FAMILY CERAMlJVdDAK 



335 



Attacks of Wood- 

 peckers on Hoplocer- 

 ambyx.— The large green 

 woodpecker, which is 

 fairly plentiful in the 

 Goalpara forests, drills 

 holes in the green stand- 

 ing trees to get out the 

 larvae engaged in cutting 

 out their pupal chambers 

 or those already in the 

 latter either in the larval 

 or pupal stage. Whilst 

 engaged in this operation 

 the bird destroys the 

 timber of the tree by 

 making holes of a con- 

 siderable size, which 

 holes may subsequently 

 become enclosed by a 

 growth of later super- 

 imposed layers of wood. 

 These, when the tree is 

 not seriously infested, 

 will result in greater da- 

 mage to the timber than 

 the mere presence of a 

 few pupal chambers in the 

 wood would have caused. 

 At the same time the bird 

 probably does a great 

 deal of good by boring in- 

 to and extracting grubs, 

 etc., from badly infested 

 trees, the wood of which 

 had been already irre- 

 trievably ruined by the 

 insect. Fig. 222, from a 

 photograph by Mr. R. N. 

 Mukerjee, shows the 

 trunk of a sal-tree badly 

 riddled by woodpeckers 

 in searching for Hoplo- 

 ceranibyx larvae in the 

 sapwood and heart-wood. 



Fk;. 222.— Holes made by the large green woodpecker in 

 young sal-trees to get at the larvae oi Ho-bhcerambyx spini- 

 'cornis in the bast and sapwood. Goalpara, Assam. 



