FAMILY SCOLYTIDAK 479 



This beetle is essentially a bast tunnellcr, i.e. the female recjuires the 

 fresh cambium layer of the tree to oviposit in, and the 

 Damage Committed .^^^^^ require the same to feed in. Thus the insect will 

 in the Forest. '^ , • , ,• • , , ■ ^ r 



only attack either standrnj^; sickl\- trees in the forest 



or newly felled ones. If, however, there are none of these in the forest 

 and the insect is in great abundance, it will attack healthy green trees. 

 It infests trees from the young pole stage onwards. Serious attacks of 

 the insect will be found to commence at a centre and spread con- 

 centrically outwards. This and the fact that the pest is capable of in- 

 creasing ver}- rapidlv in numbers when conditions are favourable to it 

 constitute the danger of this beetle in the forest. It must be remembered 

 also that its habit, as a mature beetle, of tunnelling into young green twigs 

 and leading shoots of saplings to feed may prove very harmful to young 

 growth in plantations and coppice areas. 



The fact that the beetle also infests the Anogeissus and Tenninalia is 

 of considerable importance. These trees are often felled and used for 

 building houses and bridges in the forests, and for sale, or felled and left 

 in situ in cleaning operations. It must be remembered, therefore, that all 

 green parts of these trees left in the forest are liable to be infested by this 

 beetle, and consequently aid in its increase in the locality. 



All trees felled should be at once barked, or if they are left as trap 



trees with the bark on they should be barked as soon 



ro ec ion an ^^ thev are full of larvae, and before these have 



Remedies. 



pupated and begun to issue as beetles. In leases given 



for the felling of sal-trees in coupes, a clause should be inserted enforcing 

 the barking of the trees as soon as felled. 



In the Siwalik sal areas there is a considerable sale of sal- posts 

 (termed locally "tors"). These are cut during the cold-weather months, 

 and should be all removed from the forest by the end of March. Pro- 

 vided this is strictly adhered to, there will be little chance of these 

 posts assisting in the multiplication of the beetle. The tors will not be 

 attacked if stacked in the sun two or three miles, or even less, from 

 the forest, as the beetle will not lay in rapidly dr}-ing bark, which would 

 not provide sustenance for the larvae when they had hatched out from 

 the eggs. 



There can be little doubt that this beetle may prove a source of 

 serious danger to coppice coupes, if it once becomes numerous in adjacent 

 areas of high forest undergoing improvement by the removal of all stag- 

 headed, deformed, and sickly trees. As the older areas became cleaner the 

 issuing swarms of bark-borers would be forced to attack the green trees. It is 

 more than probable that coppice areas would be chosen. The attack would 

 be certain to begin in patches, the insect working outwards from a centre, 

 If patches of trees in coppice or pole forest appear to be dying, the bark 

 should be carefullv examined. If covered with small shot-holes on the 



