366 



FAMILY CERAMBYCIDAE 



Description. 



Batoccra albofasciata^ 

 De Geer. \. Assam. 



Batocera albofasciata, De Geer. 



Reference.— De Geer. Mem. v, p. io6, t. 13, f. 16 (1775). 



Habitat. — Darrang, Assam. 



Tree Attacked.— India Rubber {Ficus elastica). Charduar Rubber Planta- 

 tion, Darrang, Assam. 



Beetle. — Dull brownish purple or black. The scutellum, 

 and a variable number of spots on elytra, white or yellow ; 

 a broad white lateral stripe on 

 un-^'er-surface, its inner margin 

 with an irregular scalloped edge ; 

 rest of under-surface clothed with a tine, short, dense 

 yellowish pubescence. Sides of thorax produced medianly 

 into a long sharp spine ; the disk covered with irregular 

 imbrications ; two crescent-shaped orange depressions placed 

 on either side of the median line ; transverse elevate lines 

 bounding the anterior and basal margins. Scutellum large, 

 heart-shaped. Elytra broadest at base, the shoulders pro- 

 duced into a spine, the sides constricted to apex, latter 

 truncate with a spine at either corner, the sutural one the 

 longest ; basal third set with a number of raised, smooth 

 shining black points ; the white spots placed longitudinally 

 and irregularly, varying in number and size from three or four to seven, the median one 

 being the largest. Length, 29 mm. to 36 mm. 



Larva.— Elongate, rather flat, yellow with a black head, and orange prothorax. 



Pupa -Pale yellow, rather narrow body, rather acute apically. 



A beetle of this insect was found mature in the pupal chamber in Ficus 

 elastica on 9 April, the insect having just commenced to cut its way out 

 of the tree. The beetles probably fly from about the middle to the third 

 week of April in Assam. The eggs are laid on the bark of the rubber-tree or 

 at wounds. The larva on hatching out tunnels through the bark till it 

 reaches the bast, and feeds here at first, and then goes deeper and eats 

 out a winding gallery, which eventually reaches into the heart-wood, and 

 is carried more or less parallel to the long axis of the tree. These galleries 

 are of some length, and go right into the interior of large trees. When 

 full-fed the grub enlarges the end of its tunnel in the heart-wood and 

 pupates here. The larval tunnel is packed with wood refuse and excreta. 

 Before pupating the grub packs the top and bottom of the pupating 

 chamber, which is parallel to the long axis of the tree, with masses of long 

 fibres pressed rather closely together. The beetle, when mature, bores 

 straight out of the tree, the exit-tunnel being at right angles to the long axis. 

 These exit-orifices are clearly seen on the bark, and serve to denote that 

 the tree is infested with this beetle. 



On 9 April I took a few full-grown larvae, a number of pupae, and 

 some mature and immature beetles in a tree. This would seem to show 

 that there is only one generation of the insect in the year, that the eggs are 



