428 
DUOMITUS LEUCONOTUS, Walker. 
Plate XXV, figs. a-e. 
References:—Hampson, F. B.I. Moths, I, 308 No. 660: Stebbing, J. A. S. 
B. LX XIII, Pt. I, 225 (1904). : 
Classification:—Order, LEPIDOPTERA... Sub-Order, HETEROCERA- 
Family Cosside, 
Tree attacked :—Cassia nodosa, 
Duomttus leuconotus is one of the wood-boring moths ber 
longing to the family Cossidz. Turning to Hampson’s Moths, 
in Blanford’s Fauna of British India, we find that but six genera 
of this family are at present known in India: Cossus, Duomt- 
tus, Azygophleps, Eremocossus, Phragmatecia and Zeuzera. 
This paucity in the known genera of the family is carried into 
the described species of which a list of but twenty-five are 
known, the numbers per family being as follows: Cossus 6, 
Duomitus 6, Azygophleps 5, Zeusera 5, Phragmatzcta 2 and 
Eremocossus 1. About the habits of the majority of these 
species little is known. It is probable that most, if not all, of 
the larvz live and feed in the wood of trees, and some of them 
may spend several years in this manner before changing to 
pupe. In most instances, however, neither the larve nor pupe 
have yet been discovered and described. While, however, this 
is the rule in the family, there are two notable exceptions, in 
each of these cases the insects being of economic importance. 
Duomitus niger, an insect closely allied to the species we are 
considering in this paper, is the moth whose larva is known as 
the ‘ Black-Borer ” of Coffee-planters, and has proved a source 
of considerable loss on Coffee estates, whilst Zeuzera coffez, the 
moth whose larva is known as the Red-Borer (called by 
Hampson White-Borer),* commits great destruction in Southern 
India and is a pest well-known to Coffee-planters. The life- 
histories and habits of these two insects are more or less well 
known. Of the other representatives of the family in the 


* The real “ White Borer” is the larva of a Cerambyx beetle. Vide my 
“ Note on the Sandal-wood-boring insects of Madras,” published inthe 
Appendix Series of the Jndian Forester, Vol. X XIX, No. 7 (1903). 
