FAMILY FLATYPODIDAE 



This insect was found by Ranger B. C. Sen Gupta at Wazirpur, in the 



Backerganj District in Bengal. The wood in which the 



beetles were found was, however, brought in boats from 



the Sundarbans, the latter place probably being the 



true habitat of the insect. 



This Diapns bores into the wood of both green and half-dry sundri. 

 It infests stacks of this wood in the Sundarbans, sometimes in large 

 numbers, and at times, according to Ranger Gupta, completely riddles 

 and spoils the timber. The presence of the bark on the wood is 

 immaterial, since the insect will burrow down into unbarked timber with 

 equal ease. 



Although the beetles were found in the Backerganj District it was 

 always in timber that had been brought from the Sundarbans forests, and 

 the beetle is probably indigenous to those forests (from which all the sundri 

 comes) and is carried about in the wood when it is exported. The timber 

 is always carried in boats, the latter proceeding through the various mouths 

 of the Hooghly River and their connecting network of canals to Calcutta 

 and the surrounding Eastern Bengal towns and villages. 



Diapus furtivus, Sampson, sp. nov. 



REFERENCES. Sampson, Ann. .Vd.c. \at. Hist. ser. 8, xii, 450 (1913); Stebbing (Diapns sp.), Ass. Sal 



Ins. Pests, For. Bull. no. u, p. 43 (1907). 



Habitat. Assam ; Central Provinces. 



Tree Attacked. Sal (Shoreu robnstci). Goalpara ; Banjar Valley, Mandla, 

 Central Provinces. 



Beetle. Minute ; ferruginous brown or black, shining ; elytra sometimes with yellowish 

 patches on the median portion. Head punctate, with front concave, the antennae inserted in 



a line almost parallel with upper edge of eyes ; 

 Description. at base of each antenna, on inner side, arises 



an oval excrescence, larger than eyes them- 

 selves, and covered with deep punctures ; a small bunch of bright 

 M-lliiw hair is placed at the centre of the epistoma, and smaller ones 

 at the apical frontal angles near the insertion of the mandibles. Thorax 

 oblmig, a very short basal median line with eleven large pores 

 irregularly placed on either side ; with very fine transverse striae on 

 posterior parts, the median area being smooth. Elytra with very 

 Mn.n-ly raised longitudinal ridges, which starting from the base 

 become stronger as they approach the apex, and are prolonged into 

 shorl l>lunt spines which project from the elytra at the point where the 

 latter are declined downwards at apical end. A prominent spine F 



from the median apical end of the elytra. This elytral fr r jtous amm 

 armature is only present in the $, the apical ends of elytra in $ being sp . nov. ' Assam! 

 truncaic and straight ; feebly lineate-punctate, the interstices flat with 



Last segment of abdomen in $ deeply concave and coarsely punctured 

 Length, <*> 3.5 mm. to 4 mm., $ 4 mm. 



