FAMILY BUPRESTIDAE 



205 





Plate xv, fig. 2, shows this beetle. The following are my descriptions of 

 the larva and pupa : 



Young Larva. A tiny white grub with a greatly enlarged prothoracic segment. The 



head small and yellow. The 

 body segments much narrower 

 than the thoracic segment 

 (fig. 134, rt). 



Full - grown Larva. The 



larva is yellowish, flat, elongate, 

 "'.-]"': '-'I- ar >d narrow, with a large pro- 



thoracic segment immediately 

 following the small yellow 

 head ; the segments succeeding 

 this large prothoracic segment 

 are very much narrower in 

 width, and are more or less 

 equal to one another in size, 

 save the last two, which taper 

 Its length is about an inch and 

 a quarter, and it is usually 

 found in its smllerv with its 



o.i 



FIG. 134. Larva and pupa of Sphenoptera aterritna, 

 Kerremans. a, young larva ; />, natural size and enlarged ; 

 c, pupa natural size and enlarged. N.W. Himalaya. 



lower segments curved round 



so as to lie against the ones above them. Fig. In, b, show the larva natural size and enlarged. 

 Pupa. Elongate-ovate, yellowish in colour. More ovate than the beetle, which it 

 generally resembles ; the antennae, legs, and wings are pressed against the chest. Fig. c\, c, 

 show the pupa natural size and enlarged. 



The egg is laid by the female in June either on the bark or down on 



the inner surface of the bast, since the young larval 



Life History. gallery appears to commence here. The grub feeds in 



the bast, at first eating out irregular chambers as shown 



in fig. 135 ; as it gets larger it goes deeper and grooves both the outer 

 bark and the sapwood. This gallery has no definite direction. Sometimes 

 it is carried up the tree, at others down or across, especially when the larva 

 is young (see pi. xiii). It curves about, the 

 total length being from two to two and a half 

 inches, and the breadth at its widest part 

 about a sixth to a quarter of an inch. When 

 the grub is full-grown it bores down into the 

 sapwood at an angle for about half an inch, 

 and then eats out a pupal chamber in the 



wood somewhat larger than the size of the future beetle; the section <>f the 

 entrance-tunnel in the wood is narrow elliptical, and the presence of these 

 entrance-tunnels in the sapwood is very characteristic of the beetle, and they 

 are clearly visible when the decayed bark above has fallen oft in patches. I lie 

 larva changes to a pupa in the pupal chamber, and the beetle on maturing 

 crawls out of the tunnel, eats it- \\,i\ through the l>;irk if it Ims not fillen 

 off already, and escapes from the tree. A characteristic feature of this 

 attack is shown in pi. xiv. The bark covering the hirv.il --.tileries bene.ith 



FIG. 135. -- Galleries of young 

 larva of Sphenoptera atsri'hna in 

 bast of deodar. .\.\\ Himalaya. 



