450 



FAMILY CURCULIONIDAE 



answer with an outflow of resinous matter, which, together with the excreted 

 woody particles, fills the gallery, and also exudes from the aeration holes, 

 which the grub apparently eats to the outside of the tree to admit air to its 

 gallery. This resin drips down the outer bark in narrow runnels, congealing 

 into a sticky mass of considerable size round the orifice, and the presence of 

 these blobs makes an attacked tree easily recognizable. The weevil oviposits 

 either on the main stem or the larger branches of living trees, the one thing 

 needful being the presence of old bark on the tree. In badly infested trees 

 the runlets of resin can be seen in vertical rows and lines on the bark from 

 near the top to the base of the tree. Evidence is also apparent of old 

 attacks, as the borings of the grubs appear to result in swellings and knotty 

 outgrowths on the stem and branches. 



I found larvae at work in green mahogany-trees in the Aravallikavu 

 Plantation at Nilumbur, in South Malabar, towards the end of August ig02, 

 but failed to breed out beetles from them. 



Larvae which may be identical with the Madras ones were sent to the 

 Indian Museum some years ago, with the report that they attacked 

 mahogan}-trees in the Western Duars. 



Undktekminei) Sked-eatinc. Weevils. 



/// .S'<?7 .SV(v/. — A minute ur.determined weevil was said by Mr. lliompson to have been 

 very destructive to siil seed in the United Provinces in the year 1863. Entire seed crops 

 are said to have been destroyed in that year. The weevil grubs were probably assisted by 

 the caterpillars of the moths mentioned on p. i 7. 



In Oaks — Oiieiciis pai/ivpfivUd'-y^niX (J. laiiu'llosa. — ^A small undetermined weevil was 

 reported by Mr. C. G. Rogers to have destroyed go per cent, of the seed of the \aluab!e oak 

 (2- pachvphylla in the Darjeeling forests. Only grubs were obtained. 



In January 1896 I found that about 85 per cent, of the seed of tlie oak (J. huneUoso 

 trees in the forests of liritish Sikkim was attacked and ruined by wee\ il grubs. Unfortu- 

 nately 1 failed to obtain mature beetles. 



COSSONINAE. 



I follow Lacordaire, Ganglbauer, Sharp, and Marshall in placing the 

 Cossoninae as a division of the Curculionidae. At the same time the group, 

 from the forest point of view, appears to have characteristics which require 

 some description. 



The Cossoninae are small wood-boring beetles, usually black in colour. 

 They approximate in characters to the Curculionidae and the Scolytidae, 

 resembling to some extent the genus Hylastcs, but differing in having a more 

 elongate appearance and a longer proboscis. 



So far as present knowledge of the Indian forest species extends they 

 appear to confine themselves entirely to tunnelling into wood for ovipositing 

 purposes, and frequent both broad-leaved trees in the plains and conifers in 



