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CHAPTER XIV. 

 PHYTOPHAGA. 



TARSUS four-jointed, the third joint very often bilobed and pubescent. 

 The head is not prolonged into a beak. 



The group contains three families Bruchidae, Chrysomelidae, and 

 Cerambycidae the second and third of which are of considerable size. 



The Bruchidae will not unlikely prove of considerable importance in 

 the forest as destructive to the seed of many of the plains species of trees. 



The Chrysomelidae are leaf-feeders, and cause a certain amount of 

 defoliation. 



The Cerambycidae are one of the most important families of bast- 

 eating and wood-tunnelling beetles in the forest. 



Family BRUCHIDAE. 



The Bruchidae are small hairy beetles, rarely exceeding eight millimetres 

 in length ; the colours greys and dull browns or blacks. 



The beetles are commonly found in the seed of some forest trees, 

 especially in the Leguminosae, and their importance in the forest lies in this 

 fact. In all probability a far greater amount of the seed of forest trees is 

 annually destroyed by bruchids than our present knowledge of the family 

 leads us to expect, and for this reason the insects require a close study on 

 the part of Forest Officers. Within my experience, the only Forest Officer 

 who has given this form of attack close investigation is Mr. G. M. 

 Ryan, I.F.S., in the Bombay Presidency. 



The beetle is small and squat in shape, with a thickened body and 

 thickened hind legs. The head is small, with a short 

 Beetle. rostrum and serrate or pectinate eleven-jointed antennae. 



The elytra are truncate, leaving exposed the last seg- 

 ments of the abdomen. The tarsi are four-jointed, the third joint bilobed. 



The grub is white, corrugated, and curved. The eggs are usually 



laid by the beetles on the newly forming seed-pod, and 



Larva. the larva on hatching out tunnels through the walls of 



the pod and thence into the seed, which it entirely 



hollows out, leaving only the seed-skin. When full-fed the larva may 

 pupate within the seed, or leave it and spin a cocoon within the pod and 

 pupate within this. 



The beetles to some extent feed upon the leaves of the tree. 



Only two species (of the genus Caryoborus} are known to be pests in the 

 forest. 



