544 FAMILY SCOLYTIDAE 



laterally ; punctate, the punctures of varying size and containing setae, placed in rows, 

 the interspaces smooth. Legs ferruginous brown. Length, 1.4 mm. 



Larva.— Minute, white, curved, legless, with the segments corrugated. 



It has often been noticed and commented upon by those travelling 

 through, or living near, tracts of sal forest in parts of 



Life History. the country, that minute brown beetles are extremely 



plentiful in the cold-weather months, especially January 

 and a portion of February. I have seen them plentifully year after year 

 in the Chota Nagpur sal areas, and Mr. Perree informs me that they are 

 equally plentiful in Goalpara. These insects are everywhere, and get into 

 the food, being often found inside loaves of bread, etc. It has been sur- 

 mised that they come from the flour of which the bread is made. The 

 insect is a minute scolytid, and is, I think, the species which I found in 

 sal-seed in Assam in 1906. There is no previous record of a beetle of this 

 nature infesting the seed of this tree. 



Specimens of the beetle were first cut out of fallen sal-seed in the third 

 week of May. 



The egg is laid in or near the flower, and the young grub mines into 

 the newly forming seed, and remains feeding upon the seed substance until 

 full-grown, when it pupates within the hollowed-out seed case. On maturing, 

 the beetle bores a round hole through the seed-skin and escapes. The eggs 

 probably hatch out about March, the grub maturing at the end of April or 

 first week in May. Beetles were cut out of seeds on 21 May 1906. The insect 

 would not appear to have been very abundant that j^ear. From a basketful 

 of seed examined only six mature beetles were taken, each in a separate 

 seed. It is possible, however, that the time of issuing had not arrived. 



Specimens of this scolytid were forwarded to Mr. W. F. Blandford 

 by Mr. E. E. Green from Ceylon. Mr. Green reported that they caused 

 serious injury to ebony-seed. 



The damage done by this grub and other seed-miners is usually of a 



similar nature, the interior of the seed being partially 



Damage Committed ^^ entirely hollowed out. Under the attacks the seed 



in the Forest. ,,i, i t-.^ tj^ui-j 



IS completely destroyed. Pests of this kmd require 



very careful study, since there can be little doubt that one of the 

 reasons, and probably the chief one, why there is so little reproduc- 

 tion in many of the forests under fire-protected management, is the 

 immense increase in the numbers of these pernicious seed-attacking insect 

 pests. Before the introduction of fire protection, fires overran wide extents 

 of forest-covered lands, these fires often occurring at the period of maturity 

 of the seed or just before. In this way insects living in the manner of 

 these sal pests were burnt off in large numbers, since at the time of the 

 fire they were either in the seed on the ground or had left it to pupate 

 in the soil. 



There can be little doubt that these seed destroyers are increasing to 

 a serious extent in fire-protected forests. 



