FAMILY BOSTRYCHIDAE 



In December 1908 I received a consignment of beetles from Sukkur, Sind, 

 which were reported as seriously infesting and reducing the value of Pro- 

 sopis spicigera billets. This wood is or was cut in considerable quantities and 

 sent up to Quetta as fuel. In the latter place anxiety had been aroused at 

 the thought that this insect might be identical with the Quetta borer beetle 

 (jEolesthes, see p. 307), and that the borer which was doing such damage in 

 the station was being imported with the firewood from Sind. Investigation 

 speedily set this alarm at rest. The beetles in the fuel were Sinoxylon 

 crassum and S. an ale. I saw no evidence of the attacks of these beetles 

 in Quetta, and it is probable that the beetles issuing there from the fire- 

 wood are killed off by the cold. 



Owing to the curious nature of the life history of this pest, methods of 



protection against it must of necessity partake of a 

 Protection and r , , , 



Remedial Measures, two-fold character. 



When the beetles are present in fuel areas in the 



numbers I observed at Changa Manga in the Punjab in the years 1901 and 

 1905, operations mentioned below should be put into force to reduce 

 its numbers. 



In the Punjab and generally in the north of India the insect's active life 

 lasts from April to late October or early November, after which period it 

 hibernates either as a beetle or larva. In Changa Manga it was found that 

 both the spring and summer generations of the beetle attacked the felled 

 and stacked sissu wood which had been cut during the previous cold 

 weather, November to March. This wood is collected and placed in stacks 

 on the compartment lines in the forest, and was allowed to remain there till 

 the following October in order to render it lighter by loss of moisture. This 

 coincided exactly with the requirements of the Sinoxylon and its companion 

 S. anale, who both attacked the material thus stacked on the compartment 

 lines in large numbers. The beetle was equally plentiful at the fuel depot 

 a few miles from the plantations. My recommendations in 1901 were as 

 follows : 



1. Remove from the forest as soon as felled the amount of wood 

 annually cut in the compartments, no fresh-cut wood being allowed to lie in 

 the forest after the end of March. 



2. Let the fellings be so arranged that wood is not cut in advance of 

 the selling power, and thus allowed to lie for an uncertain period in the fuel 

 depot. The amount on hand at any one time being thus sm.iller, the 

 number of breeding places for the insects will diminish. 



3. The number of breeding places being thus reduced, measures will 

 have to be put into force to deal with the lar-e numbers of beetles \\ lijeh 

 under these circumstances will attack the green stan-liir; trees. 



(a) Careful watch to be kept for attacked standing tn They will be 



recognized by small "shot holes " appearing in the hark, probably 

 with particles of sawdust at or near then- entrances. Such 



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