INSECT LIFE IN INDIA. 



433 



Towards the end of April at elevations of 5,000 feet the beetle has 

 been taken in decaying Betula cylindrostachys, Castunopsis tribuloides 

 and Symplaeos thecefolia trees. Imagoes were also taken in July, 

 the beetle probably passing the summer in this stage of its existence. 

 It was subsequently found that the insect was common between the 

 elevation of 4,500 ft. to 6,000 ft. in the Eastern Himalayas. In the 

 Western, in Jaunsar, the beetle has also been taken at the end of 

 April at an elevation of 5,000 ft. 



A third species of Lucanus, L. mearesi, is also to be found in the 

 Darjiling Himalayas. The insect was found cut out of the wood of 

 Symplocos thecefolia at elevations of 6,000 ft. 



A brightly coloured lucanid is the beetle Odotonlalis citvera, the 

 male of which is black with broad oran ge margins to the outer edge 

 of the elytra. It is figured in Plate III, Fig. 1. 



Fam. III. Scarabseidse— (Chafers.) 



In this family the leaflets of the antennae are freely-moveable plates 

 which can be opened and closed together at will by the insects 

 (Fig. 91 c). The number of visible ventral abdominal segments is 

 usually six or at the sides seven, never five as in the last two 

 families. The elytra (wing cases) usually leave one or two of the last 

 segments of the body exposed. 



The beetles of this family are bulky insects, having a powerful pro- 

 thorax and front legs with flattened spiny tibise adapted for digging, as 



shown in the insect Hoplosternus furcicandus, 

 a brownish silvery chafer from Sikkim, depic- 

 ted in Fig. 97, and better still in the case of 

 Scardbceus sacer (Fig, 99). At times the males 

 are armed with long horns of various shapes 

 growing out of the head and pro-thorax. 

 The larvae are often bulky grubs resembling 

 lucanid larvse in shape, that is the lower 

 extremity is enlarged in a bag-like manner 

 and curved round (see Fig. 89a). The 

 family is an important one amongst insects* 

 About 13,000 species are already known. 

 Both grubs and beetles feed upon plants, 

 decaying vegetation and dung. Several sub-families are distinguished 



Fig. 97.— A Chaf* r (Hop- 

 losternu? furcicandus) (Sik- 

 kim) showing the largely 

 developed frout tibise uhich 

 are nsed for digging pur- 

 poses. 



