230 



FAMILY ELATERIDAE 



Beetle.— Elongate, rather flat. Black, shining, the elytra with a reddish tinge which is 

 most pronounced in apical portions ; abdominal segments reddish coppery, glabrous. Head 



with a median depression on front which is 

 Description, strongly and highly punctate. Prothorax longer 



than wide, anterior margin straight ; sides 

 slightly rounded, the posterior angles produced outwards and then down- 

 wards into a blunt point ; the disk moderately convex, punctate, the 

 punctures large but not so close as on head ; a long sparse yellow pubes- 

 cence on lateral edges. Elytra elongate, narrow, constricting slightly 

 from posterior coxae to apex, apices conjointly rounded ; striate-punctate, 

 the striae and punctures not well marked in basal half except in basal 

 depression which encloses the large heart-shaped scutellum. Under- 

 surface smooth, shining, punctate, with a sparse pubescence. Abdominal 

 segments shining, punctate. Length, 24 mm. 



Fig. 153. 



iSIelanotus sp. 



N.W. Himalaya. 



I have taken this insect in all stages of larva, pupa, and beetle, in the 

 bast and sapwood of dying and dead spruce-trees and 

 spruce-stumps in the North-West Himalaya. The 

 grub is, I think, predaceous upon other wood- and bast- 

 It, however, penetrates into the wood to pupate. The 

 tunnel made into the wood is circular in section, the pupal chamber being 

 elongate and considerably broader. The insect was taken in June. 



Life History, 



borine: insects. 



Undetermined Elaters, 



Reference. — Stebbing, Depart. Notes, i, 89 (1902). 



Habitat. — North-West Himalaya. 



Trees Attacked. — Deodar {Ccdnis dcodara) : Taranda Forest, Bashahr 

 State ; Castaiica vesca : Jaunsar, North-West Himalaya. 



Larvae. — I. Larva light reddish-brown in colour, with a horny, shiny, chitinous external 



covering ; flat in section, with three pairs of prolegs 

 on the first three segments of the body. Length, i|in. 

 This larva is shown in the figure. 



2. Larva brown in colour, hard, shining, with 

 Fig. 154. — Deodar Elater Larva. three pairs of prolegs on the first three segments of 

 X 2. N.W. Himalaya. body. Length, tin. 



Information at present possessed concerning these larvae. 



I. One specimen of this "wireworm," as the grubs of elater beetles 

 are called, was discovered feeding at the roots of an English chestnut plant 

 {Castanea vesca) in a small plantation near Kathian, in the Jaunsar Division, 

 North-West Himalaya. It was noticed that several of the young plants, 

 which had been raised from seed sent out from home, were d3'ing or dead, 

 and the cause was attributed to bad planting in several cases. One young 

 plant that I dug up had its roots rather badly gnawed, patches of bark 

 having been peeled off. This wireworm, a large specimen, was found at the 

 roots, and was responsible for the bad condition of the young plant. 



