224 FAMILY ELATERIDAE 



The pupae known are white, yellow, or orange in colour, having the 

 head bent vertically downwards, the wing cases curved 

 Pupa. on to the breast, and the abdomen elongate (see fig. 150) 



and often serrate on the lateral edges. 



As serious pests to the bast and wood of trees the family cannot at 

 present be considered a dangerous one. Some species 



*th F °li'^ ^ ^^^ known to feed on the roots of young plants, and thus 

 to cause serious damage to conifers. In the Himalaya 

 there is at least one elaterid grub which feeds in this manner on the roots 

 of young deodar seedlings, both in the nursery and forest. 



The forest elaterid grubs known are, however, in all probability 

 mostlv predaceous upon other bast- and wood-feeding insects, especially the 

 bark- and wood-boring beetle pests. It would appear that some of these 

 grubs, if not actuallv wood-borers themselves throughout their development, 

 at any rate tunnel into the hard wood of trees to pupate, thus ruining its 

 appearance and structure. Such a case is furnished by the large elaterid 

 beetle Alans pntridus, the entrances to whose pupal chambers and a chamber 

 itself (in section at the top of the picture) are shown in pi. xvi. In order to 

 settle definitely the relative importance of the family in the forest its further 

 careful study is required. 



Adelocera. 

 Adelocera modesta, Boisd. 



Reference. — Boisd. Fauna Ent. Ocean, p. io8 (1835). 



Habitat. — Katha, Upper Burma. 



Tree Attacked. — -Teak (Tedona grandis). Mohnyin Forest, Katha. 



Beetle. — Small. Dark rufous brown, shining. Front of head finely 

 punctate. Prothorax convex, longer than wide ; the anterior margin 

 concave ; posterior angles produced and pointed; 

 Description. uniformly and rather deeply punctate, the lateral 



margins and basal part clothed with longish 

 sparse hairs. Scutellum large, punctate. Elytra with base depressed, 

 sides gradually constricted to apex ; punctate, the punctures arranged in 

 parallel rows and smaller than those on prothorax ; scattered yellow 

 Fig lac hairs laterally and apically. Under-surface highly punctate, the punctures 



Adelocera modesta uniformly arranged ; covered with a very short sparse scattered whitish 

 Boisd. Upperliurma. pubescence. Length, 12 mm. to 20 mm. 



I took specimens of this insect from a pupal chamber in the sapwood 

 of a large standing teak-tree which had been girdled in 

 Life History. the Mohnyin forests the year before. The larva appar- 



ently feeds in the bast and sapwood, and, when full-fed, 

 eats out a tunnel at the end of the gallery down into the sapwood, and 

 hollows out the pupating-chamber in this latter. The beetles found 

 were fully mature and ready to issue from the tree. They were taken on 

 20 February 1905 in the bole just above the roots. 



