A FURTHER NOTE ON MONOPHLEBUS STEBBINGI. 321 
ee ee eee ee ee ees ge 
shows a number of these cast skins attached toa branch. It 
was at this stage that a check came this year (1902) to the 
attack. The enormous increase of the scale led to a similar 
increase of a coccinellid beetle which feeds upon the monophle- 
bus in koth its larval and imago stages. ‘The life history of this 
insect (see page 326) corresponds with that of the monophlebus 
in that the lady-bird reaches its imago and egg-laying stage at 
the same time that the sal tree white scale begins egg-laying. 
An examination of various forests in April and May showed 
that enormous numbers of the scales had :been killed off by 
the larvae and adults of the coccinellid. These operations 
were easily discernible. As they simply sucked the scales 
dry, the dead shrivelled skins were to be found attached to 
leaves, branches, and bark of the trees or on stones, dead leaves, 
fallen logs, and refuse on the ground beneath. Badly infested 
forests were full of the dead shrivelled skins of the victims of 
the beetle. Leaves and branches, etc., were stained with yellow 
blotches of the soft body contents of the coccid. I considered 
thatit was probable that at least 50 per cent. of the scales 
were killed off by the beetle between March and May, and the 
estimate is in all probability a low one. 
Figure 4, f, in the plate shows the way the mature female 
scales collect together on the stem when feeding. 
Distribution. 
As regards distribution, the scale may be said to have been 
almost general throughout the Dehra Dun (being present in 
Tirsal forest, where it had not been previously noticed, and 
also in the Moti Chur forests and in Thano) and Saharanpur 
Divisions. It was numerous in the Kalesar forest of the Simla 
Division until decimated by the coccinellid and equally plentiful 
in the small outlying Dhawala forest (Saharanpur Division) on 
the opposite side of the Jumna, 
It was also present in the sal forests to the east of the 
Ganges, though I am not aware in what abundance. 
Relations to the Forest. 
There can be no doubt that this insect, owing to the capa- 
bilities it possesses of increasing rapidly in enormous numbers, 
