292 FAMILY CERAMBYCIDAE 



This beetle has a wide range in the country, and it is probable that 



the date of its appearance on the wing varies slightly 



Life History. in different parts. The insect has been reported as 



infesting a variety of trees, but so far as I have been 



able to ascertain it is typically an example of that group of longicorns 

 which confine their attention to dead wood, and breed in this latter. Of 

 this group we at present know very few examples in India. 



In Indian Museum Notes, Cotes remarks in the first number of that 

 periodical issued (1889) that damage was noticed as being done to deal-wood 

 boxes lying in the godowns of the museum by the larvae of this beetle. 

 That such damage is common to the specimens in wood museums is well 

 known. Both Messrs. Gamble and Oliver, Directors of the Imperial Forest 

 School at Dehra Dun, as also Messrs. Smythies and Gleadow, reported from 

 time to time damage to the museum wood specimens from beetles which, 

 when identified, proved to be this pest. In addition to Acacia catechu I 

 have taken it in sissu wood, and commonly in packing-case wood, etc., 

 in Dehra. The insect is also well known in the Museum of the Reporter 

 on Economic Products in Calcutta. 



The insect was sent to me by the late Mr. A. M. Long, I.F.S., from 

 the Raipur Division in 1901, where it was taken in dry bamboos. I have 

 since taken it numerously from bamboos, and it is one of the insects 

 responsible for the holes with a squarish section to be seen commonly in 

 bamboos in thatched roofing and elsewhere. 



H. M. Lefroy, in Indian Insect Life (p. 378), mentions it as infesting 

 mango wood. 



The only record I can find of its being supposed to have been taken 

 infesting green trees is the reported beetle attack in the Kulsi teak planta- 

 tions in Assam, mentioned in Indian Museum Notes, vol. ii, pp. n, 12. An 

 examination of the note given there will show that the insect responsible for 

 the severe destruction in the plantations between 1873 and 1878 or 1879 was 

 identified as Stromatium asperulum (S. longicorne, see below). In February 

 1890 the attack had again made itself evident, and larvae were forwarded 

 to the Indian Museum. As the result of a request for mature insects, no 

 less than three distinct species of longicorns were sent to the museum, 

 viz., Stromatium barbatum, Neocerambyx (JEolesthes) holosericea, and Aegosoma 

 lacertosum (costipenne) , 5. asperulum not being represented. The fact that 

 these beetles were actually taken from the affected trees is not stated 

 in the note, nor have I been able to obtain an authoritative statement on 

 this head. From the life histories of two of these species as at present 

 known to us, it would appear doubtful, therefore, whether we can accept the 

 statement that Stromatium barbatum lives in green trees. 



The life history as known at present is a simple one. The beetle 

 appears on the wing as early as the latter part of April or May in some 

 parts, in June and throughout July and on into August in Dehra Dun, and 



