FAMILY CURCULIONIDAE 421 



placed by the mother beetle, and in so laying their eggs the beetles were 

 stripping the sissu-trees of the entire crop of their new leaves. In some cases 

 the little bundles had dropped, in others they had turned black and were 

 ready to do so, whilst others again w r ere still green and fresh, and I was able 

 myself to see others in the course of formation. Every tree on the sixteen 

 miles of river I inspected both on the Kulu and Bashahr sides of the stream 

 was either entirely defoliated of its new growth or rapidly becoming so, 

 and there seems no reason for supposing that the attack did not spread some 

 distance further, both up and down stream. The fact that the insect either 

 rolls up the whole of the leaf or cuts it across very close to its base causes 

 the complete destruction of all leaves attacked. 



In addition to attacking the whole of the crop of new leaves. I noted 

 that the beetle also laid its eggs on and rolled up the older leaves as well, 

 though in nothing like the same proportion. It was probably the abun- 

 dance of the beetles and the shortness of the supply of the new leaves that 

 sent the insects to the old ones, as these must be infinitely more difficult 

 to bend over and roll up than the soft, tender young ones. 



I noticed in the Changa Manga Plantation in the third week of May 

 1905 some individuals of a weevil, since identified by Mr. G. A. K. Marshall 

 as this species, on the young leaves of the sissu coppice in the compartment 

 felled over the previous year. The insects were engaged in ovipositing, rolling 

 up the young leaves of the plants in a manner similar to that above described. 

 The young coppice had been defoliated to a certain extent by the insect. 



I also observed this insect pairing and ovipositing on sissu-trees in the 

 first half of May 1905 and again in 1908 at Chor Galia and neighbouring 

 forests in the Kumaun and Garhwal Terai. The insect here oviposits on the 

 new spring leaves of the tree in a manner similar to that already described 

 for the Sutlej Valley. Each year a considerable amount of defoliation appears 

 to be carried out by the weevil. 



In the present state of our knowledge of economic entomology in 

 India it is not always possible to consider remedies for 

 application over large areas. The beetle probably has 



both fungous and insect enemies, and the larva likewise, 

 the encouraging or introduction of which would keep it down. In nurseries 

 and small valuable plantations the question is not so difficult. In such places 

 I should advise the sweeping up into heaps of the small fallen leaf-rolls (each 

 of which, it must be remembered, contains an egg or larva, and therefore 

 a future beetle), and burning them in situ. This work will In- very simple if 

 carried out when the beetle is just finishing its egg-laying, as the ground 

 then will be littered with the small rolls, and by jarring the young plants 

 numbers will at once drop. In the case of small areas the ground could be 

 gone over two or three times, to make sure of removing and killing off as 

 many eggs as possible. Over larger ones one round would have to be 

 sufficient, and it would be important to choose the right time, so that the 

 maximum number of eggs possible might be destroyed. When the defoliation 



