FAMILY CERAMBYCIDAE 359 



appeared in the Indian Forester,* and in which this beetle was identified 

 as Coelosterna scabrata at the Indian Museum. Indian Museum Notes t con- 

 tains a reference to Captain Wood's report of the insect. " The habits," 

 the note says, "of this species are, no doubt, very similar to those of the 

 allied American Hickory Twig Borer (Oncideres cingulatus, Say.)," and the 

 life history of the latter is then detailed. 



The life histories of Indian insects cannot, however, in the majority of 

 instances examined, be based upon those of American species. Consequently, 

 at present we have no further data on the life history of this insect in 

 connexion with the sal-tree than those ascertained by Captain E. Wood, 

 and described in the Indian Forester. Although I have taken specimens of 

 the insect on the wing in the sal forests of the United Provinces, I have 

 never had the good fortune to find the insects at work. 



Captain Wood's note is as follows : 



I have noted, as stated in some of my reports to Government, that the succulent shoots 

 of coppice sal saplings were ringed by some insects in the rains, because the marks left in 

 October-November showed that they were comparatively recent, and the dead upper portions 

 showed that the leaves had reached maturity ; it was probable also that the ringing was done by 

 flying insects, as the tops of the shoots (within a foot or two of the top) were the parts usually 

 affected. As the ringing of the bark, and the consequent destruction of the portions of the 

 stem above it, render the coppice shoots liable to be crooked or to bifurcate, I desired, if 

 possible, that the insect might be discovered. . . . The insect was found at work in the evening 

 (so reports the Forester), and a specimen of the ringing was also sent. It is probable that the 

 insects use the soft bark for their own food . . . and nearly every coppiced stem i= thus ringed. 



It is possible that the grubs live in the portion of the shoot above the 

 girdle, but the point was not ascertained. 



(b) In the Babul. We now turn to the question of the life history of 

 the insect in the babul (Acacia arabica), where it is proving itself a pest 

 of the first importance. Observations made on their life histories appear 

 to show that the majority of longicorn beetles which have proved to be forest 

 pests do not feed in the mature or beetle stage of their existence. 



The babul-root boring longicorn would appear to be an exception to this 

 rule, since it has been reported so often as feeding on the bark and stripping 

 it off the young plants, or of ringing the young plants. We have seen that 

 the buprestid beetle Psiloptera fastuosa actually does commit this damage, 

 feeding on the bark of leading shoots and young twi^s (p. 199 ; pi. xi). I do 

 not think, however, that it had been definitely ascertained that the longi- 

 corn actually feeds here in the case of the Berar infrstntion of the pest. 

 Latterly, however, the beetle has been reported from the Kalpi Plantation 

 in Bundelkhand, the Psiloptera not apparently being present. The Coelo- 

 sterna appears in that locality as early as September (third week), and strips 

 the bark from the young trees, often apparently ringing them (pi. xi). 



The beetles are found on the wing in Berar early in October, and it is 

 during this month that the bark is eaten or peeled down the stems of the 

 young plants by this insect and its buprestid companion. 



* Indian Forester, vol. xiv, p. 503 (1888). f Indian MH+CIOH Xntes, i, p. 88 (1889). 



