110 Indian Museum Notes. [ y I # JJJ 4 



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES FROM THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SECTION. 



BY E. C. COTES, DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT, INDIAN 



MUSEUxM. 



An interesting longicorn was forwarded through the Madras Mu- 



_'. ., , . seum in November 1892, bv the Collector of 



Girdler longicorn. . ' - 



Kurnool, with the information that it had 

 been noticed cutting rings of considerable depth and about an inch in 

 diameter completely around the branches of a Tabernaemontana alba tree. 

 The specimen has been identified through the kindness of Mr. C. Gahan, 

 of the British Museum, as a female of the species Sthenias grisator, 

 Fabr. Mr. Gahan notices that the male may be distinguished from tbe 

 female by a small process projecting obliquely upwards from the base 

 of each of the mandibles in front of the elypeus. He adds that the 

 British Museum possesses a specimen taken more than thirty years ago 

 neat- Coimbatore which bears a ticket with the following note — " gnaws 

 the bark of shrubs and is very destructive/' 



The same species was subsequently forwarded to the Indian Museum 

 in January 1893 through tbe Imperial Forest School. In this case it 

 was obtained by the Deputy Conservator of Forests, Coorg, who wrote : — 



" These beetles cut off the stem clean in one night Large rose trees 



are thus cut down and destroyed. It is incredible that a small insect 

 like the one I send can do such damage, and I would not have believed 

 it had I not seen their ravages myself..... ..I got them this morning 



from off the rose bushes they had destroyed. They attack the main stem 

 and despise smaller branches." 



The rose stems forwarded with the insects ranged from three quar- 

 ters to half an inch in diameter, and were cut completely off with re- 

 markable neatness. The parent insect no doubt girdles the shoot with 

 a view to afterwards laying its eggs above the notch. The habit is one 

 that has been noticed with other species of the same family, and ex- 

 emplifies the fact that withering trees are the ones most frequented by 

 longicorn borers, the supposition being that a vigorous flow of sap is 

 liable to choke the larva in its burrow. 



A good deal of damage was reported in the early part of the rains of 

 1893 as done to tea in the Darjiling district 



A new Psychid. . ' ... 



by a species or case-making caterpillar. 

 The insect was forwarded to the Museum on the 27th June through the 



