200 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



Length about one-third or Ihree-tenlhs of an inch; wid'.li about one-third the 

 length. 



Fissodes strobi, Peck. White-pine Weevil. 



This is of a rusty brown color, the thorax being darker than the 

 wing-cases, with a minute white dot usually present on each side; there 

 is a grayish white spot on each wing-case behind the middle; length 

 one-fourth to one-third of an inch. The snout is rather longer than the 

 thorax, and curved obliquely downward. This species often proves very 

 destructive to pine trees. The eggs, according to Prof. Peck, are 

 deposited upon the leading shoots of the pine, probably immediately 

 under the outer bark. The larvae hatched therefrom bore into the wood, 

 in which they reside during their preparatory stages ; just before entering 

 the pupa state, they gnaw a passage from the interior to the outer bark, 

 through which the beetle may escape. These make their appearance 

 during September and October. This is its method of attacking the 

 white pine, to which it proves most injurious; it also attacks other pines 

 in the same manner as the preceding species. 



The most effectual remedy against the increase of these weevils, 

 according to Prof. Peck, is to cut off the shoot in August (perhaps it 

 would be better to do this somewhat earlier, about the last of June or the 

 first of July) and burn it. 



Prof. Riley says it is not met with in the West, but I find it in my 

 list of Illinois species in the fourth volume. Transactions Illinois State 

 Agricultural Reports, under the name Pnemoretisis, Germ., which is a 

 synonym. I have therefore inserted it, as it may possibly be found 

 injuring cultivated pines. 



Spec. Char. Imago. — Snout quite slender, cylindrical, equal in size throughout, 

 directed downward nearly perpendicularly, slightly curved, and a little longer than head 

 and thorax. Thorax cylindrical, much narrower in front than behind; dilated in the 

 middle; with a depression each side near the front; posterior portion nearly as wide as 

 the elytra ; a minute median carina. Elytra squarely truncate in front ; sides nearly 

 parallel for two-thirds their length, abruptly depressed near the tip ; striate, and punctured 

 in the stria;, of which there are ten on each wing-case ; the inter-spaces between the 

 second and third, fourth and fifth, and sixth and seventh strise or grooves (countmg from 

 the suture outwards) are rather broader than the others, and elevated, and the sutural 

 margin is elevated, fonning slight longitudinal ridges. Head and thorax dark brown; 

 elytra brown, with two rounded yellowish brown spots on each wing-case — one near the 

 base ahd the other near the middle — also a white spot on each, behind the middle, near 

 the inner margin. Bro^n beneath, and covered with white down. 



Length as given above; width about one-third the length. 



Balatimus nasicus, Say. The Long-snouted Nut-weevil. 



This species is readily distinguished from any of those already men- 

 tioned, by its long, slender snout ; this is as slender as a bristle, and about 

 as long as the entire body ; in the one now before me it is only about twice 

 the length of the thorax, and is distinctly and somewhat strongly curved 

 downward toward the tip. 



