INDIAN FOREST RECORDS. 
Vol. VI. 
Part I. 
THE LIFE-HISTORY OF DIAPUS FURTIVUS, 
SAMPSON ( Platypodidae .) 
BY 
C. F. C. BEESON, M.A. (OXON.) 
Zoologist , Forest Research Institute, ‘Dehra T)un. 
PREVIOUS HISTORY OF THE SPECIES. 
The first specimens of the insect were taken by Mr. E. P. Stebbing 
in Sal trees in Assam, and are referred to in Forest Bulletin No. 11, 44 On 
some Assam Sal insect pests” (Stebbing,* 1907, p. 42) under the name 
of No. 23, Diapus sp. (238—1906), and an illustration of the beetle 
is given on Plate VI, fig. 10. Further specimens were taken in Sal 
in the Central Provinces in 1909. 
In December 1912 Mr. J. R. P. Gent, Assistant Conservator of 
Forests, sent specimens of this beetle to Dehra Dun with a report that 
a large number of Sal in Buxa Division, Bengal, were dying from an 
unascertained cause, and that the dead trees were found to be full of 
larvae and beetles of this species. Sometimes isolated trees were 
attacked, and sometimes three or four trees fairly close together; the 
mortality was not confined to one block but occurred scattered through¬ 
out the division. 
The material mentioned above was examined by Colonel Winn- 
Sampson, at the British Museum and assigned by him to two new species 
of Platypodidae, Diapus furtivus, n. sp., and Diapus mirus, n. sp. (Winn- 
Sampson, 1913, pp. 450—452), but as the writer has pointed out in 
another paper (Beeson, 1915, pp. 298—299) one species only is repre¬ 
sented, Diapus mirus being the female of Diapus furtivus. 
* All references will be found under author and year in the Bibliography at the end. 
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