FAMILY SCOLYTIDAE 



597 



This insect must be looked upon as a serious pest in }Oung plantations. 

 The trees noted as infested in this manner averaged from live to six feet in 

 height. 



Xyleborus velatus, Sampson, sp. nov. 



Reference. — Sampson, /Uui. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 8, vol. xii, p. 443 (1913). 



Habitat. — Katha, Upper Burma; Salween River, Tenasserim. 



Tree Attacked. — Teak {Tcctona grandis). Mohnyin Forest, Katha ; 

 Wutgyi, Salween River. 



Beetle. — Elongate, cylindrical. Red-brown, prothorax darker, almost black on sides ; 

 legs reddish yellow. Prothorax not much longer than wide, base 

 straight, basal angles only slightly oblique, 

 Description. sides straight, apex bluntly rounded ; ante- 



rior third with rather close transverse aspera- T 

 tions, decreasing in size and changing to transverse striae to centre 

 of disk ; behind this smooth, rather shining, and finely punctate. 

 Elytra nearly twice as long as prothorax, sides oblique, apex rounded, 

 convex basally, sloping to apex ; striate-punctate, the punctures large, 

 circular, and shallow, the interspaces smooth and shining; elytral ^ 



declivity rather abrupt, punctate, with several pointed tubercles and v ,/,/ - ' ^, / / 

 some long spiny setae. Under-surface piceous brown, abdominal Sampson sp. nov. in 

 segments red-brown, punctate. Length, 2.2 mm. Teak. Tenasserim. 



This is one of the teak-wood-boring scolytids. I took specimens of the 

 beetle tunnelling into the timber of newly dead teak- 

 Life History, trees in the 1896 teak plantation in the Mohnyin Forest 

 towards the end of February 1905. The beetle tunnels 

 straight down into the timber, laying its eggs at the bottom of its tunnel. 



I found the beetles ovipositing in the last 

 week of February, probably laying the eggs 

 of the first generation of the year. 



The beetles were infesting new dead 

 standing trees, and also cut stumps. I also 

 took some beetles which were apparently 

 just maturing at the bottom of the egg- 

 galleries from eggs laid the previous year 

 (October-November). 



The following month I again found 

 this insect infesting teak, this time at 

 Wutgyi on the Salween River in Tenas- 

 serim. My observations here showed that 

 the beetles apparently invariably select 

 newly dead trees for their operations. The 

 female tunnels down through the bark and 

 for a quarter to half an inch into the sapwood ; the gallery then curves a 

 little, and then resumes its original course straight into the heart-wood, the 



Fig, 377. — Egg - tunnel of Aj'A,'- 

 borus velatus, Sampson, in teak 

 wood. Katha, Salween River. 



