43 2 FAMILY CURCULIOXIDAE 



From these observations it would seem that the insect appears on the 

 wing earlier in the year at Maymyo (3,500 ft.) than in Assam ; it is quite 

 possible that in Burma the generations overlap and that the insect never 

 ceases work in a climate where but little cold is experienced throughout the 

 year. At Shillong (5,500 ft.) the beetles taken so numerously were probably 

 the first beetles of the year engaged in laying the eggs of the first brood. 



The mode of attack of the insect in Finns kliasya is very similar to that 

 in Finns longifolia. The larvae live in the bast and sapwood, grooving out 

 elongate irregular broad galleries. When full-fed they gnaw out a cavity 

 in the bast and sapwood, line it with bark- and wood-fibres, and pupate in 

 this. These bark- and wood-fibres are fresh and moist when the cavity 

 contains newly pupated larvae, whereas by the time the beetle has reached 

 the resting stage the fibre lining of the cavity has become dry and yellow. 

 When mature the weevil eats a hole straight through the thick bark and 

 crawls through it to the outside of the tree. 



The damage arising from the presence of this insect in a forest is 



two-fold (<?) It attacks young green standing growth 



Relations to the f n kindg frQm thg moment that th seed l ings have 



Forest. 



developed a bark thick enough for the larvae to feed 



in. This bark in the case of the Finns longifolia is developed at a very early 

 age, often in trees as young as three to four years old. (6) The beetle attacks 

 with equal facility green trees of all ages up to old standing trees of large 

 size, laying its eggs either deep down in crevices in the thick bark at the 

 base of the tree or anywhere in the bole higher up and in the crown. A 

 standing green apparently healthy tree of 14 ft. girth was found attacked in 

 this manner in Jaunsar in November 1906. 



The beetle must be looked upon, as is the case with many of the weevil 

 family, as particularly hardy and resistant to outside influences; and this is 

 so both in the larval and mature-beetle stages. The larvae once hatched 

 would seem to have more than the usual chances of reaching maturity, 

 since they are to be found wallowing in the outflow of resin poured out by 

 the tree in answer to their operations in the bast layer ; the resin appears 

 to be particularly palatable to them. The powers of multiplication of the 

 beetle also seem to be considerable. 



The danger of an insect of this nature gradually increasing in numbers 

 and acquiring a hold over a forest is of course much greater in the case of 

 pure forests than in that of mixed ones, and this danger is existent in this 

 instance, since the Finns longifolia is to be found pure over considerable areas 

 in the North-West Himalaya. 



In Burma Mr. Long's investigation of the attacks of the beetle in 

 J'inus khasya was limited to five-year-old trees in a plantation situated 

 at 3,200 ft. elevation, and only trees on a southern aspect were noted as 

 infested, those on a northern aspect but 200 yards away being unattacked. 

 Mr. Long noted that the woody tissues, often to the centre of the tree, were 



