FAMILY CURCULIONIDAE 441 



The insect was found attacking the muli bamboo in the Chittagong 

 Division by the late Mr. [. P. Gregson, Extra-Assistant 

 Life History. Conservator of Forests, Bengal, and its life history was 



worked out by him in i8gg. During igoo, whilst hold- 

 ing charge of the division, I made frequent observations on the attack, going 

 carefully through the stages of the life history with Mr. Gregson. I was 

 thus able to corroborate his careful and excellent observations. 



The beetles appear on the wing during the latter part of May or begin- 

 ning of June, at about the time the monsoon rains burst over the Chittagong 

 Hill Tracts. They pair soon after emergence, and the female then seeks out 

 young sprouting bamboos in which to lay her eggs, such as that figured in 

 pi. xxxviii, e. Shoots attacked are always under three feet in height. The 

 insect grasps the fleshy shoot, generally about three inches below the top, 

 with her long front legs, and cutting an oval incision in it through the outer 

 spathe just above an internode with her lengthy probocis, deposits two eggs 

 at its base, covering them over with bamboo chips, which are of the same 

 colour. These eggs, which can be seen in situ from the outside, have been 

 observed to be laid towards the end of June, though as the beetles are to be 

 found through July, and on to about the middle of August, it is not improb- 

 able that the female lays other eggs on adjacent shoots. As far as present 

 observations show, it is, however, apparent that only one of the eggs comes 

 to anything, as only one larva is to be found in any one attacked shoot. 

 Dying shoots are common at the beginning of July, and numbers were 

 examined by Mr. Gregson in i8gg, and again by him and by myself in igoo. 

 The larva, on hatching out, probably bores through the tissue hori- 

 zontally until it reaches the centre of the shoot, and then invariably bores 

 downwards, eating away the soft central portion and increasing in size at a 

 rapid rate. It continues feeding downwards until it reaches the base of the 

 shoot, by which time it is full-fed. The grub then retreats back up its 

 gallery, probably enlarging the upper portions, which will be now too small 

 for it until it reaches about the place it started from. It then cuts 

 this portion off, gnawing it through all round below it (see pi. xxxviii,/). 

 The top drops to the ground, and the now fully mature larva burrows 

 into the soft rain-loosened earth, carrying the top or a portion of it with 

 it, thus completely sheltering itself from atmospheric influences. Larvae 

 in various stages of growth are to be found in the shoots in the middle 

 of July, and they mostly become full-grown by the end of the month. About 

 the middle of August young shoots are to be seen on all sides with their tops 

 fallen, and in a dying or dead condition. The larva changes to the pupal 

 state within the fallen buried end of the shoot at a depth of three to four 

 inches, or even more, below the surface of the ground, the depth depending 

 upon the consistency of the soil. The top of the shoot soon rots, only the 

 harder fibres persisting (see figs, g, h). Inside this fibrous covering, which 

 is generally caked with earth, the pupa remains during the following cold 

 and hot seasons, emerging as a beetle at the commencement of the 



