6oo FAiMILY SCOLYTIDAE 



previously. The beetles were just maturing from eggs laid to all appear- 

 ance soon after the tree had been felled. If this is correct, the insect will 

 probably be found to pass through several life-cycles in the year. 



In the case of the galleries examined in the pyinkadu the female beetle 

 bored vertically down into the sapvvood for some distance, and then turned 

 and carried her tunnel at right angles to its former direction. In this 

 latter portion of the tunnel the eggs were laid, five or more in number. 

 From one of these tunnels I took as many as five maturing beetles. When 

 mature, the beetles simply crawl up the egg-gallery to escape from the tree, 

 the mother-beetle dying at the end of her egg-gallery. 



The egg-tunnels of this beetle were very numerous in the tree examined, 

 and were taken deep down into the wood. Consequently the insect will 

 undoubtedly prove one of considerable importance when this tree is 

 exploited to a greater extent than at present. 



Observations would seem to show that a generation appears on the 

 wing some time in the latter half of January, and another in the first and 

 second weeks in March. I took beetles on 8-11 March 1905. 



In wood depots the insect may prove itselt an annoying pest. 



Anthocomus ? sp. (p. 183). — The beetle is predaceous upon this Xyleborus 

 in Tenasserim, attacking it outside the tree, 



Beetli\ — Resembles in size and general appearance the insect shown in fig. 124. Head 



black. Prothorax canary-yellow. Elytra pale golden-yellow, the basal fifth purple, a purple 



l)lotch laterally, just above middle, not meeting suture, and another 



Predaceous Insect. covering apical fifth. Head and prothorax together elongate, narrow, 



the former large, punctate. Prothorax but slightly wider than head, 



widest anteriorly, sides rounded ; punctate. Elytra wider than prothorax at base, widest at 



level of posterior coxae, depressed behind, hnely and rather closely punctate. Legs and 



antennae black. Length, 5.5 mm. 



Life History. — I took a specimen of this small, active melyrid beetle on 

 a launch on the Salween River. In order to ascertain whether its habits 

 were predaceous, I placed it in a tube with the Xyleborus beetle described 

 above and several other small bark beetles. The melj^rid devoured the 

 Xyleborus, picking it out from the other smaller beetles, rejecting only the 

 harder outer parts of the scolytid. 



Xyleborus improbus, Sampson, sp. iiov. 



Reference. — S;impson, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 8, .xii, 444 (1913). 



Habitat. — Darjeeling, North-East Himalaya. 



Tree Attacked. — Buk {Quercus lauicllosa, Smith). Darjeeling (B. B. 

 Osmaston), 



