FAMILY CERAMBYCIDAE 285 



tree. When full-fed the larva eats out a longish narrow pupal chamber 

 in tiie sapwood and pupates here. This pupating-chamber is usually from 

 half an inch to an inch down in the sapwood, and is parallel to the long axis 

 of the tree. The beetle on maturing crawls up the entrance-tunnel to the 

 pupating-chamber, eats a hole through the bark above, and escapes from 



the tree. 



That the beetles lay in absolutely green trees is evidenced by the tact 

 that I took tiny larvae at the most two weeks old from a tree which had 

 been felled less than a month previously. The inner surface of the bark of 

 this tree contained numerous small flat shallow chambers made by the 

 newly hatched grubs. Some were so tiny that they could not have been 

 more than a day or two out of the egg. Scarcely one was yet old enough 

 or had sufficiently strong mandibles to be able to feed in the sapwood. At 

 the same time a number of the beetles were taken ovipositing in crevices in 

 the bark of the tree. They flew about quickly in the sunshine, and do not 

 appear to be aff"ected by the light as is the case with some of the larger 

 longicorns. The length of time spent in the larval stage has yet to be 

 ascertained. It is, I think, improbable that there are two generations in 

 the year, though it is possible that the beetles issue irregularly through- 

 out the summer and early autumn. 



On 7 November I took numerous partly grown longicorn larvae, 

 having the appearance of Tctropium ones, from the upper portion of the 

 main stem of a large green deodar felled on i October at Konain in Jaunsar, 

 and at the time being converted into sawn material. It would seem prob- 

 able that these larvae had issued from eggs which were laid on the 

 tree after it was felled some five odd weeks before. The tree was a 

 perfectly healthy large old one. 



An examination of several deodar logs near Konain showed that the 

 beetle had infested them in large numbers. It evi- 

 Parasitic Insect. dently attacked the trees in conjunction with Scolyius 

 major (see p. 568), a bark beetle which was also 

 exceedingly plentiful. The longicorn had gradually increased in con- 

 siderable numbers, and apparently with it one of its insect parasites, 

 probably an ichneumon. I was unfortunately unable to find any of 

 the flies, as they had all left the trees; but the greater proportion of 

 the longicorn pupal chambers in the sapwood contained a small, white, 

 elongate, narrow pupal case with vertical sides, which was evidently the 

 pupating-chamber of a parasitic hymenopterous insect. In every instance 

 examined these cases had a small hole at one end, with a corresponding 

 hole in the bark above it, through which the parasite on maturing had 

 escaped from the tree. It appeared therefore that the numbers of the 

 longicorn had been decimated this year by the parasite, its grub having 

 lived parasitically on or in the longicorn larva till it had reached full size, 

 when the latter had died from exhaustion, and the parasitic grub then 

 pupated. 



