XV 



sometimes three distinct sizes in tlie insects taken out of a hundred trees, 

 I imagine not less than two years, and possibly so long as three. The first 

 transformation at present I have only observed in October ; but I am half 

 inclined to think there is a double brood, and another transformation about 

 May : as I was not in the colony at that time last year, having given my 

 attention to the question since July last, I am looking forward next month 

 to deciding this point, as unluckily we have many diseased trees to 

 operate on. 



" I enclosed with the larva formerly sent to you a specimen of the pupa ; 

 it was first discovered about the beginning of October, and was found till 

 the middle of December. The first perfect insects were found in the 

 beginning of December and the last week in November. 



" The imago, from the name, I imagine to be Anthorea leuconotus, a 

 longicorn, with the elytra covered with very fine down, almost a bloom, and 

 grayish colour, the bases of the elytra being of a reddish chocolate, with a 

 purphsh shot on it when newly emerged. The insect, I think, lies torpid 

 after its complete transformation till some ' drying day' comes, when it bores 

 its way out ; but what happens to it afterwards I have never been able to 

 discover : only three specimens were found on the whole estate, although I 

 offered sixpence each for them, and we were splitting trees with two and three 

 perfect insects in each of them. When I speak of a ' drying day,' I mean 

 one of the ' hot winds ' from the north-west, which occur in our spring here, 

 taking the thermometer up to 100° in the shade, and considerably affecting 

 insect-life. I noticed especially that the morning after one of these hot 

 winds, on splitting some of the trees, the insects looked so lively that we 

 left off splitting in haste, and gathering the trees together in large heaps 

 burnt them straight off. I said before that only three insects were found 

 at large on the whole plantation by our people ; of these two were in copula 

 on a primary branch of a coffee-tree, the bark of which had been eaten 

 away. This at once suggested to me whether the female before depositing 

 her eggs may not decorticate a small portion of the trunk for the purpose of 

 depositing? T did not. see a single specimen on the wing, and in many 

 cases I found the elytra so hard to open that they seemed soldered ; nor 

 could I by exposure to the sun or any other means ever induce the perfect 

 insects to take wing ; they always crawled. 



" So far I have dealt with the insects ; I may now add, in reply to some 

 remarks communicated by you in your minutes, that Mr. Kelt, the Botanical 

 Curator of our Gardens here, says that he sees no cause whatever to believe 

 that the trees were at all diseased previous to their being attacked by the 

 insects; nor do they seem specially affected in any way, yieldmg good crops 

 and looking well till the borer has very often emerged, after which they lan- 

 guish and die rapidly. I hear from other managers, on. strong soih, that very 

 often on one aspect, N. and N.E., they find tlie developed grub as much as 



