Indian forest insects of economic importance Coleoptera . resembled those of Cyrtotrachelus lon^ifics inthe Melocanna bamboo in the Chittagong Hill Tracts described above. Shoots of 3 ft. to 4 ft. in height are attacked and killed by the insect, andmay be found standing upright and dead in the forest, a large round hole atone side showing where the imago had left the bamboo when mature. In-side the upper portion of the bamboo is entirely hollow, the interior hivingbeen eaten away. The local native forest officials and villagers appeared to be wellacquainted with the insect infesting this bambo
Indian forest insects of economic importance Coleoptera . resembled those of Cyrtotrachelus lon^ifics inthe Melocanna bamboo in the Chittagong Hill Tracts described above. Shoots of 3 ft. to 4 ft. in height are attacked and killed by the insect, andmay be found standing upright and dead in the forest, a large round hole atone side showing where the imago had left the bamboo when mature. In-side the upper portion of the bamboo is entirely hollow, the interior hivingbeen eaten away. The local native forest officials and villagers appeared to be wellacquainted with the insect infesting this bamboo, the tunnelling work insidebeing done by a large yellowish-vvhite grub. In the rains the people are saidto search in the shoots for this grub and to eat it with relish, a habit common,I believe, to the inhabitants of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in the case of theC. longipes grubs. I think there is every probability that this larva, which unfortunately Ihave not yet been able to procure, will prove to be a weevil one, and it is 444 FAMILY CURCULIONIDAE. FIG. Palm Weevil(Rhynchophorus ferrn-•eits, Oliv.). India. possible that the insect is a species of Cyrtotrachelus. The local forestofficials should be able to settle this point without much difficulty by col-lecting some infested bamboo shoots towards the latter part of the rains andkeeping them until the beetles emerge. genus contains a well-known weevil pest in India. Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, Oliv.(The Palm Weevil.) REFERENCES.—Oliv. Encycl. Meth. v, 473; Ent. v, 83, p. 79, t. 2,fig. :6rf; Ind. Mus. Notes, ii, S. Habitat.—India and Ceylon. Trees Attacked.—Coco-nut (Cocos nucifera); ToddyPalm (Phoenix sylvestris); Date Palm (Phoenix dacty-lifera). Beetle.—A large, stout, elongate, red - brown, shining weevil,furnished with an elongate proboscis, longer in female than in male, on which the elbowed antennae are set Description. on the basal half; the thorax is convex, smooth, with five black
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbeetles, bookyear1914
