THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 187 
of Micro-Lepidoptera respecting the pupation of the greater 
number of the Nepticulz, the larve of which live solitary as 
leaf-miners ; but if a number of leaves, containing larve, are 
collected and placed together in a box, it is found that the 
cocoons are constructed gregariously between certain leaves, 
without any apparent reason for the preference. 
Timber-boring Beetle-—Mr. Charles O. Waterhouse read 
the following note by Dr. Lamprey, Surgeon-Major of the 
67th Regiment, on the habits of a boring-beetle found in 
British Burmah. A specimen of the insect was exhibited, and 
also two portions of stem which had been operated upon. 
The insect was one of the Bostrichide, belonging to the 
genus Sinoxylon. “On examining the plants in my garden 
one afternoon, [ was struck with what appeared to be an 
injury done to one of the trees, the name of which I do not 
know,—this being the winter season, no blossom apparent, 
and nearly all the plants new tome. The branches of this 
particular tree are straight, grow upright, and are about half 
an inch to an inch in their diameter. One of the tallest of 
these branches, which reached to a height of about eight 
feet, was apparently broken and lying on the other branches, 
as if it was cut or broken off in a mischievous way. I was on 
the point of questioning the gardener about it, when I observed 
the leaves of another branch quite withered, and, on taking 
hold of it to bend it towards me, it snapped in a curiously 
brittle manner. Looking at where it was broken, I found the 
stem to be completely severed with a clean division, and that 
it was only kept together by the thin outer layer of the bark. 
Examining another branch, I found it snapped in an equally 
mysterious way, but in doing so a small black insect fell out 
of the broken part; it was too rapid in its movements, and I 
lost it. On further examination of the broken parts, and 
putting them into position again, I found a small circular 
opening, about the size of the hole in the gall-nut, and 
concluded that the insect I saw had eaten its way into the - 
stem, and by devouring the wood completely round, and not 
along its long axis, accounted for the fracture in this particular 
locality. Since then I have been on the watch to discover 
the insect, and have succeeded in securing two specimens ; 
one was found in the stem on breaking it across in the 
position of one of the external apertures: this specimen is 
somewhat injured by the loss of one of its elytra. The other 
