FAMILY CERAMBYCIDAE 361 



Madras, where they were reported as eating the leaves and young stems of 

 casuarina. It would appear that the beetle was engaged in stripping off 

 the bark of the young trees when taken. 



Nothing further appears to have been reported on the insect until, in 

 November 1907, Mr. S. Scrinivasalem Maidu, Divisional Officer of the 

 Buldana Division in Berar, forwarded me specimens of beetles, reporting 

 that they were devouring the bark of leading shoots and young twigs of 

 babul in the Bhongarn Reserve of his division. At my request the Divisional 

 Officer kindly kept a careful watch on the plantation to observe whether 

 the grubs which he mentioned in the same communication as being con- 

 stantly seen tunnelling in young babul-trees had any connexion with the 

 beetles. In August igo8 Mr. Scrinivasalem was able to forward to Dehra 

 specimens of babul stems and roots containing grubs and pupae, and 

 beetles were obtained in numbers from them, the insects proving to be 

 C. sea brat a. 



Meanwhile from the Amraoti Division, Berar, specimens of a longicorn 

 grub, reported as tunnelling into the roots and lower portion of the stems of 

 babul, were received from Mr. Pandurang Narayan, Extra Assistant Con- 

 servator of Forests, in April igo8. He said that the grub was generally 

 noticed from February to May. Some beetles subsequently obtained proved 

 to be C. scabrata. 



In November 1908 an insect committing depredations to babul was 

 reported from a new locality. Mr. T. Carr, I.F.S., forwarded me two 

 beetles received by him from the Ranger in charge of the Kalpi Plantation 

 in Bundelkhand in the Eastern Circle of the United Provinces, with the 

 report that they had commenced to strip the bark from young babul in the 

 plantation. The beetles proved to be C. scabrata. 



From the above remarks and the notes given on the life history of the 

 insect, it will be sufficiently obvious that C. scabrata is a pest of the first 

 importance, since it is capable, in the absence of a knowledge of its life 

 history and a capacity for being able to distinguish its attacks, of obtaining 

 a complete mastery over a young plantation, and this means the partial or 

 total loss of that plantation. The damage committed by the beetle is to 

 both stem and root, and plants seriously attacked are certain to die. The 

 insect onh- infests growing trees. Immature larvae in cut stems die off. 



Now that the life history of this pest is well known, methods of com- 

 bating it are fairly simple. Whether the resultant loss 



D ^**j^Vm" ^" from its attacks in a plantation is heavy or small will 



Remedial Measures. ^ ^ . . 



depend entirely on the amount of supervision the 

 plantation receives and the capacity of those in charge of it for immediately 

 marking down an attack in a tree as soon as it has started. Attacks both 

 to stem and root are easily seen — to the stems as the bark is peeled off 

 when egg-laying ; to the root by the wood-dust and excreta ejected from 

 holes near its base by the boring grubs. 



