138 SHORT NOTES. 



Rambong Beetle. 



From two localities in ?elangor specimens of a common 

 longicorn beetle Batocera octomactdata and its grub have been 

 sent, as serious pests destroying the India-rubber tree, Rambong, 

 Ficus elastica. The grub over two inches long bores up the 

 stem of the tree, while the beetle itself gnaws the bark, bites 

 off the buds and then proeeeds to demolish the leaves, eating 

 them quite voraciously. The grub is when full grown about 

 two inches and a half long and a quarter of an inch wide, 

 flattened soft and white except for its hard brown chitinous 

 head and the upper surface of the first two segments. Like all 

 longicorn grubs it has no feet. It makes the usual tunnels 

 elliptic in section through the length of the larger boughs and 

 trunk of the tree, and also attacks in the same way Ficus indica 

 and the Waringin, F. Benjamina, and probably others of our 

 wild figs. It pupates in the tube it has made, and eventually 

 hatches out into a handsome large beetle, one and a half to two 

 inches long, without the antennae. The head is brown, with 

 large eyes and powerful jaws. The antennae, fairly stout, 

 longer than the body, dark brown, and rough with short pro- 

 cesses in the lower surface. The thorax, short and broad with 

 a conic thorn on each side, is dark brown with two red crescents 

 in the centre. The elytra three quarters to an inch and a 

 quarter long, oblong, blunt, broadest at the shoulder, dark brown 

 with black shining raised dots in the upper part near the shoul- 

 der, smooth below. There are four pair of white spots on the 

 elytia, the uppermost pair small and round, the next larger and 

 more or less oblong sometimes with an extra white spot rear 

 the upper edge, the next pair nearly as large, the lowest pair 

 much smaller. The form and size of the spots vary, but appear 

 to be always eight. The scutellum is also white. The under 

 surface of the body is light brown and a broad white stripe runs 

 on each side, from behind the eye to the tail. The legs are 

 powerful, over an inch long, and brown. The beetle feeds 

 during the day, and also moves about at night. It is attracted 

 by light and often flies into the house after dark. Like most 

 longicorn beetles it squeaks loudly when caught and it can also 

 bite severely. The amount of injury a beetle of this kind could 



