PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIED ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 



92 



The larval period may thus be put rouglily to be from two to four 

 months. Pupation has not been observed in nature ; probably it is in 

 the soil or some other place outside the stem because all the grubs reared 

 in captivity came out of the stem when they were full-grown and pupated 

 outside. 



Pujia. This is of the typical Lamiad type. It is yellow in colour 

 and 20-25 mm. long. The appendages of the head and the thorax are 

 folded together on the ventral side inside the exceedingly thin and trans- 

 parent pupal skin. A day or two after pupation the eyes get dark. The 

 colour of the pupa changes gradually from yellow to brown and after 

 a week the pupal skin is cast off and the adult emerges. 



On emerging from the pupal skin the beetle is dull and Soft to the touch. 

 In a day or two the body gets hard and the beetle begins to move about 

 and feed on the bark of the moringa stem. 



These observations were made by me at the Insectary of the Agri- 

 cultural College, Coimbatore, under the guidance of M. R. Ey. T. V. 

 Eamakrishna Ayyar Avargal, the Acting Government Entomologist 

 of Madras, and I take this ojjportunity of tendering him my heart-felt 

 thanks for the valuable suggestions he gave me during my mvestigations. 



The habit of emergence from the stem to pupate elsewhere, at the Mr. Fletcher, 

 conclusion of the larval period, is most unusual in a Lamiad beetle. 

 Further observations on this point, under natural conditions, appear 

 desirable. 



C7.— NOTES ON THE LIFE-HISTORY OF THE POLLU FLEA- 

 BEETLE (LONGITARSVS NIGRIPENNIS, MOTS.) OF PEPPER. 



Bij T. V. Eamakrishna Ayyar, B.A., F.E.S., F.Z.S., Actinrj Government 

 Entomologist, Madras. 

 The subject of this paper is a flea-beetle which is found causing 

 some damage to cultivated black pepper {Pifer nigrum) in the pepper- 

 growing tracts of North Malabar. 



