CRYPHALUS (?) DEODARA, MS. 275 

ther sap proceeding up the tranchlet, which accordingly begins 
to die and thus provides a suitable supply of food for the young 
larvz hatching out from the eggs laid by the beetle tn the 
branch above the girdle. The reason why I think it probable 
that the branch is girdled and the eggs laid in the spring is that 
the young new needles of the year had developed on the ringed 
twig to a certain extent before they began to wither and die. 
Further, the wood of the twigs was still comparatively fresh 
instead of being dead and rotten as would have been the case 
had the ringing been done the previous year. The eggs are 
laid near the girdle and the larve mine up the twig [fig. 2, b 
(2)}. On becoming mature, the beetle bores its way out of the 
branchlet by a short gallery at right angles to its long axis [see 
fig. 2, b (3)]. | 
An examination of many of the persistent dead twigs showed 
the planof action of the beetle. Low down near the base was the 
girdle above but near to which the egg or eggs ate laid. Inside 
the twig galleries will be found running up and down the wood, 
made by the feeding larvae, and on the outside one or more 
holes of exit show where the beetles have left the stem. The 
larva apparently min¢s all round in the outer wood of the twig 
leaving a central core and this, in old twigs, remains often as a 
small hard splinter, whilst the shell of bark and wood powder 
crumbles to dust under one’s fingers. In small twigs I never 
found more than one beetle, but in the larger, several were 
present, and in large, dry attacked twigs I noticed several holes 
of exit. From this I conclude that in small twigs but one egg 
is laid, while in the case of larger ones several eggs are de- 
posited under the smali flakes of rough bark. Whether these 
are laid by the same beetle or not has yet to be determined. In 
Plate XVII, fig. 2, b (4), a small branca is shown which has been 
girdled in several places by this beetle. The needles had 
turned yellow and were dropping off. 
Area from which reported. 
This insect was discovered by the writer at the beginning of 
June in the Nagkela Forest, Kotgarh, Bashahr Division, at an 
elevation of about 6,000 feet in the North-West Himalayas. 
