ms.] lyO 



to me " and forgotten ; I owe its identitication to my friend Dr. M. 

 Cameron, to whom the specimen was sent with some other puzzles. He 

 has compared it with several examples of T. impressus named by 

 M. Fauvel. There is little doubt tliat others will be found in our 

 collections mixed with elongatulus^ now that the differences have been 

 pointed out. 



13 Oppidans Road, N.W. 3. 

 August I5th, 1918. 



A NOTE ON THE HABITS OF A MELANOPHILA (BUPBESTIDAE) 

 AND OTHER INDIAN COLEOPTERA. 



BY H. G. CHAMPION, I.F.S., F.E.S., 

 Divisional Forest Officer, W. Almora Divn., U.P., India. 



Having spent a good deal of time some years ago in the pursuit of 

 Melanophila acuminata near my old home in Surrey, and remembering 

 the statements currrent about " fire-bugs " in N. America (beetles 

 belonging to the same genus), I have been interested in the species 

 occurring in the pines {Pinus longifolia) in the Forest-division to 

 which I am at present attached. A few specimens of the insect in 

 question have been bred from pupae found in the outer bark of dead 

 or dying trees, but this note is concerned with the adult rather than 

 with its earlier stages. 



For some months past it has been part of my duty to supervise the 

 erection and working of a small "plant" in the forest for the production 

 of Stockholm tar from highly resinous stump-wood. The " plant" con- 

 sists of iron retorts enclosed in masonry kilns ; at one end is a series of 

 iron pipes and tanks for the collection of the products of the distillation, 

 whilst at the other end wood fuel is fed into the fm*naces. This place 

 has been visited by me three times during the last six weeks — once in 

 the hot weather, once at the break of the monsoon, and once in the 

 rains — and on each occasion specimens of a Melanophila have been cap- 

 tured flying about the '•' plant " and setthng on and running over the tarry 

 pipes and tanks (which were almost too hot to touch) and on the heated 

 masonry. Of the six examples brought back on the occasion of my last 

 visit, all appear to be males, though there is much variation in size. 



It may be stated that although there are large stacks of fairly fresh 

 pine-fuel not far off, the Melanophila is not to be seen on them, but 

 Buprestis {Ancglocheira) geometrica is frequent there, as well as an 

 occasional Capnodis indica. The last-named species is commoner in 

 the spring and hot weather, being now in the larval stage, and it is 



