268 CRYPHALUS LONGIFOLIA, MS. 

and so it has no difficulty in making its entrance into the 
branch unobserved. On reaching the bast layer a_ small 
irregular-shaped chamber is bored by the beetles, indenting 
both sapwood and bast (see Pl. XVI, fig. 7, b, c (p)). I have 
always found two beetles at work making this excavation, and 
never more than two, the male helping the female. I am unable 
to say whether pairing takes place before or after this chamber 
is complete, but as soon as there is room in it for the two 
beetles, two will be found together. Round the sides of the 
chamber little indentations are cut (fig. 7, b (e)). By the time 
the shallow excavation is complete it has become full of white 
powdery wood-dust and the eggs are laid either loosely in this 
or in the indentations. At this period only one beetle is 
present in the egg-chamber. Galleries were found in this con- 
dition at the beginning of July. Further than this J have not as 
yet been able to carry the life history, but from an examination 
of old twigs and branches it appears that the Jarve mine out 
winding galleries in the bast and sapwood as shown in fig. 7,c 
(2). 
There is at least a third and possibly a fourth generation 
of the beetle in the year. From some branches taken to Dehra 
the writer bred out beetles in the middle of September and others 
may have issued in August since dead beetles were found in the 
breeding box which, owing to absence on tour, was not opened 
in that month. 
Locality from where reported: 
The beetle was first discovered in company with the long- 
needled pine Polygraphus at Taklesh in the Bashahr State, 
being obtained the following year numerously in the Jaunsar 
Division, both situated in the North-West Himalayas. Eleva- 
tions between 2,000 and 3,000 ft. 
~ Relations to the Forest. 
This beetle, though very minute, has the power of increasing 
in large numbers and must therefore be included amongst the 
pests of the pine. The tops of saplings and branches are the 
parts of the tree it infests, the cambium layer being entirely 
riddled by the borings of the beetles themselves and the 
