FAMILY CERAMBYCIDAE 



283 



trees or newly felled ones are infested. Dead trees are not attacked. 

 This longicorn beetle appears to be commoner in the trees than either 

 of the buprestids. 



The remedies and methods of protection against this pest which can 

 be instituted will be found detailed under Crypto- 

 % c/ < s brandisi (p. 433). _ The best time to put them 

 into force \vould be the winter months, when all these 

 insects are in the larval stage in the bast layer of the tree. A simple plan 

 to ascertain the abundance of the insects in the forest is to fell a few r trees, 

 or, better still, ring them and leave them as trap trees. A monthly 

 examination of these trees will show how plentiful the insects are on the 

 area. If the trees are found to be heavily attacked by the buprestid, 

 longicorn, or weevil larvae, it will mean that the insects are numerous 

 in that area, and steps will have to be taken to get rid of them. 



LEPTURA. 



A number of Indian species of these small longicorns are known, but 

 only one as of forest importance. 



Leptura rubriola, Bates. 



REFERENCES. Bates, P.Z.S. 1878, p. 720 J ; id. Scientific Results Second Yarkand Mission, Coleopt. 

 p. 22, pi. i, figs 21 and 22 Q (1890) ; Gahan, F.B.I. Ceramb. vol. i, no. 75, p. 81 (1906). 



Habitat. Kainthli, Chamba, North-West Himalaya. Gahan gives 

 Kashmir, Murree, near Gulberg, 5, 000-9,000 ft. (Dr. Atchison), and Lidder, 

 11,000 ft. 



Tree Attacked. Spruce (Picea morinda). Chamba State. 



Beetle.- <$ Ulack, with the elytra from the base to a little 

 beyond the middle yellowish red (at times the elytra are com- 



pletely black). Head dull, finely and 

 Description. closely punctured. Antennae nearly as 



long as body, third joint scarcely longer 



than fourth and a little shorter than fifth ; eleventh about one- 

 third longer than tenth. Prothorax a little longer than broad, 

 slightly constricted, and transversely channelled just behind the 

 front margin, widest at base, narrowed in front, dull and closely 

 punctured. Elytra strongly and closely punctured and dull save 

 at apex ; apices broadly truncate and slightly sinuate, leebly 

 dentate at each of the angles. Hind tarsi very long, the I'IIM 

 joint nearly twice as long as the next two united ; third joint 

 cleft to the middle ; claw-joint long. 



$ Prothorax, except along front and luiul borders, and Leptura 

 the whole of the elytra, red. Antennae not extended beyond ^ 



the middle of the elytra, with fourth joint distinctly ^hortei th.m 

 third. Length, 11 mm. to 15 mm. ; breadth, 3' mm. to , mm. 



I took a specimen of this beetle on a large girdled dying spruce-tree at 

 Kainthli in Chamba on 22 June 1909. The insect, a female, was deep 

 down in a crevice of the bark and was egg-laying. 



IG. [94. 



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