17S JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HI^ST. SOCILTl, Vol. XXVIL 



In Lieut.-Colonel Bingham's book, Volume II, Butterflies, page 9, it is 

 recorded 



" The larva of this magnificent butterfly, according to Mr. Knyvett, 

 feeds on Dlmime nipaleiisis, but so far as I know no description of it has 

 been published". 



I trust to get hold of some larva this year as well as the larva of other 

 interesting Papilios. 



OSCAR LINDGREN. 

 TuRzuM Tea Estate, Nagkispur p. o., 

 Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, 



April 1920. 



No. XXIV.— LIFE HISTORY OF THE " BUPRESTID " LEAF 



MINER {TRACRYS BLCOLOR, KERREMANS) 



A PEST ON BUTEA FRONDOSA IN MYSORE. 



[With a plate). 



Introduction : — Butea frondosa trees (Dhak or Palas) are subject to the 

 attack of several insects, viz., leaf eating caterpillars falling under Limaco- 

 dids, Lycsenids and Sphingids, Coleopterous insects such as snout beetles 

 or weevils, and Buprestid beetles and pentatomid bugs. All the above are 

 only very minor pests excepting the Buprestid Beetle — a leaf miner — which 

 is assuming the form of a serious pest in the majority of the places where 

 Butea are found in Mysore State. The injury to the plants consists in 

 that the adult beetles feed on the leaves of the plant and that the 

 grubs pass their life as leaf miners feeding on the leaf tissue and forming 

 regular pockets in the leaves, the leaves having a blistered appearance. 

 Almost all the leaves of a plant are affected, they are unable to perform 

 their normal functions, and they look quite dry without even a tinge 

 of green matter and as a consequence many of the plants kept under 

 observation for 4 or 5 years have never made any appreciable growth at 

 all on account of this. 



The adult. This beetle is a small oval wedge shaped creature, the head 

 and thorax being of a bronzy colour, the rest of a steel blue colour, with 

 4 or 5 wavey white lines marked across the elytra. It measures 5"25-5'5mm, 

 lengthwise and 3'25-35 mm. at the broadest part. The beetles are hard to 

 recognize on the plants as they cover themselves up with their excreta and 

 thus resemble the droppings of some small birds. The beetles are com- 

 monly found on the plants from about the end of April or the beginning of. 

 May and egg-laying and continuous breeding begins from now and con- 

 tinues up to about February-March There occur as many as. 4 or 5 broods 

 in a year. 



Oviposition. The female beetle moves about the upper surface of the 

 leaves before egg laying and. when a spot is selected at the angle 

 formed by the junction of one of the veins with the midrib on the upper 

 surface of the leaves it first scrapes the epidermis of the leaf with .the. 

 mouth parts, lays an egg and then covers it with the dirty white excreta 

 with which the beetle is covered. The flattened oval eggs are Jaid singly 

 as well as in groups of 2 or 3, sometimes 4 or 5 on the upper surface 

 of the leaves. When the eggs are laid in groups they are usually laid 

 overlapping one another. 



T/te Egg. The newly laid egg is colourless, flat, oval and measures 

 1-75 mm. to 2-25 mm. at its long axis and 1-25 mm. to 1-75 mm. at its 

 short axis. The egg remains colourless for 5 days and on the 6th day it 

 turns to a shining black colour and now the dirty white excreta with which 

 the egg is covered is plainly distinguishable. 13 days after the egg 

 turns to black, i.e., 19 days from egg-laying, the egg hatches out. 



