36o FAMILY -CERAMBYCIDAE 



The eggs are evidently laid on the stems towards the end of the month 

 in Berar, perhaps earlier in Bundelkhand, and always low down towards the 

 bottom of the stems on the sapwood from which the bark has previously 

 been removed. The larva on hatching out at once tunnels down to the 

 centre of the stem and then feeds there, gradually, as it grows older, working 

 down to the root, the base of the stem and the thicker portions of the main 

 roots being entirely hollowed out by the grub, as shown in pi. xxv, figs, e, f. 

 The larval tunnel is kept almost free of wood-dust and excreta to enable 

 the grub to move up and down in it, and to get rid of this mass of refuse it 

 eats out a hole through the bark just above ground Level and ejects the mass 

 through this. It is this hole and the mass of tell-tale wood-refuse in heaps on 

 the ground beneath it which serves to indicate with certainty the presence of 

 the grub in the trees. The hole, of course, also serves the purpose of aerating 

 the larval tunnel down in the roots beneath the surface of the soil. The 

 work of the grub first begins to make itself obvious in December, its attacks 

 during November, owing to its small size, not being so evident. The grub, 

 according to Mr. Scrinivasalem, remains active and at work until the middle 

 of July, when, the monsoon having well set in, it pupates. Before pupating 

 the grub blocks the now entirely hollowed-out thicker part of the root with 

 a mass of ligneous root-fibres (figs, c, g), these being torn off from the inner 

 sides of the walls of the cavity and wedged into a mass both at the bottom 

 and top of the space it intends to pupate in, which is about twice its own 

 length. It then changes to a pupa and remains in this stage till about the 

 end of August. If the roots are examined in September, the immature 

 beetles will be found in the cavity, as shown in figs, d, e, their coloration 

 being very vivid, but the outer parts still soft. Towards the end of the first 

 week in October the insect is mature, and bites its way through the mass of 

 fibrous material blocking the tunnel above it, crawls up the hollowed-out 

 root till it reaches the refuse-hole made by the larva above ground, and 

 crawls out of this ; or it may bite a way out of the stem for itself. 



The first report of this Coclostcrna proving a pest to babul was made by 



the Conservator of Forests, Berar, in July i8q2, when 

 Damage Committed , r •, , r xi i ^i ^t u .u 



in the Forest torwarded specimens or the beetle through the 



Director of the Imperial Forest School at Dehra to the 



Indian Museum, Calcutta, with the information that " the insect committed 



considerable damage to the plants, the larva being said to enter the stem 



some three or four inches above the ground, and to tunnel through the 



roots to such an extent as eventually to cause death." As there were no 



specimens of the insect in the Indian Museum, the beetle was forwarded to 



the British Museum, where Mr. Gahan identified it as C. spinator, which he 



considered to be a variety only of C. scabrata. In Injurious Insects, 



p. 68, I drew attention to this point, and suggested that should the habits 



of the two beetles prove the same, the beetle would be best alluded to under 



the name of C. scabrata. In June 1903, whilst in charge of the Indian 



Museum at Calcutta, I received specimens of this beetle from Kandikuppa, 



