18 Indian Museum Nofes. [ Vol. III. 



to 22iid of July, when a large number of flies emerged.. These filed proved 

 to be identical with a specimen in the Museum collection previously 

 identified by Mon^. J. M. F. Big-ot as closely allied to the species Daeus 

 ferrnginens Fabr., they were therefore pi'ovisionally named Dacns ferru- 

 ginens var. mnngifera. They have since been compared by Mr. O. E. 

 Janson with specimens in the British Museum and identified as belong- 

 ing to the species Dncus ferruginens Fabr. The insect is no doubt the 

 one reported on page 38 of Volume II of these notes as destructive to 

 mangoes in Mozafferpore. According, however, to the observations 

 of Messrs. Simmons and Bleehynden in Calcutta, the insect generally 

 confines itself^to over-ripe, injured, and decayin;i>: fruit; and it has been 

 suggested that its excessive multiplication in the present case may have 

 been due to previous injury to the mangoes by hail. 



1 he figure shows the imago and pupa, the natural size is indicated by 

 hair lines. 



In August 1891 a block of Mnkai wood {Shorea assamica) was 



received tlirough the Dehra Dun Forest 



Shorea assamica borers. o i i i? \^ -r\ x. r^ (.^ ^f 



Dchool, irom the Deputy Conservator oi 



Fo-i'ests, Lakhimpur Division^ Assam. It was found to be tunnelled in 

 all directions by CerambyeidEe iarvge. A full grown beetle emerged short- 

 ly after the block was received and proved to be closely allied to a speci- 

 men in the Museum collection determined by Dr. Lameere as Neocer- 

 amhyx holosericeus [=: jEolesthes /lolosericeus Gahati), It differs, however, 

 from this species in possessing a series of spineS on the antennae. A 

 specimen of the Cucujid Hectarihruri. hrevifossuvi Newm, also emerged in 

 the rearing cage from the same blocks and may perhaps prove to be 

 parasitic on the Cerambycid. 



With reference to the Baluchistan Poplar ^Egeriid [Sphecia ommatia- 



„ , formis Moore), Mr. J. Cleghorn writes in 



Poplar ^geriid. ..-, ,,, ni 



April 1891, that he is now only able to find 



half-grown caterpillars, and that these are situated between the bark 



and the wood. This tends to confirm the supposition that the insect's 



life cycle is an annual one, and that the egi^-s are laid in the autumn in 



the bark; the caterpillars would thus have time to get through the bark 



before the sap mounts in the spring, when they commence tunnelling 



into the heart of the wood. The percentage of attacked trees was found 



to be very much smaller in 1891 than in 1890, — a feature which Mr. 



Cleghorn attributes to the hardness of the winter of 189t)-91. 



In May 1891 the Conservator of the Forest School Circle forwarded^ 



from liis camp near Chakrata in the North- 

 Pinus excels;! SeolvticL w l ti- ^ ^ an- ? 



'' West Hiinahnas, a lo;;: ot Finns exctusa 



