FAMILY MALACODERMIDAE 183 



I took specimens of this insect in the teak forests at Mount Stewart, 



in Coimbatore, towards the end of July 1902. The 



Life History. beetles were slightly defoliating the trees in a manner 



similar to that of the species of Plateros I had taken the 



previous year in Damoh in the Central Provinces. The insects obtained had 



not yet commenced to oviposit, though they were pairing on the trees. 



Other species of malacoderms have been taken defoliating teak in this 

 manner in Madras, and the leaves of the Kharshu oak (Quercus semicarpi- 

 folia] at Deota, in Tehri Garhwal (in June 1902). 



ANTHOCOMUS. 

 Anthocomus ? sp. 



Habitat. Sal ween River, Tenasserim. 



Habits. I took this small bright-coloured melyrid on a launch off 

 Kowloon Island, in the Salween River, on 9 March 1905. The beetle is very 

 active, and runs rapidly. 



I kept the insect in a tube for some days, and placed in with it a Xyleborns 

 noxius, Sampson, beetle (p. 600) and several other small beetles belonging to 

 other genera and families. The melyrid attacked and devoured the Xyleborus, 

 leaving only the wings and outer shell of the meso- and metathorax. In 

 fact the scolytid was eaten in an exactly similar manner to that in which 

 Thanasimus hiinalayensis consumes bark beetles in the Western Himalaya. 



Anthocomus ? sp. 

 Habitat. Changa Manga, Punjab. 



Trees Infested. Sissu (Dalbergia sissoo), Mulberry (Morns alba}. 

 Changa Manga Plantation, near Lahore. 



Beetle. Small, shining. Head black. Prothorax red-brown, the disk black. Elytra 

 black or reddish black with a large yellow spot on basal portion, occupying an area from the 



lateral margin to near suture and a transverse 

 Description. stripe running from suture to near lateral margin 



in apical fourth. Head finely punctate. Pro- 

 thorax smooth and glabrous, widest anteriorly, depressed behind. Elytra 

 duller and uniformly punctate ; broader than prothorax behind, widest at 

 level of posterior coxae, thence gradually constricting ; apices separaU-ly 

 rounded and depressed. Under-surface dull black, punctate. Length, 

 4 mm. to 5 mm. 



I found this small insect in some numbers crawling 



on and flying over the young coppice 



Life History. areas of sissu and mulberry at the 



Changa Manga Plantation. The beetle \ 



kept for the most part on the young growth near the FIG. 124. 



soil, and was noticed in some abundance between 18 and Anthocomu sp. 

 ., . . . < banga Manga. 



22 May 1905. I was unable to determine with any cer- 

 tainty either what it was feeding upon or where the i-ggs were laid, 

 may be predaceous upon the Sinoxylon wood-borers. 



