FAMILY CERAMBYCIDAE 



293 



requires dry and hard wood in which to la}' its eggs. It does not 

 oviposit in rotten timber. The grubs live in the wood, eating out winding 

 tunnels, which are blocked with wood-dust and excreta. When full-fed, 

 they eat out a short length of tunnel, which curves to a certain extent, and 

 pupate here. The work of these larvae, as also of the mature beetles, as 

 they gnaw through hard wood with their mandibles, can be often heard in 

 the wood specimens in museums in India. The beetle, on maturing, bores 

 its way out of the wood. 



I think there is only one generation of the insect in the year, but am 

 not certain on this point. 



To protect wood specimens they should be soaked in a dilute solution 

 of arsenic. In Dehra I have found that this does not afford a permanent 

 protection either against this insect or the bostrychid borers, and specimens 

 have to be resoaked when the wood is seen to be again attacked. 



Stromatium longicorne, Newman. 

 {The Kiilsi Teak Borer.) 



Referen-CES. -Newman {Arhopalus), Entomol. i, p. 246 (1840); Stromatium aspenilum, White, Cat. Co!. 

 Brit. Mus. Longic. p. 300 (1855); 1 Stromatium laticolle, Pascoe, Trans. Ent. Sac. Loud. (3) 111, 

 p. 532 (1869); A. G. Mien, Ind. Forester, vol. iv, p. 347 (1879); Cotes, lud. Mus. Xotes, vol. ii, 

 p. 11; Gahan, F.B.I. Ceramb. vol. i, no. 109, p. 115 {1906). 



Habitat.— Kulsi Teak Plantations (Gauhati, Assam). Gahan gives 

 Assam (Doherty); Upper Burma; Tenijo (Fea) ; Hong Kong; South China; 

 Siam ; Malay Peninsula ; Philippines ; Borneo ; Celebes ; Ceram, Amboina ; 

 Batichan. 



Tree Attacked.— Teak {Tedona grandis). Kulsi, Assam. 



Beetle.— Varies from testaceous to dark brown in colour, rather 



densely covered with greyish-tawny pubescence. Antennae nearly 



twice as long as the body in the S> ^ 1'"^^ 



Description. longer than body in ? ; hrst joint closely 



punctulate, caniculate anteriorly near the 



base in the S- Prothorax strongly and densely punctate, the 



punctures more or less hidden by the pubescence, dilated and 



somewhat rounded at the sides in the 

 male, its width across the middle equal 

 to that of the elytra, and marked with 



a lar^re, densely tomentose depression . 



on each side; more sharply rounded Newman. $. 



at the sides in the female ; the disk 



with four very feeble obtuse tubercles, and a submedian callosity. 

 Elytra rounded at the apex, armed each with a sutural spine ; the 

 surface rather densely punctured, the punatures more or less 

 covered over by pubescence, marked also with numerous large, 

 conspicuous punctures, with raised front edges, each with a 

 tawny seta. Length, 17 mm. to 25 mm.; breadth, 4^ mm. to 

 p. 7i mm. {Descr. after Gahan.) 



Stromat\ia>^^ioicornc. ' Mr. Gahan adds : "This is a widely distributed species, and 

 ^. Assam. the variation in size is pretty considerable. In some males the 



Fig. 202. 



