34 APODERUS SP. 

proceeds about her egg-laying in the following manner. 
Usually the egg is deposited to the left hand of the midrib 
near the apex of the leaf. The leaf is then folded along the 
midrib, the surfaces on either side being turned inwards. The 
beetle then rolls the leaf tightly up from the apex downwards,. 
tucking in the outer edges, so that the ends on either side are 
symmetrical and. the whole forms a tight little roll. The end of 
the stalk where it expands into the blade of the leaf is then 
partially cut through, so that the little rolled-up mass hangs 
downwards. [In other cases the beetle cuts the leaf at a point 
about one-eighth or at most one-sixth of the length of the leaf 
above its juncture with the leaf stalk. This is done in two 
ways: either the leaf is cut through right across by a horizontal 
incision, only a small portion of the outer edge being left to 
support the cut portion or the beetle cuts through the leaf 
horizontally on either side of the nvidrib, starting on each side 
from the outer edge of the leaf and cutting inwards to the midrib 
which is only slightly notched, In each case the egg is laid in 
the same place and the leaf rolled upas above described. These 
little bundles containing each anegg hang down (see pl. EL, 
fig. 1, c), suspended by the portion of midrib still uncut or by 
the small portion of the outer edge of the leaf still intact, as 
the case may be; this small uncut portion soon dries up and the 
little rolls then fall or get knocked off and drop to the ground: 
(fig. 1,d). Ihave not yet been able to ascertain how many eggs. 
are laid by each beetle, but it is almost certain that more than 
one is laid, z.¢., that several leaves are so treated by the beetles- 
From the eggs a small grub will emerge which probably at first 
feeds upon the store of food thus provided by the mother beetle, 
subsequently penetrating into. the soil and changing into the 
pupal state. This is what happens in the case of the English 
leaf-rolling species Athynchites betule which rolls up birch 
leaves into a funnel-shaped structure in which several eggs are 
laid, 
‘this beetle resembles, in the performance of this marvellous 
piece of work, a closely related Indian confrére which treats 
the leaves of the Ban (Quereus tncana) and Moru (Quercus 
dilatata) oaks in a somewhat similar fashion. | 
