FAMILY CERAMBYCIDAE 343 



On hatching out the young larvae at once bore down into the cambium 

 layer and feed in this for a time. As they grow bigger the gallery grooves 

 both bast and sapwood. These galleries curve about in an irregular 

 manner and increase in width and depth with the growth in size of the 

 grub. PI. xxiv shows a photograph of the inner surface of a piece of bark 

 stripped from an infested tree in September. The photograph was very 

 kindly taken for me in the forest by Mr. W. F. Perree, at the time Assistant 

 Inspector-General of Forests. 



It depicts very well the stage in the development of the larvae some 

 three months after oviposition, and also shows the amount of cambium 

 they are capable of destroying in this period when numerous in a tree. 

 It will be noticed that the larval galleries are blocked for their whole 

 length, with the exception of the space occupied by the grub itself, with 

 wood refuse and excreta of the grub. 



The larvae continue feeding in the bast and sapwood until the rirst 

 snap of cold of the winter, when they cease feeding and hibernate at the 

 end of their galleries. A few may have bored the pupating-chamber in the 

 wood, but the majority are still far from full-grown. 



Some time in April the larvae recommence feeding, and lengthen their 

 galleries to some extent. In May they commence tunnelling down into the 

 sapwood, boring out a short gallery of a half to three-quarters of an inch 

 in length and of squarish section. This tunnel may go in at an angle 

 or be straight. It is always kept quite free of wood-dust and excreta. 

 When this depth in the wood has been reached the larva turns and bores 

 out an elliptical elongate chamber parallel to the long axis of the tree and 

 of wider diameter than the entrance-tunnel to it. When this is complete 

 it turns round and changes into a pupa. 



The period passed as a pupa and immature beetle is about a month to 

 six weeks, and the beetle is then ready to leave the tree. It crawls up the 

 entrance-tunnel in the sapwood, gnaws through the outer bark which covers 

 it, and escapes from the tree to mate and, if a female, lay eggs in fresh trees. 



From the above it is apparent that the deodar longicorn beetle has 

 only one life-cycle or generation in the year, and passes through the winter 

 as a grub, perhaps the easiest stage and period to attack it in. 



This longicorn must be looked upon as one of the serious pests of the 

 deodar. Like its companions Scolylits major, 7V/v- 



Damage Committed ,,,,/,/,,, , m j or a nd the buprestid Shliciiohtcru, it is ever 

 in the Forest. 



ready to take advantage <>( any sicklmess or injury to .1 



tree or any reduction in vitality resulting from a fhv having passed over the 

 area. It is probable that it only attacks green trees when it is in large 

 numbers, and when the supply of newly felled and sickly trees is small. It 

 will not, however, oviposit in dry trees, since it requires for its larvae that 

 the cambium should be in a state of considerable freshness. 



The danger to be feared from this and the other pests is when a sudden 

 storm leads to a large number of wind-falls in the forest during the egg- 



