FAMILY CERAMBYCIDAE 373 



way in and remain for a time boring in the sapwood, and then as they get 

 stronger go into the heart-wood and tunnel up and down this. Some 

 tunnels I inspected were 7 ft. to 8 ft. and more in length. As soon as the 

 tunnel enters the sapwood, branch tunnels to the outer surface of the bark 

 are gnawed out at intervals for aeration purposes, and the course and direc- 

 tion of the tunnel within the stem can be traced by these holes on the out- 

 side, the holes and the offsets to the outside increasing in circumference 

 with the growth of the grub. Careful search has failed to show that 

 more than one larva is ever present in any one stem, and therefore it 

 must be considered probable that the beetle lays but one egg on any one 

 tree. The position on the stem where it is laid would appear to vary, as 

 Mr. Coventry considers it to be always high up, whereas my own observa- 

 tions on some cut stems showed that in these cases the larva had commenced 

 its tunnel in the sapwood at the foot of the tree. Mr. Coventry wrote : 



' The larvae, commencing high up, burrow down the entire 

 length of the stem, and often a considerable way down one of the 

 main roots. . . . After reaching its lowest limit the larva appears 

 to hollow out a chamber of sufficient size to enable it to turn round, 

 and then burrows straight up the stem again, sometimes following 

 the old gallery, and sometimes striking a new one." 



It is not improbable that the chamber here referred to is made to enable 

 the grub to rest for a period during the coldest part of the winter, but this 

 opinion requires corroboration. By far the longest part of the tunnel, 

 including all the portion with a large diameter, is to be found in the heart- 

 wood, the larva seeking this and leaving the sapwood as soon as its mandibles 

 are strong enough to enable it to bore into the former. 



Although the larva and its work had been known for some years at the 



Shahdera Reserve, a sailaba plantation on the banks of 



^nthe Forest tne ^ av ^ a bout five miles from Lahore, Punjab, it was 



not until 1897 that beetles were obtained by Mr. B. O. 



Coventry, from which the insect was identified as Aprioiia ^cniutri. 



Mulberry stems are very badly infested by this beetle, which confines 

 itself to this tree, and does not attack its companion the sissu. The eggs 

 are most usually laid on the main stems of young living coppice shoots, about 

 three to four years old, and 2^ in. to 3 in. in diameter, and the insert grows 

 in size with the development of the tree. Attacked trees can be recogm 

 owing to a rusty red stain running below each air-hole made bv the larva, 

 the stain being caused by the trickling down of sap from these holes ; also 

 very often by the presence of sawdust at the foot and on the bark of the trees. 

 The attacks of the larva do not kill the tree, but the galleries bored up and 

 down the stem ruin the wood for timber purposes, and at Shahdera the 

 mulberry can only be sold as firewood. A l;irg<; proportion of the young trees 

 were infested in 1901, and the old ones mostly bore the marks of previous 

 attacks in the unsightly wounds, often of large size, which were to be seen on 



