of Southern India. Ill 



different dimensions, each communicating with a distinct 

 burrow within. For the length of about two inches from 

 the orifice these burrows are wider than further in, and 

 more irregular in shape ; in fact, they form the cradle of 

 the struggling insect in its disentanglement from the 

 pupa to the imago state, for it is here that the mature 

 larva closes its destructive career, and rests awhile in the 

 pupa state to resume its pernicious work on an extended 

 scale by the beetle's numerous progeny. 



The orifices are small and large, in proportion to the 

 size of the Borer-larva and beetle, and it would appear 

 that it is the larva which scoops out the passage for the 

 beetle. It is, however, doubtful whether the hole 

 through the soft bark is made by the larva or the beetle 

 — a most important point to ascertain. The providential 

 economy of insect life would lead one to suppose that the 

 orifice is made by the beetle, which lies asleep in its 

 cradle safe from intruding ants, till it opens the little 

 bark shutter, and escapes from its dark chamber into the 

 sunny air. In one instance I found a perfect beetle — 

 dead ; it could not escape, for the passage does not com- 

 municate with the outside, it stops short still in the hard 

 wood. The beetle must have been alive, and if it were 

 its habit to burrow, it would have eaten its way out of 

 prison. 



The female beetle is of equal size and appearance 

 with the male, and is easily recognized by the horny 

 sting-like appendage of the abdomen, which in the male 

 terminates in a roundish sheath. On examining under 

 the microscope the dissected abdomen of the female 

 beetle, I found the ovary full of round yellowish-red 

 eggs, and I am told on good authority that a planter 

 who confined a pair of newly-hatched beetles under a 

 glass counted two hundred eggs deposited by the female, 

 which fecundity accounts for the numerous Borer brood 

 in a single tree. The eggs are laid under the bark of 

 a coffee-tree and close to the root, whether in a natural 

 fissure of the bark or a puncture by the female beetle, is 

 not certain ; but the first burrowing of the newly-hatched 

 larva can be traced to a slight hollow under the bark, 

 whence it proceeds between the outer bark and liber till 

 the larva is strong enough to eat into the hard wood. It 

 does not seem that many eggs are deposited in one spot, 

 for there are not many burrows radiating from one com- 

 mon point. The eggs are apparently laid in November 

 and December, and hatched in the beginning of the 



