

 with a large chamber eaten out from a quarter to half an inch dowm in 

 the sapwood as shown in fig. 103, which is the pairing-chamber. The 

 beetles so engaged were laying the eggs of the second generation of the year. 



From the same forests in Mandla I took the insect in felled sal-trees, but 

 only sparingly. At Kandrahi in Mandla I found numbers of the beetles in 

 a large Tenninalia chcbula log which had likewise been cut in the preceding 

 February on the road alignment. These beetles had just matured and w'ere 

 issuing to pair and oviposit, a number having already left the log. .1 took 

 the insects on 26 April, thus showing that the first generation of the year in 



* Vide my note on " Insect Life in a Tertninalia post," Ind. Forcstt'7-, vol. xwiii. p. 2S7 

 (August 1902). 



