FAMILY CERAMBYCIDAE 363 



Larva. The full-grown larva is a long, thick, tuberculate, yellowish grub, three and three- 

 quarter inches in length and three-quarters of an inch broad at the anterior end, which ii 

 thickest. The head is black, broadest behind, and bluntly pointed in front, the two biting 

 jaws (mandibles) being black. The segment following the head is broad and swollen, dark 

 orange-yellow, the upper surface being hard and horny and shining ; the two following seg- 

 ments are narrow ; the remainder are slightly narrower than the first, thick, with swollen 

 tubercles on each ; the last two taper bluntly. There are a pair of minute feet on each of the 

 first three segments and a pair of swollen tuberculate ones on the fourth to the ninth seg- 

 ments. A transversely elongate brown spot (the breathing opening or spiracle) is situated on 

 each side of the second and the fourth to the eleventh segments. Figs. , b, show a larva two- 

 thirds grown and a full-grown grub. 



The life history of this insect was first completely worked out in the 

 years 1905-7 by Colonel C. A. Kemball, Political Agent in Loralai, Balu- 

 chistan. The beetle was found to be committing serious damage to the fig- 

 trees in the Duki Garden in his Agency. It was subsequently found in 

 other parts of the province. 



The beetle commences to issue from the trees about the middle of June, 



and is found throughout the remainder of the month 

 Life History in the Fig- , . . . 



tree in Baluchistan. and on through July. It is apparently most plentiful 



in July. This period of six to seven weeks, then, is the 



egg-laying period. The eggs have not yet been discovered, but they are 

 probably laid either singly or in little clusters on the outside of the bark 

 of the tree or in incisions made by the beetle in the outer bark so as 

 to reach the softer parts beneath. The number of eggs laid is at present 

 unknown. 



The grubs on hatching from the eggs in July or August feed at first in 

 the green sappy portion of the inner bark, and then, as they become larger 

 and stronger, tunnel down into the wood and bore down the centre of the 

 stem or branch in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis, mining 

 out a gallery which increases in breadth with the growth of the larva. If 

 the grub commences in a branch, it tunnels down the branch until it 

 reaches the main stem, and then tunnels down that. The tunnel is blocked 

 behind by the excreta of the larva, the portion occupied by the latter being 

 full of sap. As it progresses down the stem or branch it eats out at 

 intervals longitudinal offshoots to the outer bark, these longitudinal 

 tunnels serving to admit air into the stem. The sap oozing from 

 these is an indication that a grub is at work inside the stem. The 

 larger branches and the main stem of the fig-tree, including the bottom 

 portion of the stem and the upper thick portion (the cr<>\vn) of the roots, 

 are the parts of the tree infested by the grub, the galleries eaten out by the 

 mature larva being as much as one and a quarter inches in width and 

 a foot or more in length. 



When full-fed the grub pupates in the heart of the stem or upper part 

 of the root, eating out a wide elliptic il pup.il chamber which it blocks at 

 the open end with a mass of compressed wood til>re>, some loose wood fibres 

 occupying the lower end. 



