PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETIXC. 



92,3 



by the twigs drying at the tip and absence of leaves on them. The attack 

 begins at the tip and the gnib bores towards the main stem. Only a few 

 beetles have been collected and a few grubs foimd boring into the stem. 

 No alternative food-plant has been noted. The beetles were once supplied 

 with agaihi branches ; but they never took to this food and began eating 

 cnh' when inoringa twigs were given. 



Life-History. There is no sexual difference in the beetles excepting 

 that the males arc a little smaller than the females in size. The female 

 lays its eggs iiiside the stem of the food-plant. In two or three days the 

 egg hatches into a tiny grub which begins at once to bore into the stem 

 at its centre ; it remains inside the stem until it becomes full-grown when 

 it leaves the stem and pupates outside. In about a week or ten days the 

 adult comes out of the pupa. 



Egg. Eggs are laid in hollow cavities, excavated by the mother, 

 in the stem. The place in the stem, where the eggs are, is indicated 

 by a small mark on the stem where the bark has been scraped off by the 

 mother beetle. In the centre of this patch is a small hole which leads into 

 the cavity in which the eggs are laid. This cavity is oval in outline and 

 generally contains two eggs, although occasionally there may be only 

 one. Though only two or at the utmost three eggs are laid by an indivi- 

 dual at a time, the total number laid by it will be large as the beetle goes 

 on laying eggs for a number of days. The beetle that was under observa- 

 tion at the Insectary laid about fifty eggs during the time it was in capti- 

 vity — who knows how many it may have laid before it was caught \ 

 The eggs are long, cylindrical, and whitish in colour ; they have a slight 

 curvature on one side and measure 1 mm. in length. 



On the second day after the eggs are laid the grubs inside are clearly 

 seen through the egg-shells and on the third or fourth day the eggs hatch 

 into tiny little grubs, so that the egg-period may be roughly said to last 

 only two or three days. 



