No. 1. ] 



Miscellaneous Notes. 



11 



Kill si Teak Borei\ 



In February 1890 were received from the Deputy Conservator of 



Forests^ Kamrup, Assam, specimens of 

 a boriug- insect which has proved de- 

 structive to young teak trees in the 

 Kulsi plantation. The insects were 

 found to be larvse of a Cerambycid 

 beetle, probably identical with the 

 species of Stromatium previously report- 

 ed as injurious in this locality. 



An imago also found in the Mu- 

 seum, marked " Kulsi Teak Borer," and 

 probably the insect described in a note 

 by Mr. A. G. Mein, wliich appeared in 

 the Indian Forester in 1879, has been 

 identified by Dr. Lameere as Stroma- 

 turn asperul7im,'S^\nie. According to 

 the account given by Mr. Mein in 

 1879, the insect had been noticed 

 since 1873. It chiefly attacks trees 

 that are in their first or second year's 

 growth, though trees five and six years 

 old are also attacked. The presence of 

 the borer is usually marked by a swel- 

 ling in the stem near the ground, and 

 below this swelling can often be seen 

 a small puncture from which excrement 

 of the grub protrudes. This puncture, 

 no doubt, represents the tunnel formed 

 by the young larva in boring its way 

 into the wood, from the spot where the 

 eg'g was previously laid by the mother 

 beetle in the bark. After a hot day 

 the affected trees tend to have a faded 

 appearance, but this symptom is not 

 always present, and some trees remain apparently healthy until the larva 

 has tunnelled so far into them that they snap off with the wind. The 

 swelling, which appears where the borer is at work, is thought to be due 

 to the efforts made by the tree to repair the damage, and to strengthen the 

 stem wliere it is being weakened. These efforts appear in many instances 

 to be successful, for tlie trees often recover. In 1877 the Forest Officer 

 of Gauhati collected some affected stems and reared the insect. He 

 obtained beetles in the end of June from logs which in March had con- 

 tained only larv93. But nothing further is known of the life history of 



the insect, beyond the fact that the larvae are to be found in young teak 



