THE WHITE-PINE WEEVIL. 737 



trees which had been deformed, as is not uncommonly the case with the 

 white pine. 



The life-history of this weevil, then, in brief, is as follows : The eggs 

 are laid early in summer, at intervals, on the terminal shoots of the 

 white pine, or sometimes in the bark of old tn^es ; the grub ou hatchiug 

 bores into the pith, or simply mines the sap-wood ; it becomes full-grown 

 at the end of summer, hibernates, and transforms in the spring to the 

 pupa, most of the beetles appearing through May, when they pair and 

 the eggs are laid, but some delay their appearance till June, July, and 

 even August. 



Thus far we have said nothing as to the remarkable effects produced 

 by the grubs upon the 3"0uag trees. When the terminal shoot of a small 

 tree, say 4 or 5 feet high, is filled in midsummer with these grubs, per- 

 haps fifteen or twenty, or more, gouging or tunneling the inner bark 

 and sap-wood, and for a part of the way eating the pith, the shoot, with 

 the lateral ones next to it, as well as the stock immediately below the 

 terminal shoot, will wilt and gradually die; the bark will loosen, the 

 pitch will ooze out, and by September the shoot will be nearly dead, 

 black, and the bark covered externally with white masses of dry pitch. 



The tree thus pruned will fail for one and probably several succeed- 

 ing summers to send out a new terminal shoot ; the result will be that 

 the adjoining lateral shoots will continue to grow, their direction will 

 be changed to a nearly upright one, and instead of a tall shapely young- 

 tree, destined to be the pride of the forest — and there is no finer orna- 

 mental evergreen tree in our lawns or parks than the white pine — it be- 

 comes distorted, prematurely bent, or its noble shaft becomes replaced 

 by one, two, or half a dozen or more stunted, shriveled aspirants for 

 leadership. 



In walking through any forest of white pines of secondary growth in 

 i^ew England or northern New York, one's attention is drawn to these 

 deformed trees. They are not necessarily dwarfed, as some are among 

 the largest and noblest trees of the wood. They may occur singly, but 

 often there are several, differently affected, growing near each other, 

 though not in clumps. Some have but a single bend, a single shoot 

 growing up, the original, and perhaps several, lateral shoots, having 

 been destroyed ; one, we well remember, consists of two shafts which 

 separate about 6 feet from the ground (see Plate xxvii, fig. 3). 



The most remarkable example which we have seen in the Maine woods 

 stood in a wood southwest of Bowdoin College, but which has since 

 been cut down. Fortunately, shortly before the destruction of the tree, 

 we requested Prof. G. L. Vose, then of Bowdoin College, to make a 

 drawing of the tree. He kindly sent us the accompanying excellent 

 sketch (see also Plate xxvii, fig. 4), in part reproduced, with the fol- 

 lowing letter, giving the measurements of the tree : 



Brunswick, Me., September 5, 1881. 

 I send you a sketch of the tree, not, as you will see, iu any way as a work of art 

 as I make no pretense in that line, but as a botanic specimen. The arrangement of 

 5 ENT 47 



