INDIAN FOREST RECORDS. 
Vol. II ] 
1909. 
[Part. I. 
On Some Insect Pests of the Himalayan Oaks 
(Quercus dilatata and Q/. incana). 
GENERAL. 
In the year 1H68 a small pamphlet entitled Insects destructive to Woods 
and Forests ■”* from the pen of Mr. R. Thompson, lately Conservator (then 
Assistant Conservator) of Forests, was issued by the Government of the 
United Provinces. This small brochure was the first thing of its kind to 
appear and showed its author to be possessed of remai'kable powers of 
observation, although the system of classification adopted renders the 
identification of many of the insects dealt with a matter of some difficultv. 
Whilst there is much that is absolutely correct in every detail in the small 
monograph, a note on the subject of pests infesting the oak trees at Xaini 
Tal would appear to have been written in the absence of that first hand 
knowledge from personal observation which is so apparent elsewhere in 
the pamphlet. 
Writing on the subject of the Li^canida or Stag beetles iMr. Thompson 
stated The Stag beetles are both numerous and common in individuals 
and are, of the whole order of wood beetles, the most destructive to liv'ing 
trees. Some idea may be formed of the ravages of these insects when it is 
stated that the larvse live from three to four years in that state in the 
interior of the trunks of oaks, and that barely one in ten of the trees to be 
met Avith in Naini Tal does not bear the marks of their ravages. These 
* Report on Insects destructive to Woods and Forests, bj’ R. Thompson, Assistant 
Conservator, Garhwal Forests. (Allahabad Governroent Press, North-Western Provinces, 
1868 .) 
