b^\ M I L V C U R ( I ■ L I O X 1 1) A K 



417 



yellow-brown in colour. I'rothorax joined to head l:)y a short neck, widening posteriorly 

 and having a raised collar where it joins the elytra. Scutellum small, black. Elytra 

 much broader than thorax, a little longer than broad, widening slightly to their ends and 

 deflexed here, only lightly covering the body, and leaving portions of two segments of the 

 abdomen exposed ; yellow in colour, channelled at their bases, with two elongated black 

 spots in their basal half; the external edge is raised and thickened slightly all round, and 

 is crimson to dark red in colour, being especially bright at the suture. Abdomen thick, 

 lighter yellow ventrally. Legs bright 

 yellow, long, with their femora thick- 

 ened ; two claws to end of tarsus. 

 Length, 7 mm. Fig. 281, a, shows a 

 dorsal and side view of this beetle. 



Egg. — Yellow, shining, elliptical 

 in shape, and about 1.6 mm. in length. 



These beetles appear on 



the winf^ 

 Life History. about the 



closeofthe 

 first week in Ma}-. The eg^% 

 larva, and perfect beetle are 

 known. The insect when found 

 was egg-laying, and for this 

 purpose it attacks the leaves of 

 both the oaks Querent incana 

 and Q. dilatata. 



The female beetle lays its 

 egg in the left-hand corner of 

 the apex of the leaf. The 

 leaf is then, in the case of 

 the Queyciis incana, either cut 

 across two-thirds of the wa\' 

 down, the cut being made on 

 both sides from the exterior 

 edge horizontally inwards till 

 it meets the midrib, or the 

 leaf is cut right across from 

 one side to ver\- near the 

 edge of the other, only a small 

 piece of the leaf-tissue being 

 left. In either case the por- 

 tion above the cut is folded inwards down the midrib and then rolled up from 

 the apex downwards, the outer edges being tucked in so as to form a neit 

 little cylinder which remains suspended to the lower part of the leaf by the 

 uncut portion (see fig. b, c). This latter is, however, whether midrib or leaf- 

 tissue, nicked across so as to ensure the little roll of leaf-tissue dropping to 



9003 D p 



^^ 



Fk;. 281. — .\podi-nis iiica/ia, Steb. a, weevil; 

 /', branch of (J'n'fc/is iiuaiia showing a rolled-up leaf ; 

 c, a leaf cut and rolled up with the egg laid inside the 

 roll. North-West Himalaya. (K. P. S.) 



