FAMILY CURCULIONIDAE 



437 



Cryptorhynchus raja, Stebbing, sp. nov. 

 Habitat. Chamba State, Tehri Garhwal, North-West Himalaya. 



Trees Attacked. Blue Pine (Pinus excelsa}: Bre Forest, Chamba; 

 Spruce: Deota, Tehri Garhwal. 



Beetle. Elongate, rather narrow. Black, dull, with very small 

 patches and tufts of a greenish-orange pubescence. Head finely 



rugose, small, with a slight coppery re- 

 Description, flexion which extends down on to the 



basal half of rostrum ; latter not quite a 



third length of insect, the basal half broad, flat, punctate, with an 

 elevate median longitudinal ridge ; the rostrum tapers to middle, 

 thence widens gradually, shining brown, and very slightly and finely 

 punctate ; antennae inserted above middle, the long scrobes placed 

 at sides, the scape swollen to a knob at upper end and shorter than 

 rest of antenna, the club large, conical. Prothorax widest medianly, 

 tapers in front, sides rounded, a fine elevate longitudinal smooth 

 black median line runs from the anterior to posterior margin ; rest of surface rather coarsely 

 rugose-punctate, the punctures large medianly. Elytra widest at base, constricted apically ; 

 striate punctate, the punctures large and shallow, and often confluent ; with here and there 

 small patches and spots of a fine yellowish-green pubescence. Legs punctate and pubescent. 

 Length, 6 mm. to 7 mm. 



I know little 



FIG. 290. 

 Cryptorhynchus raja, 



Steb., sp. nov. 

 N.W. Himalaya. 



Life History. 



on the subject of the life history of this crypto- 

 rhynchid. I first obtained a specimen of it from a 

 pupal chamber between the bark and sapwood of a 

 large girdled spruce-tree in June in Tehri Garhwal. Subsequently I found it 



in blue pine in the Bre forests in Chamba 

 in June 1909. From a pupal chamber hol- 

 lowed out in the bark and sapwood I took a 

 dead weevil. The gallery in the bast ami 

 sapwood made by its larva is shown here. 

 I had felled and examined a number of dead 

 deodar and blue-pine saplings and small and 

 large poles, which had died from some un- 

 known cause, on either side of the upper part 

 of the Catchment Area of the small mountain 

 torrent which flows from here into the Ravi 

 River. These trees had been killed by bark 

 beetles, chiefly Scolvtits major ;md Polygraphs 

 major . In some cases, however, 1 found larval 

 galleries of this cryptorhynchid \uwil present 

 in some abundance in the bast and sapwood 

 of the blue pine. The round exit-holes in 

 FIG. 291. -Larval galleries of the thick bark showed that the beetles had 

 Crvptorhynchus raja in blue pine, already matured and left the trees. 

 , position of pupation. The smaller Observations seemed to indicate that 



gallery is incomplete. Chamba, ..... . ... ,, r 



North-West Himalaya. (E. P. S.) the life history is very similar to that of 



