COLEOrTERA. 63 



seldom found in Massachusetts. The third was the white pine 

 weevil to be next described. It is said that these beetles punc- 

 ture the buds and the tender bark of the small branches, and 

 feed upon the juice, and that the young shoots are often so 

 much injured by them as to die and break off at the wounded 

 part. But it is in the larva state that they are found to be 

 most hurtful to the pines. The larvae live under the bark, 

 devouring its soft inner surface, and the tender newly formed 

 wood. When they abound, as they do in some of our pine 

 forests, they separate large pieces of bark from the wood be- 

 neath, in consequence of which the part perishes, and the tree 

 itself soon languishes and dies. 



The white pine weevil, Rhynchcetius (Pissodes) Strobi* of 

 Professor Peck, unites with the two preceding insects in de- 

 stroying the pines of this country, as above described. But it 

 employs also another mode of attack on the white pine, of 

 which an interesting account is given by the late Professor 

 Peck, the first describer of the insect, in the fourth volume of 

 the " Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal," 

 accompanied by figures of the insect. The lofty stature of 

 the white pine, and the straightness of its trunk, depend, as 

 Professor Peck has remarked, upon the constant health of its 

 leading shoot, for a long succession of years ; and if this shoot 

 be destroyed, the tree becomes stunted and deformed in its 

 slibsequent growth. This accident is not uncommon, and is 

 caused by the ravages of the white pine weevil. This beetle 

 is oblong oval, rather slender, of a brownish color, thickly 

 punctm-ed, and variegated with small brown, rust-colored, and 

 whitish scales. There are two white dots on the thorax ; the 

 scutel is white ; and on the wing-covers, which are punctured 

 in rows, there is a whitish transverse band behind the middle. 

 The snout is longer than the thorax, slender, and a very little 

 inclined. The length of this insect, exclusive of its snout, 

 varies from one fifth to three tenths of an inch. Its eggs are 

 deposited on the leading shoot of the pine, probably immedi- 

 ately under the outer bark. The larvae, hatched therefrom, 



* Pissodes nemorensis of Germar. 



