484 FAMILY SCOLYTIDAE 



This bark-borer must be ranked as second only to the Hoploceramhyx 



(p. 320) in its power of committing damage in the sal 



Damage Committed ^^^^^_ j^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ latter's capacity for destroying the 



in the Forest. . . ^ . -^ , " ■ 1 



timber, smce it never goes mto it, merely grooving the 



outer sapwood. When numerous, however, it is equall}^ as dangerous as a 

 bast consumer, and probably more so, since it will attack young saplings. 

 During its flighting periods it makes its appearance on newly felled trees as 

 soon as the Hoploceniinhyx beetle, and will enter the tree to oviposit in any 

 part of it save the smallest twigs. In addition to attacking sickly standing 

 trees in the forest it also makes attempts on healthy green standing trees. 

 Several instances of this nature, in which trees had been attacked by the 

 March generation of beetles or those of a generation of the past year, were 

 noted ; from the appearance of the galleries it is simple to fix approximately 

 the period at which they were made. The trees in question responded with 

 a copious outflow of sap which either drowned the beetles in their partially 

 completed egg-galleries and killed the eggs and the young grubs, or drove 

 the beetles from the tree to seek more favourable situations. Instances 

 were seen where the beetle had maintained the struggle and laid its eggs, 

 but it was noticeable that in these cases the egg-galleries were either longer, 

 a small number of eggs only being laid which hatched into larvae which 

 bored long galleries, the number being reduced to a dozen ; or the egg- 

 galleries were very short and narrow, the eggs being mostly laid on one side 

 only, the larval galleries being small and short. The egg-galleries bored 

 in such trees often curve {vide figs, e, /). Trees which had successfully 

 resisted a bad attack by the February generation were, however, succumbing 

 to that of the May one. \ large tree, 5 ft. in girth and 100 ft. in height, 

 the leaves of the upper part of the crown of which had but recently turned 

 brown and withered, was felled in May and examined. It was found to 

 have been unsuccessfully attacked in the manner above described by the 

 March generation. The May one had better success, and the crown and 

 upper one-third of the stem were full of beetles and grubs. No other cause 

 for the dying condition of this tree could be found, although the upper 

 portions of the roots were laid bare in search of a possible root fungus. 

 The Hoploceramhyx had not yet appeared in the tree. 



I have already alluded to the damage creepers do in these forests. 

 They were cut over in the sal areas near Kachugaon (Polo and Hel Blocks) 

 three years before my visit in igo6. It is possible that many of the trees 

 attacked in these localities by these beetle pests may have formerly been 

 partially strangled by the creepers, and thus had their vitality greatly 

 reduced. Before they have been able to recover strength they have been 

 attacked by the insects, with the deplorable results seen. 



On two occasions in May I took in the Kachugaon Forest this beetle 

 buried in a living shoot of a sal-pole, only the extremity of the body of 

 the beetle being visible from outside. In each case the tree had been 

 felled to examine it for other boring insects, and the Sphaerotrypes beetles 



