1915.) F.H. Gravety: Indian Insects, Myriapods, etc. 499 
Rutelinae. 
Leaves of Lagerstroemia bushes in the Indian Museum com- 
pound are frequently eaten extensively by a nocturnal insect, 
and by searching among them after dark a few Melalonthids 
and a large number of Rutelids have been obtained. All of the 
latter belong to the genus Adoretus, and Mr. Arrow has identified 
almost all of them as A. versutus Occasional specimens have 
been found feeding on Bauhinia, Canna, and a leguminous shrub 
(? Cassia); but they are found in much greater abundance on 
Lagerstroemia than on anything else.! 
Mr. Arrow informs me that nothing is yet known of the 
manner of feeding in this genus, and I have been able to make the 
following observations. 
At night, after emerging from the ground in which it has 
been buried all day and to which it returns before morning, the 
beetle flies to a leaf, and settles either on the upper or under side, 
usually the latter. It never settles on the edge. The claws of 
two or three tarsi, often all on the same side of the insect, grasp 
the edge; the others rest on the surface. 
In beetles of this genus, the mouth is divided into two by a 
median process of the labrum (pl. xxii, fig. 5). When the insect 
wishes to take a bite, therefore, it turns its head slightly on one 
side; and although the mouth-parts of both sides work simulta- 
neously, the bite is effected by those of one side only. 
The strongly toothed extremity of the maxilla forms the 
principal biting organ. When a specimen begins to feed both 
mandibles and maxillae are opened widely. Then the maxillae 
are exserted between the mandibles and the median process of the 
labrum, the maxilla of whichever side of the head has been turned 
nearest the leaf scooping out a small quantity of the soft tissue of 
which the leaf is composed between the principal veins. This 
tissue does not appear to offer the slightest resistance to the 
maxilla, which seems to scoop it up as easily as if it were soft 
wax; and so far as I have been able to see the beetle makes no 
special effort to keep the leaf from being pushed away instead of 
cut into. I do not even think that the median process of the 
labrum is lowered against it, as I have been unable to see this 
organ during the process. Had it been lowered it must, I think, 
have come into view. 
Three or four bites are required to make a hole right through 
the leaf, after which bigger bites can be made. The general 
method is the same, but the end of the maxilla is passed through 
the hole, and as far beyond the edge as it will go, so that it bites 
each time through the whole thickness of the leaf, Here again 
1 A few specimens of A. duvauceli have also been found on Lagerstvoemia 
and of A. lasiopygus on Hibiscus. A. versutus has been found in great abundance 
on Cannas since the above was written, and its larvae and pupae have been found 
among their roots. 
