MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 611 



recorded previously. Another orange cerambycid beetle, Chlovidolum alcmene, 

 Thorns, is recorded from Coorg and Assam but, from an examination of 

 specimens reared in the laboratory at Nagpur, it appears that Stromatium 

 barbatum, Fabr., is a common beetle in the Central Provinces. 



These insects live principally in the dead wood of trees making galleries 

 and as they proceed, tunnelling, the hind portions of the galleries become 

 tightly packed with wood dust and excreta. The larvae usually pupate in 

 the galleries near the outer bark, which is found to be bored with oval holes 

 when the beetles have emerged. There is only one record, noted by 

 Stabbing, of a green tree being infested by this insect, i.p., in the Kulsi 

 Teak plantation in Assam ; the present writer has however recently 

 extracted a larva (believed to be that of Stromatium but not bred) from a 

 green branch of an orange tree. This larva was found in a hole, which had 

 been bored by the caterpillar borer of the orange trees, viz., Arbela. 



The most interesting feature of the adult beetle is that in the male, the 

 side of the prothorax has a patch of silky brownish hairs. 



The beetles emerge in June and July and after mating begins to deposit 

 eggs during a period of from a week to a fortnight, after which both the 

 males and females die. The eggs are invariably deposited, not openly on 

 the bark of the tree, but always in the cracks. These cracks may be caused 

 either by splitting up the bark or through some injuries to the stem. The 

 females after mating may be seen sitting near such crevices as afford a 

 natural and safe place of egg deposition or the female thrusts in the eggs in 

 small pits, etc. 



The eggs are white in colour, pointed at one end and blunt at the other ; 

 measure 2'o m/m. in length and 1 m/m. in breadth, in shape oval, broader in 

 the middle, and a little flattened at the sides with the blunt end exposed 

 whenever the eggs are deposited in pits or cracks on the bark. They turn 

 greyish before hatching, which takes place, not by any regular splitting of 

 the egg shell, but the larva comes out at any place. Hatching of the eggs is 

 not regular but may go on for a long time. In the laboratory some eggs 

 hatched very soon after being deposited, while some remained over three 

 months. A small whitish grub about 2 m/m. long and 5 m/m. broad hatches 

 out and very soon begins to tore into the wood. The brown mandibles, 

 though short are very powerful. Since the whole larval development of 

 the insect is practically confined to the wood, observations on moulting, etc., 

 can hardly be made correctly. 



The full-grown larva is 25-30 m/m. long, stout, whitish, with a brownish 

 patch on the prothorax, mouth-parts deep brown, mandibles black. The 

 prothorax is much swollen and wrinkled, the head retractile in the fleshy 

 prothorax. The grubs eat out winding tunnels, which are blocked with saw 

 dust and excreta. When full-fed they pupate in a short length of tunnel, 

 which curves to a certain extent. The work of these larvae, as also of the 

 mature beetles as they gnaw through the wood, can often be heard and on 

 the stem several holes are bored on the exterior, showing the places from 

 which the beetles have emerged. 



As regards the duration of a life cycle of this beetle little can be said de- 

 finitely. In one instance a tree was kept under observation. It was cut up 

 leaving a stump 3 ft. long above the ground. For some time the tree sprout- 

 ed well but afterwards died. After eighteen months the stem was removed 

 from the ground and brought to the Laboratory. The attack of this beetle 

 was ascertained from the holes or tunnels which reached as far as the cut 

 end. Within a space of 6 months time, during May and June beetles began 

 to emerge and so much so that about 20 beetles emerged from a 3- ft. stem, 

 The stem was then split open, but a few larvae in different stages ' of deve- 

 lopment were still found in the tunnels, 

 29 



