of Southern India. 125 



to enter the wood, and by so doing occasions a small 

 ridge on the bark, which is a sure sign of Borer being in 

 the tree. Once in the wood, it tunnels in all directions, 

 now going up, now down, or proceeding in corkscrew 

 fashion. As it works its way, it seals up the passage 

 behind it with the debris of the wood in a fine state 

 of division, but so firmly agglutinated by some muci- 

 laginous fluid, that it can be removed out of the tunnel 

 like a cast of plaster of Paris. As a rule there is more 

 than one larva in a tree, and I have found as many as 

 twelve in a single stem. Very often the Borer also tun- 

 nels the roots of the tree, but it almost uniformly returns 

 again to the stem, having completed its work of destruc- 

 tion below ground. After living for some months in the 

 larva state, the Borer approaches the surface of the stem, 

 where, having prepared a small chamber, it passes into 

 the pupa state ; this chamber is usually situated in the 

 sapwood, but I have often seen it in the very centre of 

 the stems. In a few weeks the perfect beetle eats its 

 way out, and the hole thus made is the first one visible 

 on the exterior of the tree. The beetle thereafter lives 

 entirely in the open air, resting by night, and becoming 

 active in the sunshine. The larva, pupa, and beetle are to 

 be found in every month of the year, and all three forms 

 may frequently be seen simultaneously in a single tree. 

 This, and the circumstance of the larva and pupa living 

 in the interior of the tree, render it very difficult to 

 devise any means for the destruction of the pest. I have 

 been recommending the uprooting and destruction by 

 fire of trees as soon as they exhibit any signs of the 

 insect being in the interior, and the coating of the lower 

 part of the stems of young trees with coal-tar, so as to 



prevent the deposition of eggs My time is now 



chiefly occupied in estimating the damage done by the 

 Borer, and during the last month I have on an average 

 been from 8 to 10 hours daily in the saddle, and have 

 thus little time left to extend and arrange my rough 

 notes." 



Mr. Richter is in error in supposing the Borer-beetle to 

 be a Gucujus ; it is an unmistakeable Chjtus, or rather it 

 belongs to that group of the old genus which M. Chev- 

 rolat has recently separated under the name of Xylo- 

 trechus, and is the Xylotrechus quadripes of that author, 

 described in the " Clytides d^Asie et d'Oceanie" (Mem. 



