FAMILY SCOLYTIDAE 



537 



Little is known about this Cryphalns. I am unable to say 

 whether it is at all abundant or otherwise in the teak 

 forests of the country. It has at present only been 

 found on old trees. Owing to its method of attack, 

 under which the cambium of the young shoot is destroyed by it and its 

 larvae, it is obvious that if it should attack young growth and were to 

 infest it in any numbers, it would be capable of doing serious injury. It 

 will perhaps be found most abundant in localities where the teak is of 

 inferior growth. 



Cryphalus boswelliae, Stebbing. 



REFERENCE. Stebbing, Depart. Notes, i, 261. 



Habitat. -Poona, Bombay Presidency. 



Tree Attacked. Boswellia serrata. Bhamburda Reserve, Poona. 



Beetle. Short, elliptical, black, clothed with a very short yellowish pubescence on pro- 

 thorax and elytra. Head and thorax pitted. Elytra with striae and wide rows of bluish- 

 white punctures between them. Mandibles 

 Description. short. A brush of yellow hairs round the 



mouth. Scape of the antennae, which are 



dark brown, long, club-shaped ; funiculus four-jointed, the first joint ,,. 



thick, elongated, the second to fourth only slightly increasing in a 



size; club flattened, oval. Eyes long, narrow, transverse. Prothorax 

 not longer than broad, narrower in front than behind, more or less 

 uniformly punctate, with punctures and not tubercular projections 

 anteriorly. Elytra cylindrical, rounded on their posterior declivity ; 

 not wider, or only very slightly so, than prothoiax, slightly bending 

 inwards at their base. Legs dark brown. Tibiae curved, and finely 

 toothed on their exterior 'edges ; tarsus yellow, with the first three 

 joints of equal length. Length, just over ^ in. Fig. 345, c. 



Larva. A small, white, curved, legless grub. Fig. a. 



Pupa. White, unenclosed in any cocoon or covering, the 

 antennae, wings, and legs being quite free, and held close to sides 

 of the beetle. Fig. b. 



The flight-time of this beetle is about the be- 

 ginning of August, and probably 

 Life History. for some time later. The insect, 

 in all stages of its life, is to be 



found at the beginning of the month. In branches of 



the Boswellia which appeared to be dying but were 



still green, larvae were plentiful, and also pupae and 



light-coloured beetles, the latter not quite mature. The 



larvae are to be found in irregular-shaped cavities in 



the bast and sapwood, which usually contain a certain Cryfihalns 



amount of moist wood-dust. In the pupal and beetle Steb., in / 

 . serrata. 



stages this latter becomes dry. In other branches 



darker-coloured beetles were present, and these were apparently the mature 

 beetles of this generation which had already begun egg-laying. The $ and 9- 



X12 





FIG. 345. 



Poona. 



