QQ BEETLE PEST ON THE GAPIS ESTATE. 



days for a female ]>eetle to arrive at maturity after it leaves the 

 chrysalis. 



On May the 29th the same beetle laid an egg. It was 

 deposited on the bottom of the glass jar in which the insects 

 were kept. This was seventy -two days after it had reached the 

 imago or perfect stage. There is no way of telling whether 

 these times are the same in a state of nature as in captivity, 

 but it would seem that it may be safely assumed that it is an 

 insect which has a long life, which does not begin to lay until 

 some weeks after arriving at the adult form, and that it lays 

 eggs singly, with probably an interval of several days between 

 each. 



I had to leave Taiping on the 1st June so was obliged to 

 kill this particular insect. This was unfortunate as the chance 

 of finding out how many eggs a female lays was thus lost. 



My attempts at hatching the eggs were not successful, 

 though one was well advanced before it was accidentally 

 destroyed. The skin becomes excessively thin and tender after 

 a few 'days in damp earth, and the slightest touch is sufficient 

 to rupture it in this state. The egg is yellowish white, sym- 

 metrically oval in shape, and measures 0'07 by 0"04 inches. Its 

 surface is unsculptured and fairly smooth. 



In captivity the beetles are restless at night and appear to 

 move about a great deal more than in the day time. It is only 

 reasonable to infer that the female leaves the plant on which it 

 feeds at nights and deposits her eggs on or, more probably, in the 

 ground. I was unable to prove this by actual experiment, but 

 all of them were laid at night, and the extreme thinness of the 

 integument of the eggs makes it most improbable that they can 

 be laid in an exposed situation. It is also at night that all 

 the beetles bred have come out of the eartli. 



Briefly stated the life history of the insect would appear 

 to be as follows : — The egg is laid in a small hole in the surface 

 of the ground. On hatching the grub burrows into the soil and 

 lives on the well rotted roots and other vegetable matter con- 

 tained in it. Having attained a size of about three-quarters of 

 an inch in length it forms for itself a chamber in the earth 

 about two inches below the surface in which it undergoes its 

 metamorphosis. The perfect insect burrows its way out of the 

 earth at night and flies, probably the next day, in search of food. 

 Having found a tree on which it can live it stays on it while 

 there is any leaf to eat, the females leaving the food plant 

 from time to time to deposit their eggs in the ground. 



