240 FAMILY TENEBRIONIDAE 



I have taken this beetle commonly in March, April, and May in crevices 



of the bark of sal-trees and on the bark of stumps in the 



Life History. Northern India sal forests, and found the insect beneath 



the bark and wood of dead trees, where it evidently 



breeds. I also took specimens of the insect from beneath the bark of a large 



standing girdled teak-tree in the Mohnyin forests in Katha on 19 February 



1905. In this latter case the larvae were found feeding in the bark and 



outer sapwood. 



The beetle only infests dying and dead trees, is found in thatched roofs, 

 and would appear to be of small economic importance. Lefroy in Indian 

 Insect Life (p. 336) thus alludes to this insect : — 



"A yearly feature is the emergence of numbers of the very common 

 beetle Mcsomorpha villiger, which breeds in dry leaves and wood, and which 

 emerges abundantly to fly in the warm evenings in March in the plains. In 

 the warm winter of 1907 these beetles emerged on 25 February, an excep- 

 tionally early date." 



Blaps. 



Blaps armata, Blair, sp. nov. 



Reference.— Blair, Aiui. Mng. Hist. 8th ser, xii, 56 (1913). 



Habitat. — North Zhob, Baluchistan. Also reported from Chitral. 



Tree Attacked.— Chilgoza (Piniis f^erardiana). Shinghar, North Zhob 

 (Captain E. 11, James). 



Beetle. — Large, black, dull ; antennae and legs shining black. 



Head depressed, longer than wide ; antennae placed at side in 



front of eyes ; latter reniform, transverse, 



Description. yellow ; an elevate wavy ridge stretch- 



ing across front of head between the 

 juncture of antennae ; very finely punctate, punctures scattered. 

 Prothorax wider than long ; sides evenly rounded, base nearly 

 straight, disk moderately convex, with very tine, rather scattered 

 punctures. Elytra elongate-ovate, as wide as prothorax at base, 

 sides evenly rounded ; width greatest in apical fourth, thence 

 constricting to a pointed apex ; disk moderately convex, depressed 

 towards apex ; finely striate with rather scattered, often almost 

 obsolete, punctures, and at times irregularly rugose ; lateral 

 carina completely marginal. Legs long, the anterior femora with '' "=• •66. 



a prominent median tooth on inner edge. Length, 27.5 mm. B/a/>s arwa/n, Uhur, sp. n. 

 The female only is known. $ North Zhob. 



Whilst examining infested trees in the chilgoza forests at Shinghar in 



the autumn of 1908 in North Zhob in Baluchistan, 



Life History. Captain E. H. James, Assistant Political Agent, Fort 



Sandeman, cut out a specimen of this beetle from 



a dead tree. The grub has not been taken, but it apparently tunnels down 



into the sapwood to pupate. 



The insect has been very kindly described for me by Mr. K. G. Blair 

 as a new species of Blaps. 



