2 
studied by Keuchenius' as a serious pest of coffee seedlings 
in Java. 
In India species of the genus have seldom been looked 
upon as pests. According to a reference in the Indian 
Museum Notes Vol. II, the larve of: O. depressum are 
said to have attacked seedlings of linseed and wheat. 
Lefroy in his ‘Insect Life’ gives a short account of the 
structure and appearance of the larva of O. depressum 
but notes that they are extremly difficult to find. He 
states “Opatrum ( Gonocephalaem is in some places found 
literally in millions but the larve never. Larve have 
been obtained first in captivity and then in the field only 
after prolonged searching”. He further records having 
reared the larve of O. depressum but gives no account of 
it. With regard to the feeding habits of this form he 
states that “O. depressum, like most of its family, is 
wholly a feeder on dead or Gecaying vegetable tissue and 
the beetles have been found even to eat planks laid on the 
soil’. Fletcher does not list O. depressum among his 
‘Some South Indian Insects’ but gives a brief account of 
G. hofmannseggi’. He notes the damage done by the 
latter species of beetles to potato and grape vines, etc., 
but is inclined to regard them as probably beneficial as 
scavengers of dead vegetable matter. 
The record of this genus in other parts of the world 
is against the verdict given above with regard to its 
status as a pest in India. With the increasing knowledge 
of its habits Indian Entomologists are coming to adopt a 
more correct attitude. At the second Entomological 
Conference held at Pusain 1917 several references to injury 
by G. depressum were made among them to roots of 
Cajanus indicus and gram, to seedlings and stems of potato, 
to leaves of Cabbage and cauliflower at Dacca, to sweet 
potato in Moulmein. Similar injury by O. elongatum was 
also reported but the status of these species as pests remain- 
ed undefined largely, because as acknowledged by Fletcher 
"these are insects we eae eae ee little Baye 


ee aS —- 
, Opatrum depressum, I’. Med. van het Besoekisch Proefstation. 
“Lefroy.— 
Insect Life, p. 336. 
*Lefroy— 
Insect Life, page 338. 
‘Fletcher. — 
_ Some South Indian Insects, page 299.. 
“Report of the Proceedings of the Second Entomological Meeting, 
page, 50. 
