358 FAMILY CERAMBYCIDAE 



tunnelling at different levels up one stem, and they undoubtedly have the 

 power of killing the tree. It is only on account of the fibre-producing 

 capabilities of the tree that the insect is likely to be of any importance so 

 far as the Calotropis is concerned. Lefroy mentions (in Indian Insect Pests, 

 p. 376) that " the beetle is to be found practically wherever this plant 

 grows." 



COELOSTERNA. 



Coelosterna scabrata, Fabr. 

 (The Babul-Root Boring Longicorn.} 



REFERENCES. Fabr. Spec. Ins. i, p. 224 ; Ind. Mus. Notes, vol. i, p. 88 (1889) ; Coelosterna spinator, Ind. 

 Mus. Notes, vol. iii, p. 144 (1894) ; Steb. Ind. For. Bull, (new ser.), no. 12, 2 (1912). 



Habitat. Oudh; Berar. 



Trees Attacked. Babul (Acacia arabica): Berar, Bundelkhand; Sal 

 (Shorea robitsta) : Oudh ; Casuarina (Casuarina cqnisetifolia) : Kandikuppa, 

 Madras. 



This insect has been confused with S. spinator in its attacks on babul 

 (Acacia arabica). In Indian Museum Notes the specimen identified as 

 C. spinator was said to be remarkably like C. scabrata, and should only be 

 placed as a variety of that insect. This specimen was sent from Berar 

 as infesting babul there. The insect which has been committing the most 

 serious depredations to the babul plantations in Berar during the past 

 three to four years has been unquestionably identified as C. scabrata. More 

 recently the insect appeared in the same connexion in the Kalpi experi- 

 mental plantation in the Bundelkhand Division in the United Provinces. 

 This is also one of the pests which destroy casuarina in Madras. 



Beetle. A dull, yellowish brown in colour, the sides of the body and legs being bluish ; 

 the nodes of the antennae joints black, the rest of the joints reddish brown or bluish ; the 



elytra are yellowish grey set with a large number of black spots 



Description. varying in size from a pin's head to minute specks. The beetle is a 



bulky insect from an inch and a quarter to an inch and a half in 



length. The head is channelled on the vertex ; the prothorax has a prominent lateral median 

 spine on each side. The scutellum is large and bluish in colour. The elytra are smooth, 

 broader than prothorax at base, and have a blunt median spine at apex. PI. xxv, fig. <:, shows the 

 beetle. 



Larva. An elongate, thickish grub with a brown head and black mandibles ; the pro- 

 thorax is enlarged, with a hard yellow plate dorsally ; the abdominal segments are distinct, 

 the middle ones largest ; the fourth to the tenth have each a prominent black spiracle on the 

 lateral edges. Length, 2 in. to 2.k in. Fig. a show-s the larva side view, and a 1 the front of its head. 

 Pupa. The pupa is pale reddish-yellow colour, its prothorax showing the lateral 

 prominent spine ; the upper abdominal segments show three black spiracles placed laterally on 

 their dorsal surfaces. Figs. 6, b l show a dorsal and ventral view. 



(a) In the Sal. From reports received on the subject the life history of 



this insect has appeared so contradictory as to have led 



Lite History. \_ o considerable confusion. As long ago as November 



1888, Captain E. Wood, Conservator of Forests, Oudh, 



reported that a beetle was doing some damage to sal coppice saplings 

 in the rains by ringing them. He wrote a paper on the subject which 



