FAMILY CURCULIOXIDAE 409 



orange, die, and drop off. Once the method of operation of the beetle has 

 been clearly understood it is the easiest thing possible to detect. From an 

 examination of large numbers of attacked trees in the forest, and by watch- 

 ing the insect feed upon new silver-fir shoots in captivity, it appears that the 

 weevils do not actually feed upon the needles to any great extent. Their chief 

 food consists of the green epidermis of the new shoot of the year. To get at 

 this they bite off or gnaw down the new spring needles, so as to remove them 

 and permit their reaching the epidermis of the shoot. This latter they either 

 gnaw off in elongate strips or eat it away in patches right down to the point 

 where last year's shoot commences. One or two beetles may usually be 

 found attacking a green shoot, save when the insect is very abundant, when 

 three, four, or more will be found on it, and the shoot is then stripped of all 

 green substance right down to the woody core in the centre. In such cases 

 the whole of the new shoot and needles of the year are removed in the 

 operations, leaving the top of the old shoot scarred and bare. Usually, 

 however, the epidermis is only removed in strips and patches, and a proportion 

 of the new spring needles remain on the shoot, the latter and the needles 

 either turning a bright orange (most characteristic of the attack) or a pale 

 yellow, and finally grey. The coloured plate, pi. xxviii, shows the method 

 of attack of this weevil. Young silver-fir saplings and poles with the whole of 

 the branches terminating with dead orange, yellow, or grey new shoots of the 

 year are a common sight in the Western Himalaya. One such is depicted 

 in the beautiful photograph shown in pi. xxix, which was taken by Mr. J. H. 

 Lace, C.I.E., Chief Conservator of Forests. When the beetle is less 

 abundant in an area it is usually the upper part of the new shoot which is 

 attacked, the result being that the upper half only of the new shoot withers. 

 The loss of the whole attacked shoot is, however, the commonest result. 



In spite of the abundance of the weevil throughout the greater 



part of June, I have not as yet been able to discover 



Forest' where the eggs are laid nor where the grubs feed. A 



careful examination of the result of the attacks of this 



weevil in the silver-fir forests, carried out over a series of years, has led me 

 to the conclusion that the effect is most serious in the case of young sap- 

 lings and poles, the foliage being thinned out year after year ;md becoming 

 very straggly, a result which is considerably helped by the presence of 

 the Chenncs himalayensis aphid. Numbers of young silver firs will be found, 

 during a bad infestation of the insect, to have lost their new shoots, including 

 the leaders, the trees very often presenting the appearance of having been 

 scorched by a fire passing over them. 



Trees of all ages are attacked by the weevil, from the smiling stage to 

 old trees, and after severe attacks the trees assume their winter aspect 

 in July. 



The species principally attacked is the silver fir, but the beetles also 

 infest, to a certain and much smaller extent, the deodar and spruce, as 

 shown in the coloured plate. 



