220 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVII. 



they have got inside. When bamboos are in lengths it will be found that the 

 beetles tunnel in them parallel to the long axis and form galleries which open 

 at one of the ends. The bamboo is thus often completely hollow in parts 

 without there being much outward evidence of its having been badly attacked. 

 This is more especially the case when the beetles have entered and left by the 

 same holes, made at one of the ends of the bamboo. A feature which greatly 

 adds to the insect's power of doing serious damage is to be found in the fact 

 that in the warmer parts of the country it passes through at least five, and 

 perhaps more, generations or life cycles in the year. I have said that the 

 insect lays about 20 eggs, and therefore one female beetle may produce 200,000 

 insects in the year on the supposition that only five generations are passed 

 through. 



Recommendations. 



(a) I am inclined to recommend soaking the bamboos for five days in 



water, since a thick shiny gelatinous substance exudes from the 

 bamboos during this process, and this exudation probably enables 

 the bamboo to absorb a larger quantity of oil than would be 

 otherwise the case. 



(b) That the bamboos be allowed to dry in a covered shed for several 



days after the water process. 



(c) That, after drying, the bamboos be soaked for 48 hours in common 



Rangoon oil. 

 A FURTHER NOTE ON THE PRESERVATION OF BAMBOOS 

 FROM THE ATTACKS OF THE BAMBOO BEETLES OR 

 SHOT-BORERS. 



In the Appendix Series of the Indian Forester [xxix — 12, (1903)]* some 

 notes were given upon the life-history of one of the minute bamboo beetles, or 

 " shot-borers " as they have been popularly called, and the question of the 

 preservation of the bamboo from their attacks was discussed. The effects of 

 the latter are well known. The insects tunnel into the stem and reduce its 

 wood-structure to powder. It is some years now since Mons. P. Lesne, of the 

 Paris Museum, at the request of the authorities of the Indian Museum 

 in Calcutta, examined sets of specimens of these beetles sent home to 

 him. Mons, Lesne reported that the smaller of the two beetles received was a 

 widespread insect known as Dinoderus winutus, the second of the two a species 

 unknown to science, which he named D. pilifrons. Up to the year 1903 it was 

 generally supposed that these two beetles worked in company and that they 

 were to be found distributed throughout India.f 



Although the researches which are being instituted into the life-histories, 

 habits and distribution of the two species are by no means complete, it has been 

 shown in the note to which allusion has been made above, that the beetle (almost 



* A note on the preservation of bamboos from the attacks of the bamboo beetle or '' shot- 

 borer." 



Indian Museum Notes. I, 43 ; III, 123 ; IV, 135 ; V, 166. Inj. Ins. Ind, For p 42. 



