6i2 FAMILY PLATYPODIDAE 



The beetle is easily recognized by its elongate shape, which is quite 



unlike that of ascolytid. The head is exserted and free, 



Beetle. and wider than the thorax ; the eyes are round and 



prominent ; the antennae are elbowed and short, placed 



between the base of mandibles and the eyes ; the funiculus is very short and 



four-jointed, with a large and solid club. The prothorax is sub-cylindrical, 



with grooves at the sides in which the legs can be placed. The legs are 



elongate, slender, the femora and tibiae compressed ; the coxae are large ; 



the tibiae short, the front ones with fine oblique parallel lines on their outer 



surfaces; tarsi long, slender, weak, five-jointed, the first joint longer than 



all the others together. (Cf. fig. 388.) 



The colour of the beetles is usually light or dark brown or nearly black 

 or yellow in parts, the surface often shining. The elytra at times terminate 

 in a calliper arrangement. 



The grubs are white or whitish yellow in colour, elongate and straight, 

 seldom being at all curved. The head is prominent 

 Larva. and usually yellow, the body tapering gradually pos- 



teriorly, the corrugations being less well marked 

 than in the Scolytidae (fig. 396). 



The pupa is elongate, narrow, white, and easily distinguishable from 

 the scolytid pupa. 



The family contains Indian representatives, who commit a considerable 



amount of damage to the timber of various species of 



Habits and Damage f^^.^^^ ^^^^^^ Perhaps the best known instance of this 



done by the Family. ,„ ,.^ .. ^, t^. , ■/•»• 



is the Platypus (P. biformis) of the Piniis lono^ifoha, 



which has been reported as committing serious damage to the timber in 

 Kumaun. In this part of the Himalaya it is known as " ghoon," a common 

 name in India for the small wood- boring bostrychids of bamboos (Dinodenis). 

 Investigations have shown that the "ghoon" of Kumaun is a Platypus. 

 Other species in the Himalaya tunnel in a similar manner into the timber of 

 deodar, spruce, and blue pine. In these cases and in several others investi- 

 gated in Burma and elsewhere, the insects would appear to infest only the 

 timber of freshly felled trees or that of dying trees standing in the forest. 

 They will not attack dry timber. This is understandable when it is 

 remembered that the larvae require that the walls of the egg-tunnel made 

 by the beetle should be sappy, and thus capable of affording them the 

 sustenance they require. The larvae as they develop stand, so to speak, 

 one over the other in the tunnel, as no offshoot tunnels are eaten out by 

 the mother, and appear to move up it as they grow in size, or shift about 

 up and down as one or other part becomes eaten out. The grubs when full- 

 fed change into pupae in the tunnel, and as the beetles mature (the upper 

 ones maturing first) they crawl up the tunnel and escape, the first usually 

 eating out an exit-hole through the bark. 



Some species pass through two or more life-cycles in the year. 



