INTRODUCTION. 



101 



Notes on Life-histories and Larvce. 



Remarks on the life-histories of several species are given here; 

 the first four species relate to India, the remainder to various 

 other countries. Following these notes is a section containing 

 more detailed descriptions of the larvse of several species, and then 

 a list of species of economic importance. 



India. 



Clitea picta, Baly. 



The following notes were made by C. S. Misra and T. Bainbrigge 

 Fletcher at Pusa (Agric. Res. Inst. Pusa, Bull. no. 89, 1919, 

 pp. 22-23 : and C. F. C. Beeson, 'Indian Forester,' Allahabad, xiv, 

 1919, pp. 312-323) :— 



The larvae burrow in the midribs of leaves, tender shoots, 

 spines, axils of branches and even occasionally in the young 

 setting fruits, whilst the adult beetles eat holes in the leaves, 

 which are often badly riddled. 



The larva is about 8 mm. long and about 1*5 mm. broad, 

 dorsally convex and ventrally compressed, of a dull-brown or 

 orange-yellow colour, with a flattened brownish head. Prothorax 

 with a brownish shield medially divided. Three pairs of jointed 

 legs. The eighth abdominal segment with a small dark patch 

 above between the spiracles. Anal plate dark, large, somewhat 

 concave above. Anal segment with a pair of ventral fleshy 

 processes, which assist in locomotion. Spiracles rounded, dark 

 rimmed. The larva bores longitudinally inside the twigs, etc., the 

 bored parts swelling to some extent and the position of the burrow 

 being marked by a transparent resinous exudation. 



Pupation takes place either within the larval burrow or in the 

 soil. In the case of some grubs kept in the Insectary in a glass 

 dish with about an inch of moist earth, when full-fed they left the 

 stems and went down into the earth until they reached the bottom 

 of the dish, where they formed rounded cocoons of earth with a 

 smooth interior. From three grubs which went into the earth on 

 10th June, 1908, one beetle emerged on the 15th and two on the 

 16th June. 



Longitarsus nigripennis, Motsch. 



The following is an abstract from notes made by Mr. T. V. 

 Ramakrishna Ayyar on the life-history of this beetle, published in 

 the ' Proceedings of the Third Entomological Meeting at Pusa,' 

 1919, vol. iii, p. 925 :— ^ »W* *e^> V- 



This insect does damage to cultivated black pepper {Piper 

 nigrum) in the pepper-growing tracts in North Malabar. The 

 eggs are laid singly, each being carefully thrust and glued into the 

 tissue just underneath the skin of the green pepper- berry, usually 

 near the attachment of the berry to the spike. Only one egg is 

 deposited in each berry. To find the egg one has to open the 



