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Indian Forest Records. 
[VoL. I. 
that he can and then to send them to the Quetta Museum. This species 
is far more destructive than the borer. It appears to attack dry trees as 
well as green ones, and in the latter the larvae were invariably found 
among those of the Polygraphns Trenchi. In dry trees they leave a 
clear cut hole extending far into the wood which looks as if a rook rifle 
bullet had been fired into it. The Forester was unable this season to 
watch the life history of the insect as his time was fully occupied in 
other work. But next year he should make a special study of it. In 
some parts of the forest there are large numbers of old holes made by 
this species but not many living specimens were found. They were, 
however, discovered in both old and new Shinghar.” 
The above note on the position of the Shinghar Forest at the end of 1907 
is one of great value since it is only by constant systematic and consecu- 
tive observation that it will be possible to really understand the periodic 
attacks of these bark-boring pests. That the long drought had, as Cap- 
tain James suggests, a considerable influence upon the increase of the 
beetles in the forest is extremely probable. It is, however, by no means 
so certain that the cessation of this drought would have been followed by 
a diminution of the beetle attacks. Once a pest of this particularly de- 
structive family of beetles has obtained the upper hand in a forest to the 
degree it had secured at Shinghar in 1905, if unchecked, the disappearance 
of the forest may be looked for as an almost foregone conclusion. I am of 
opinion that the state of affairs observed by Captain James during 1907 
was a direct result of the steps taken by Lieutenant. Colonel Chevenix- 
Trench and Bhai Sadhu Singh in 1905-06, aided doubtless by the re- 
occurrence of the rains. The wholesale felling was a regrettable 
necessity rendered imperative by the very natural failure, in the absence 
of any Imowledge on the subject of the life histories of the pests in question, 
to realize in time what was taldng place in the forest. The heavy fellings 
in the avenues in Quetta were rendered necessary for just such a sirnilar 
reason.* The objections of the Arozai and Haripal owners of the forests 
were foreseen at the time the remedy was prescribed, but as the alternative 
to be faced was the complete disappearance of the forest it was thought 
better, in the interests of the owners themselves, to whom the attack on 
the trees was practically demonstrated in June 1905, to take the one 
step which would have the best chance of checking the beetles. 
The method of smearing coal tar and kerosine over the bark and 
setting it ahght devised by Captain James is somewhat drastic but it is 
apparently effective. I should doubt, however, its being necessary since 
from his account the beetles would appear to have been reduced to the 
numbers ordinarily present in the forest. It is important, however, 
* Vide my Note on the Quetta-Borer {JEolestkes sartus). Forest Bulletin No. 2, 
1905, Government of India Press, Calcutta. 
