22 6 FAMILY ELATERIDAE 



Alaus putridus, Candeze. 



REFERENCE. Candeze, Mon. Elater. vol. i, p. 233, pi. 4, f. 15 (1857). 



Habitat. Sal ween River, Tenasserim. 



Tree Attacked. Dalbergia cultrata. Kowloon Island, Salween River, 

 Tenasserim. 



Beetle. Elongate, rather narrow, with short antennae. A greyish mottled brown having 

 a great resemblance to the bark of a tree ; the greyish appearance on living specimens is due 



to a grey bloom emanating from the grey pubes- 



j Description. cence appearing in patches and spots on the 



f dorsal surface ; this disappears after death, 



the colouring becoming various shades of brown or greyish brown ; two 

 small black spots placed centrally on prothorax one on each side of the 

 median line ; an elongate crescent-shaped black patch laterally half-way 

 up elytra. Front of head deeply cleft on lower edge, punctate, and 

 clothed with a dense pubescence. The anterior margin of prothorax is 

 raised into two small teeth one on each side of a longitudinal median elevate 

 line which does not meet either margin. Disk highly punctate and 

 FIG 148 convex, the highest point just behind the two small teeth, from whence 



it slopes backwards and laterally ; the outer posterior angles produced 

 Alans putridus. ... . , 



Candeze mto ^ on blunt P mts - Scutellem elongate, elliptical. Elytra depressed 



Tenasserim. basally, the sides constricted to apex ; striate-punctate, the punctures 

 rather far apart in even rows ; patches of white pubescence on surface ; 

 apex truncate and toothed. Under-surface densely clothed with a short pubescence ; punctate. 

 Length, 20 mm. to 37 mm. 



I took two specimens of this beetle in their pupating-chambers in the 



wood of a dead Dalbergia cultrata tree, on Kowloon 



Life History. Island, in the Salween River. The tree was only 



recently dead. The insects were fully mature and 



about to issue. Other tunnels and chambers investigated were found to be 

 empty, the beetles having left. The beetles were taken on 10 March 1905, 

 the flight-time being evidently the first weeks of this month. The tunnel 

 into the wood made by the larva is circular in section, the length 3-8 in. 

 straight or curved, and inclined at an angle to the perpendicular. The end 

 of the tunnel is lined with chewed fibre for the whole of the portion in 

 which the larva lies when it pupates, the bottom being plugged with a mass 

 of the same material. The larva itself feeds either in the drying bark and 

 bast layer and outer sapwood, or it is predaceous upon other wood- and bark- 

 feeding insects, as the circular tunnel into the wood is only made after it has 

 attained its full size. 



The colouring of the beetle exactly resembles that of the bark of the 

 tree, the protective resemblance being almost complete. On the bark, 

 whilst ovipositing, the beetle would be extremely difficult to see. I can find 

 no other record of the life history of this insect. 



