FAMILY CERAMBYCIDAE 305 



One method of ascertaining the abundance of this insect in a forest is 

 to examine the timber stacked in the temporary depots 



. in the forest for . checkin and marking purposes. 

 Whilst the wood is still in these depots it is always 

 easy to ascertain from which forests or blocks of forest it has come. 

 I have found that the wood in these depots in the Ganges and Garhwal 

 Divisions showed great variableness as regards attack, that coming from 

 certain areas having been invariably badly infested (from twenty to sixty 

 per cent, at times), whilst lots from other blocks appeared almost free from 

 the tell-tale holes and tunnels. These depots thus form a valuable means 

 of allowing the Divisional Officer to ascertain in which blocks of his 

 forests the insect is most abundant and is consequently committing the 

 most damage, and with this important knowledge ascertained it should be 

 possible to take steps in such areas to check or stamp out the beetle. 



One of the most important means of checking the insect is to bark all 

 timber as soon as felled, or at any rate before the middle of April in any one 

 year. Green logs lefc unbarked from May onwards are certain to have eggs 

 laid in them as soon as the first beetles of the year commence to emerge. 

 Similarly, sickly dying trees should be felled and barked even if they are in 

 localities where the timber c innot be disposed of, as if left they serve as 

 so many centres of infection. 



Ichneumon ? Thompson in his above-quoted report stated : " In their 



larval state these insects are open to the attacks of both 



Predaceous Insect. Ichneumons and Acari, both parasitical insects, the 



larvae of which feed upon the young grubs." In a large 

 firewood billet of sal I took one February from a pupal chamber enclosed 

 by the calcareous covering a thick elongate white grub constricted at 

 each end and having the appearance of an Ichneumon grub. The 

 shrivelled skin of the dEolesthes grub was close by. The Ichneumon grub 

 had apparently fed upon it as an external parasite, gradually killing it, 

 but not before the calcareous protecting cover had been made to the pupal 

 chamber. The grub was evidently full-fed, but had not changed to the 

 pupal stage. It is thus probable that the parasite only puputrs in thr 

 spring, though becoming full-fed in November or December. 



^olesthes induta, \\-\vnian. 

 (The Stilin-^'noi/ llorcr.) 



REFERENCES. Newman (Hammaticherus), Entomologist, i. p. 245(1842); Armii.i.i;.', Ind. Forester, xx\ii, 

 p. 486 (1901) ; Gahan, F.B.I. Ceramb. no. i 26, p. [28 i<>o6). 



Range. Low Country Forests, Ceylon. Gahan in the Funiui gives 

 Ceylon, Upper Burma, Bhamo Ova), Siam, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, 

 Philippine Islands. 



Tree Attacked. S.itin-wood (Chloroxylon ^-icleniii). Ceylon. 



9003 U 



