I. THE PINES. 55 



false caterpillars of the Lophyrus abietis.- — (Harris's Report, 

 pp. 230, 375.) 



Several species of weevil, of which two (the Pales weevil, 

 Ciirculio pales, and the white pine weevil, Rhynchosnus strobi, — 

 Report, pp. 62 — 64), are particularly described by Dr. Harris, 

 dwell, during their larva state, under the bark of the pitch pine, 

 the white pine, and probably others, and often do immense in- 

 jury by destroying the alburnum and the inner portion of the 

 bark. Whole forests of pines are sometimes thus killed by these 

 apparently insignificant creatures. In addition to this mode of 

 assault, the weevil which receives its name from the white 

 pine, does great mischief by piercing, with holes from the inte- 

 rior of the wood to the bark, the leading shoot of this tree, thus 

 destroying the shoot and maiming and deforming the tree. 

 These attacks would soon be fatal to the whole race of white 

 pines and probably all the others of the genus, were it not for 

 an ichneumon-fly which deposits its eggs in the larva of the 

 weevils, and the effectual services of the woodpeckers, who 

 spend their useful lives in destroying them. The terminal buds 

 and leading shoots of the pines and firs, are often destroyed by 

 turpentine moths, an entirely different enemy, associated with 

 the leaf-rollers. — (Toririces, ib. p. 350.) 



A small brown cylindrical beetle, the boring hylurgus, (Hylirr- 

 gas terebrans, ib. 72), deposits its eggs in the bark of the pitch 

 and other pines, the soft inner layers of which the grubs devour, 

 and. by preventing the formation of new wood and by loosening 

 the bark, cause the trees to languish and decay. They are 

 sometimes accompanied by the grub of a smaller bark-beetle, 

 (the Tomicus exesus, ib. 74), which leads a similar life, with 

 similar consequences. Another still smaller beetle of the same 

 pernicious family and habits, (the Tomicus pin i of Mr. Say, ib. 

 74,) has been found under the bark of the white and pitch pines 

 and that of the larch. The red cedar has a very small bark- 

 beetle, {Hylurgus dentatus, the toothed hylurgus, ib. 73). A 

 still more conspicuous bark-loosener, the ribbed Rhagium, (Rha- 

 gium lineatum, ib. 93), which does a work hardly less fatal for 

 that tree, is found, in the grub state, often in great numbers 

 under the bark of the pitch pine. 



