FAMILY CERAMBYCIDAE 329 



them on the under-side of fallen trees and on the north side of standing 

 sickly trees with the object of safeguarding them from the hot rays of the- 

 sun, which are very fierce at this season of the year. 



Larvae. — The fact that comparatively young immature larvae have been 

 found in the wood in November may be due to their having originated 

 from the eggs laid by the late July beetles. The grubs probably usually 

 pass the winter in the heart-wood in their pupal chambers, or spend part 

 of this period in eating out these pupal chambers. Those who com- 

 pleted the pupal chamber by February pupate and issue in April. The 

 later ones pupate in March and April, issuing respectively as beetles in May,. 

 June, or July. In no case under ordinary circumstances are more than 

 two months passed in the pupal stage. The period would appear to be 

 usually six weeks, with three to four weeks in the resting stage as an 

 immature beetle. 



Investigations carried out in a number or sickly or dying standing 

 trees and in some newly felled ones in the middle of April in the Banjar 

 Valley in Mandla showed that there were practically no larvae to be found 

 in the new large larval galleries in the bast and sapwood. The grubs had 

 all gone deep down into the heart-wood to pupate, as was evidenced by 

 the large orifice holes of numerous tunnels leading down into the wood. 

 Beetles on issuing search for standing sickly or dying trees in the forest 

 or newly fallen or felled ones. I examined a large number of the large 

 trees which had been felled on the line of a broad new cart-road being 

 driven through a portion of the Mandla forests at the time of my visit. 

 The trees inspected had been felled three months or over ; they were thus 

 already to some extent dry on the outside, and the bark had lost a certain 

 degree of moisture. In no instance could I find that the beetles then 

 ovipositing in the forest had made use of these trees to oviposit in. Sickly 

 standing trees and newly felled ones were found towards the end of April 

 to have numbers of beetles on their northern or lower shady sides all 

 pairing or egg-laying. This point that the young grubs require absolutely 

 fresh sappy sapwood during the first few days of their existence has been 

 established for the insect in Assam, and appears to be the rule in the 

 Central Provinces. The practical outcome is that if it is required to fell 

 and not bark timber to be left in the forest the trees should be cut at latest 

 by the end of January. 



In an interesting communication received in 1909 from Mr. H. W. 



Watson he reported that beetles which have been 



Life History in the identified as this insect infest the trees Diiabanga 



Southern Shan States, sonnatioidcs and Pcntacuie suavis in Taunggyi, Southern 



Shan States, the wood being riddled by the tunnels 



and pupating-chambers of the grubs. The life history of the insect in 



this locality has not 3'et been worked out. 



