620 FAMILY FLATYPODIDAE 



the year, but I am of opinion it will be found to be four or five. The first 

 eggs of the year are laid about the middle of April, mature beetles from 

 these issuing at the beginning of June; this is the first generation of the 

 year. I found beetles of this generation issuing from a large dying tree in 

 the forest near Chaubattia in Kumaun on 4 June igo8. The beetles of the 

 second generation appear somewhere about the middle of July, those of the 

 third at the end of August, whilst a fourth lot appear to oviposit in the 

 second week of October. Should the year be a favourable one — I mean by 

 this, should the autumn be a dry and warm one and the winter set in late — 

 a fifth lot of beetles may develop towards the end of November, and hiber- 

 nate as such. Should the year be unfavourable, the insect probably hiber- 

 nates in the larval stage at the bottom of the tunnels in the wood. 



Such is the life history of this past as far as it has at present been 

 worked out in the Western Himalaya. Colonel Sampson considers the 

 species to be identical with Chapuis' bifoniiis taken in the Darjeeling district 

 and named from specimens in the Janson Collection. It will he of interest 

 to know what the food plant of the insect is in the Eastern Himalaya. As 

 I have said, in the western part of the range it only attacks the wood when 

 fresh. In no instance have I found the insect alive in dr}^ timber. 



I first took this insect in the Tons Valley, Jaunsar, in October 



1006. In a paper in the Journal of the Bombay Natural 

 Relations to the tt- ^ n ■ , c xt 1 -t ij^. 



Forest History Society for 12 November 1907, 1 replied to 



Mr. Norman F. Troup, of Kumaun, who had asked in a 



previous number for some information on the subject of the shot-borers of 



the Pinus longifolia, which he imagined were identical with those of the 



bamboos {Dinodenis). From investigations of these "shot-borers" of the 



Pinus longifolia made the following spring in Kumaun, I was able to satisfy 



myself that the Platypus was the responsible agent. 



The damage committed by this insect is to the timber of the tree. 

 From the account given of its life history we see that but little harm is done 

 to the cambium layer. When the beetle is numerous the zigzag galleries 

 eaten down into the heart-wood have a serious effect in weakening the log 

 for timber purposes, and can quite conceivably render it useless for an}-thing 

 but firewood. 



As Mr. N, Troup has shown, the beetle is well known to timber dealers 

 in Kumaun, where it is considered to be a pest of considerable importance. 



There is little to be said upon this head at present, until it has been 



definitely ascertained whether the insect will tunnel 



Protection and 1 , i ,• 1 t. • i. .lu i. ^i ■ i. 



Remedial Measures. ^"^0 barked timber. It is now certain that the insect 



will only infest fresh timber, i.e. newly felled trees or 



sickly standing green trees in the forest. 



Practically the only way to deal with a bad attack or seriously infested 



depots would be to stack together all the badly attacked logs when the 



beetles have finished egg-laying, and burn the lot. 



