THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 187 



of Micro-Lepidoptera respecting the pupation of the greater 

 number of the Nepliculoc, the larvae of which Hve soHtary as 

 leaf-miners; but if a number of leaves, containing larvae, are 

 collected and placed together in a box, it is found that the 

 cocoons arc constructed gregariously between certain leaves, 

 without any apparent reason for the preference. 



Tlmher-horing Beetle. — Mr. Charles O. Waterhouse read 

 the following note by Dr. Lamprey, Surgeon-Major of the 

 67lh Regiment, on the habits of a boring-beetle found in 

 British Burmah. A specimen of the insect was exhibited, and 

 also two portions of stem which had been operated upon. 

 The insect was one of the Bostrichidaj, belonging to the 

 genus Sinoxylon. " On examining the plants in my garden 

 one afternoon, I was struck with what appeared to be an 

 injury done to one of the trees, the name of which I do not 

 know, — this being the winter season, no blossom apparent, 

 and nearly all the plants new to me. The branches of this 

 particular tree are straight, grow upright, and are about half 

 an inch to an inch in their diameter. One of the tallest of 

 these branches, which reached to a height of about eight 

 feet, was apparently broken and lying on the other branches, 

 as if it was cut or broken off in a mischievous way. I was on 

 the point of questioning the gardener about it, when I observed 

 the leaves of another branch quite withered, and, on taking 

 hold of it to bend it towards me, it snapped in a curiously 

 brittle manner. Looking at where it was broken, I found the 

 stem to be completely severed with a clean division, and that 

 it was only kept together by the thin outer layer of the bark. 

 Examining another branch, I found it snapped in an equally 

 mysterious way, but in doing so a small black insect fell out 

 of the broken part; it was too rapid in its movements, and I 

 lost it. On further examination of the broken parts, and 

 putting them into position again, I found a small circular 

 opening, about the size of the hole in the gall-nut, and 

 concluded that the insect I saw had eaten its way into the 

 stem, and by devouring the wood completely round, and not 

 along its long axis, accounted for the fracture in this particular 

 locality. Since then I have been on the watch to discover 

 the insect, and have succeeded in securing two specimens ; 

 one was found in the stem on breaking it across in the 

 position of one of the external apertures : this specimen is 

 somewhat injured by the loss of one of its elytra. The other 



