The larva of the Coleoptera are armed with formidable jaws for the manducation of the solid portions of wood upon which they feed.
The larva, of the 13uprestida, beetles of brilliant colours, after acquiring maturity, born into tho timber to the depth of two or three inches, and then undergo their metamorphosis. These beetles often render timber unfit for use. They have been found in the living Acacia catechu, the Vatica robusta, mango trees, and the Pinus longifolia. They commence underneath the bark.
The lame of a species of linprestis was found by Mr. R. Thompson boring two or three inches into felled logs of sal (Vatica robusta), in the Kotree Doon. He found also another buprestis in the dead timber of a living Acacia catechu tree, and another in the trunk of a living mango tree. A small buprestis of a shining colour is frequently found in the timber of the Cheer pine, Pinus longifolia, quite destroying the logs. It is only in the bark that the females can deposit their eggs, the sapwood and newly-formed bark afford ing the larva nourishment; and to protect felled timber, the bark should be removed as soon as the tree is felled.
The stag-beetles, species of Lucanus, in India are numerous, and common as to individuals, and are, of the whole order of wood-beetles, the most destructive to living trees. Their larvae live for three or four years in the interior of trunks of oak, and about Naini Tal barely one in ten of the trees escape their ravages. These and the larva of Prionus beetles seem exclusively to attach themselves there to the oak as their habitation. They bore to the heart of the stem, in winding passages. In felled logs they are easily killed by immersing the logs in water, or by pouring boiling water into the apertures.
The Lucanus cervus males often fight for the possession of the female. Their mandibles are prolonged into long horns. Two males will ap proach, and, entwining their mandibles, try to lift each other off their feet. Accomplishing this, the victor carries off the conquered to a distance of several feet, and then returns to the female.
Male stag-beetles have been found feeding on the renewed bark (after shaving) of Cinchona succirubra trees, in Maskeliya, Ceylon. The female has much shorter mandibles, and is said to use them in forming a hole in the trunks of trees for the reception of its eggs. Westwood says (i. p. 187) the perfect insect feeds on the honey-dew upon the leaves of the oak ; they also feed upon the sap exuding from the wounds of trees, which they lap up with their finely-ciliated maxillae and lower lip. It has been supposed that the larva of this insect, which chiefly hides in the willow and oak, remaining in that state several years, is the animal so much esteemed by the Romans as a delicacy, and named Tho injury which it causes is often very considerable, boring not only into the solid wood, but also into the roots of the tree. The stag-beetle received
from Maskeliya was a malowith immense mandibles, and greatly resembled Lucanus cervus, the com mon stag-beetle of Europe.
The Euchirus beetles, species of the Lamelli cornea, are said to have habits similar to their congener the stag-beetle, Lucanus cervus.
Euchirus longimanus, the long-armed chafer of Amboyna, drinks the sap of the sugar-palms. It is a sluggish insect.
The Xylophagi, xylophagous beetles or wood eaters, Bostrichus, Tomicus, and species of Hyle sinus, called Ghoon or Giffin by the natives of N. India, live inside wood even in their perfect state, and the timber attacked by them becomes perfectly unsound. The Tomicus monographus is a minute cylindrical beetle of Northern Europe, of a very destructive character to felled oaks. An allied Indian species (Tomicus perforans) bores through the staves of beer and water casks. In 1860-62, it attacked the beer barrels of the Com missariat Department in Lower Bengal and Burma, and caused great loss. A witty subaltern styled it Tippling Tommy. Mr. Thompson has known, in Dehra Doon, a species of Hylesinus attack and so entirely cat the poles and rafters of houses, made of the sal tree, as to cause the roofs of the buildings to fall in ; and a similar occurrence in a building in the hills, in which the Cheer or Pinus longifolia was used. The insect in this case resembled the Hylesinus piniperda of European forests, one species of which attacks the elm trees around London. The insects called ghoon in Northern India are omnivorous, eat bamboos, dried drugs, cheroots, pasteboard, books, and even furniture made of the lighter woods. The Calandra granaria is one to which the term ghoon is applied. The species of Botrichus affect chiefly the dead wood of forest trees. They are the largest of the Xylophagi. Other genera, as Scolytus, Hylesinus, and Tomicus, are smaller but more numerous. The Tomici are very destructive to bamboos, which the, Hylesini also attack. The powdery excrementitious particles which their larvae throw out, make their presence known. The injury to the coffee plants, in Ceylon and the Peninsula, from species of Xylotrechus, has been often ruinous. X: quadripes, Chevrolet, is the most destructive, and whole estates in Coorg have been ruined by it. It is popularly called the worm or coffee-fly. Under the word ' Coffee' are given the known enemies to that plant.