FAMILY BOSTRYCHIDAE 



the tunnel at right 

 angles to its former 

 direction, eating out 

 the gallery just be- 

 low the external 

 surface of the sap- 

 wood, and leaving 

 but a thin lamella 

 of wood between it 

 and the outer air, 

 the gallery running 

 round the circum- 

 ference of the tree 

 for a varying dis- 

 tance. The direction FlG. 103. Galleries of Sinoxylon crassum in the wood of 

 is then changed and Pterocarpus marsupium. a a, $ and $ entrance - tunnels ; 



6, pairing-chamber ; c c, egg-tunnels ; d d, position of eggs, 

 the tunnel, with one Mandla, Central Provinces. (E. P. S.) 

 or more curves in it, 



is carried into the heart-wood of the tree. The male is at times found 

 in this egg-tunnel, and I think it is probable that he pairs with the female 

 more than a single time. Also he fertilizes more than one beetle, as I 

 have found cases where more than one tunnel takes off from the pairing- 

 chamber, and yet there was but one entrance-hole on the outside, although 

 there was a 'female beetle in each egg-tunnel engaged in hollowing the 

 latter out. These egg-tunnels vary in length, being occasionally several 

 inches, and when bored in the harder heart-wood they are often found 

 to run horizontally round the softer part of a " ring " of the wood, as shown 



in the diagram of a section of Terminalia 

 chcbula. The end of the tunnel is usually 

 parallel to the long axis of the tree. The 

 eggs are laid at or near the bottom in 

 masses of powdered \\ood-dust. This egg- 

 gallery takes from four to riidit <la\s to 

 construct, the eggs hatching out within 

 forty-eight hours or so. The operations 

 of the beetle in the tree or log are usiully 

 easily seen by the heaps of sawdust \\hich 

 are pushed out from the tunnel through 

 the entrance-hole and project ill small 

 cylinders or cover the bark with sawdust. 

 The larvae feed entirely <>n the \\ood, 

 FlG. 104. Cross section of a log eating out tunnels m the long axis in an 

 of Terminalia chebula, showing irregular manner, which coalesce and re- 



(a\ entrance and (c\ egg tunnel ..f duce th( . u , substance to powder. In 



Sinoxylon crassum. Mandla, 



Central Provinces. (E. P. S.) the case of old large tree- these tunnel! 



