534 



FAMILY SCOLYTIDAE 



In boring into a branch this Cryphalus never goes in direct from the 



outside, but always searches out some small flake of bark beneath which to 



bore its entrance-hole. The bark of the Pinus longifolia is rough even on 



small twigs, and so it has no difficulty in making its entrance into the 



branch unobserved. On reaching the bast layer a small irregular-shaped 



chamber is bored by the beetles, indenting both sapwood and bast (see 



fig. 342, b, c (/>)). I have always found two beetles at work making this 



excavation, and never more than two, the male helping the female. I 



am unable to say whether pairing takes place before or after this chamber 



is complete, but as soon as there is room in it for the two beetles, two will 



be found together. Round the sides of the chamber a in ^toM 



little indentations are cut (fig. b (e)}. By the time 



the shallow excavation is complete it has become full 



of white powdery wood-dust, and the eggs are laid 



either loosely in this or in the indentations. At this 



period only one beetle is present in the egg-chamber. 



.Galleries were found in this condition at the beginning 



of July. Further than this I have not as yet been able 



to carry the life history, but from 



an examination of old twigs and 



branches it appears that the larvae 



mine outwinding galleries in the bast 



and sapwood as shown in fig. c (I). 



There is at least a third and 

 possibly a fourth generation of the 

 beetle in the year. From some 

 branches taken to Dehra the writer 

 bred out beetles in the middle of 

 September, and others may have 

 issued in August, since dead beetles 

 were found in the breeding-box, which owing to 

 ;il>sence on tour was not opened in that month. 



The beetle was first discovered in company 

 with the long -needled pine Polygraphus at 

 Taklesh in the Bashahr State in June 1901, 

 being obtained the following and succeeding 

 years numerously in the Jaunsar Division. In 



1908 I noted its attacks in Kumaun and in 



1909 in Chamba. 



XI? 



FIG. 342. Cryphalus longi- 

 folia, Steb. a, dorsal and side 

 view of the beetle ; />, poition 

 though very minute, has the O f a Finns longifolia branchlet 



power of increasing in large showing (p] pairing -chamber 

 Relations to the , 



Forest. numbers, and must there- 



fore be included amongst 



the pests of the pine. It infests the main stem 

 of seedlings and small saplings and the smaller 



with (e) the indentations made 

 to enlarge it to deposit the eggs ; 

 c, portion of a branch showing 

 (p) the pairing- and egg-chamber, 



