534 



FAMILY SCOLYTIDAE 



In boring into a branch this Cryphalus never goes in direct from the 

 outside, but always searches out some small flake of bark beneath which to 

 bore its' entrance-hole. The bark of the Pinus longifolia is rough even on 

 small twigs, and so it has no difficulty in making its entrance into the 

 branch unobserved. On reaching the bast layer a small irregular-shaped 

 chamber is bored by the beetles, indenting both sapwood and bast (see 

 fig. 342, b, c ip)). I have always found two beetles at work making this 

 excavation, and never more than two, the male helping the female. I 

 am unable' to say whether pairing takes place before or after this chamber 

 is complete, but as soon as there is room in it for the two beetles, two will 

 be found together. Round the sides of the chamber 

 little indentations are cut (fig. b (e)). By the time 

 the shallow excavation is complete it has become full 

 of white powdery wood-dust, and the eggs are laid 

 either loosely in this or in the indentations. At this 

 period only one beetle is present in the egg-chamber. 

 Galleries were found in this condition at the beginning 

 of July. Further than this I have not as yet been able 

 to carry the life history, but from 

 an examination of old twigs and 

 branches it appears that the larvae 

 mine out winding galleries in the bast 

 and sapwood as shown in fig. c (/). 



There is at least a third and 

 possibly a fourth generation of the 

 beetle in the year. From some 



branches taken to Dehra the writer 



bred out beetles in the middle of 



September, and others may have 



issued in August, since dead beetles 



were found in the breeding-box, which owing to 



absence on tour was not opened in that month. 

 The beetle was first disco\'ered in company 



with the long - needled pine Polygraphns at 



Taklesh in the Bashahr State in June 1901, 



being obtained the following and succeeding 



years numerously in the Jaunsar Division. In 



1908 I noted its attacks in Kumaun and in 



1909 in Chamba. 

 This beetle, though very minute, has the 



power of increasing in large 

 numbers, and must there- 

 fore be included amongst 



the pests of the pine. It infests the main stem 



of seedlings and small saplings and the smaller 



Relations to the 

 Forest. 



Fig. 342. — Cryplialiis longi- 

 folia, Steb. <7, dorsal and side 

 view of the beetle ; b, poition 

 of a Pinus longifolia branchlet 

 showing (/>) pairing -chamber 

 with (e) the indentations made 

 to enlarge it to deposit the eggs ; 

 c, portion of a branch showing 

 (/>) the pairing- and egg-chamber, 

 (/) the larval galleries. N.W. 

 Himalaya. 



