622 FAMILY PLATYPODIDAE 



plate (pi. Ixiii) depicting the Platypus of the Pinus longifolia shows the 

 manner in which the tunnels are carried. Also cf. fig. 390. 



I first took some specimens of this beetle in their egg-tunnels (which 

 \\vre not complete) several inches down in the wood of an Adina scssilifolia 

 tree on 22 January 1905 in the Kadin Bilin forests in Tharrawaddy. 

 I have no information as to how many generations the species passes 

 through in the year. 



I also took a specimen of this platypid tunnelling into the green branches 

 of a large rain-tree in the compound of one of the forest bungalows in the 

 Tharrawaddy Division. The modus operandi of the insect is very similar 

 to that in the Adina cordifolia already described. The beetle was found 

 down in the centre of the branch at the end of January 1905. 



The Adina cordifolia, the haldu of Northern India, is a wood of some 

 value, and therefore the attacks of an insect of this 

 description require to be well known. I have noticed 

 the attacks of a platypid, I think of a different species 

 from the Burma one, in the United Provinces forests, but so far it has not 

 become evident as a pest. The danger of the insect is that it infests and 

 requires absolutely fresh green timber for its ovipositing operations. Whilst 

 in Tharrawaddy, in company with Mr. R. S. Troup, at the time the 

 Divisional Officer, we had an excellent demonstration of this fact. We 

 carefully inspected a green living and apparently healthy standing tree 

 in the lower part of which a number of these platypids were tunnelling into 

 the timber. We could find nothing wrong with the tree, and yet a swarm 

 of the beetles had descended upon it, and many were already deep down in 

 the heart-wood, having tunnelled with impunity through the thick succulent 

 bark and the sappy sapwood. The freshly made tunnels were oozing with 

 sap, but this did not appear to incommode the insects. This particular 

 instance remains the most remarkable example of attack I have seen by 

 platypid beetles. About ten yards away a second green tree stood. It had 

 been cut half through but was still quite green, and the tree would have 

 in all probability lived in such a damp hot climate. The lower parts of 

 the trunk were, however, full of the tunnelling beetles. 



.he wood of A. cordifolia is an excellent one for turning, and is used for 

 a variety of purposes, such as articles of furniture, combs (in which there is a 

 considerable trade in the United Provinces), small boxes, agricultural imple- 

 ment^, etc. It will be readily acknowledged that logs infested by this insect 

 to any considerable extent would be quite unfit for any of the above purposes. 



of this insect when in any abundance is, fortunately, 

 fairly easily seen once the forester knows what to look 

 Treatment. for. The entrance-holes in the bark are usually dis- 



cernible, and beneath them on projections of bark may 

 be seen little masses of white or yellow sawdust, whilst at the foot of the tree 

 in cases of bad attacks, such as that observed by Mr. Troup and myself, masses 



