126 
SPICES 
CHAP. 
colour, almost black. It is very convex above and has 
a small, bent-down head, sunk in the throat and orna- 
mented with a brush of yellow hairs. The antennae are 
clubbed, the tip of the club being whitish. The elytra 
is strongly ribbed, with a row of raised dots between 
each rib. The other beetle is rather larger. It 
deposits its eggs beneath the bark of the tree, either 
at the base of the trunk below the ground or in the 
branches. The very small white grub attacks the 
cambium layer between the bark and the wood. When 
it attacks the branches it burrows at the base of the 
twigs, cutting away the cambium where the twigs join 
the main branch. In this case the twigs die speedily, 
and the leaves do not fall, but dry on the twig, and 
boughs may be seen with all the lower twigs dead and 
bearing dry leaves while the upper twigs are still alive. 
After burrowing round the base of the twig the grub 
often bores into the centre of the woody part. 
The beetle remains for some time, even weeks, in the 
boughs and will, unless destroyed, attack other parts of 
the tree. 
The subterranean portion of the trunk is next 
attacked, and sometimes even before the boughs show 
any signs of the presence of the beetle. 
Usually the injury to the base of the tree is over- 
looked till the disease has reached above-ground, when 
it is almost too late to save the tree. Hence it is 
commonly said that the tree dies in ten days after it 
is attacked. 
In Collingwood’s description of the destruction of 
the trees in Penang and Singapore in 1860 , which was, 
I have little doubt, caused by this pest, it is said that a 
tree would be attacked in the night, and in the morning 
the topmost branches would be withered. In reality, 
doubtless the tree had been attacked weeks before, 
perhaps months, but the injury was not noticed till the 
tree was at the point of death. 
As the beetles work away from the parts of the tree 
they have killed into still living parts, many other 
