FAMILY PLATYPODIDAE 



627 



i 



Elytra smooth, finely punctate-striate, their apices produced into points in the female, concave 

 in male. Last abdominal segment pubescent. The thighs of the middle pair of legs fit into 

 sockets on the mesosternum. Length, J in. 



Egg. Very small, in shape like a hen's egg, translucent and 

 colourless, shining. Length, .4 mm. 



Larva. Not full-grown. White, legless, elongate, and not curved. 

 Length, -^ in. in largest specimens obtained. Fairly active. 



This beetle is to be found on the wing at the be- 

 ginning of August in Southern India, 



Life History. and lays its eggs in wood at this 

 period. On 6 August 1902 beetles' 



eggs and newly hatched larvae were discovered in the 

 wood of Shorea talura. The beetles bore circular tunnels 

 right down into the heart-wood of the Shorea. From 

 the lower part of these tunnels small offshoot galleries 

 at right angles to the main one are cut out, and the eggs 

 laid in these. The main tunnel appears invariably to 

 be bored right down into the heart-wood, and in the case 

 of a felled tree is bored vertically downwards through 

 bark and sapwood. The larvae are "ambrosia" feeders, 

 feeding upon a kind of fungus growing on the walls of the parent beetle's 

 tunnel. 



This beetle bores into comparatively fresh Shorea talnra wood. The 

 tree \vhich it was found attacking had been felled in the preceding April for 

 road-repair work. Until more is known about its life history its importance 

 in the forest cannot be determined. 



FIG. 396. Platypus 



talurae, Steb. Coim- 



batore, Madras. 



Platypus sp. nov. 



Habitat. Upper Burma. 



Tree Attacked. Wendlandia 

 Katha. 



tincloria. Kadu Hill, 



Beetle. Elongate, narrow, shining. Head and apices of elytra 

 black, thorax dark brown, elytra and legs yellowish brown, llr.nl 



punctate. Thorax smooth and shining ; finely 

 Description. and uniformly punctate. ; elytra widest at apical 



extremities, striate and punctate. I.en-th. 



3.8mm. As this insect is represented by a single individual only, Colonel 

 Winn Sampson is unwilling to describe it until more are procured. 



This insect was cut out of its tunnel deep in the wood 

 K-1 of a newly felled Wcndlaiidiu on the 



Hill, Katha. Life History. Kadu Hill in Katha on 21 February 



1905. It was engaged in eating out 



its egg-tunnel. I took only the one specimen of the insect. The wood 

 was fresh and sappy. 



R R 2 



\ 



Vic,. 397. 



