FAMILY SCOLYTIDAE 



549 



be arranged for. Trees which are either sickly, already attacked, or are 

 chosen for other reasons, should be selected and girlded or felled a week 

 or so before the flight-time of the beetles. The insects will resort to 

 these to ovipDsit, and when egg-laying has been completed and the trees 

 are full of nearly full-grown larvae the bark should be stripped off and burnt. 



Dryocoetes minor, Stebbing. 



REFERENCES. Stebbing (Phloesinus), Undescr. Scolyt. Ind. Regions, Ind. For. Mem. Zool. Ser. vol. i, 

 pt. ii, 19 (1909) ; id. Assam Sal Ins. Pests, For. Bull. no. n, 37 (1907). 



Habitat. Assam . 



Tree Attacked. Sal (Shorea robusta). Goalpara Sal Forests. 

 Beetle. Short, compact, convex, dull brown, with a largely developed hood-like reddish- 

 brown prothorax. Head small, dull brown, hidden beneath thorax, punctate. Prothorax 



convex, slightly wider than long, closely squamose behind, more open 



Description. in front. Elytra black, convex, rounded, truncate behind ; a little 



more than one and a half times as long as thorax ; longitudinally 



striate-punctate, punctures few. Surface of elytra and thorax with scanty stiff yellowish 

 hairs. Under-surface black, shining ; legs brownish. Length, 3.9 mm. (PI. 1\-, fig. 2.) 



This beetle is found on the wing in the middle and third week of May. 



The beetle bores straight down into the wood of newly 

 Life History. felled green sal-trees (and probably into that of standing 



sickly ones) to oviposit. A beetle was cut out of a tree 



on the i6th, the tree, a green one, having been felled only three days before. 

 The insect was engaged in eating out its egg-gallery. The presence of the 

 insect can easily be recognized owing to the fact that little cylinders of 

 ejected wood-dust are to be seen projecting from the entrance-holes in the 

 bark. The colour of these, white or reddish, indicates whether the beetle 

 is in the sap- or heart-wood. The beetles found in May were probably 

 those of the first generation of the year just matured, and engaged in laying 

 the eggs of the second generation. 



Dryocoetes indicus, sp. nov., Stebbing. 



Habitat. North-West Himalaya. 



Tree Attacked. Spruce (Picea morinda}. Jaunsar. 



Beetle. Oblong. Light to dark red or red-brown, with a rather 

 long sparse pubescence. Head punctate, with a bright yellow brush 



of pubescence on the front. Prothorax 



Description. slightly more than one-fourth the total 



length of insect, disk convex behind, sides 



uniformly curved from base to apex; surface seal) and rugose, the 

 scales large and prominent on convex portion of disk, less \\cll 

 defined and wider apart on anterior parts and replaced In rugose 

 punctures on depressed area posteriorly; pubescence long and rather 

 scattered. Scutellum large, heart-shaped, smooth, shining, dark 

 brown to black. Elytra broader apieally than prothorax, ape. 

 rather sharply declivous, rounded ; disk shining and strongly punc- 

 tate, the punctures placed in rows, large, shallow, each ha\ ing a small IKIV -- Steb., in spruce. 

 puncture at its bottom : the interspaces smaller, set with a row of X.\Y. Himalaya. 



FlG. 352. 



'.v iin/iinx, sp. 



