THE GENUS PISSODES AND ITS IMPORTANCE IN FORESTRY. 29 
species resemble each other closely. The resemblance is close in 
size, colour, and round of life. Besides, the characteristic spots 
and bands (these latter formed from the coalescence of individual 
scales) so helpful in the determination of fresh specimens, get 
rubbed off in course of time, making the determination of isolated 
not-fresh examples troublesome. Size and colour of species also 
fluctuate within limits. For example, while a normal-sized 
P. piceae is not to be confused with a normal-sized P. notatus, I 
have seen specimens of piceae as small as an ordinary notatus, 
and not to be distinguished from the latter save by its different 
food-plant. 
It is possible to confuse P. pint with Hylobius abietis, but 
these two beetles are readily distinguished thus :— 
Hylobius abietis. Pissodes pint. 
Femur of all six legs with a No tooth on femur. 
tooth. 
Antennz inserted on the rost- Antenne inserted about the 
rum near its apex. middle of the rostrum, 
Darker in colour. 
As an aid to the forester in determining the work of the 
Pissodes (for he will have to do with the damage perhaps oftener 
than with the real insect), the following may be noted as char- 
acteristics :— 
(a) The Larval Tunnels arise from a common centie.—There 
is just the chance of confusing the eating with that of the 
Scolytide, but in the case of the Pzssodes no mother-tunnel is 
found, only larval ones. 
Sometimes the eggs are laid singly. This occurs with pini- 
philus, and, as a great rarity, with harcyniae. 
The resulting single tunnels are very difficult to determine, but 
if they are very long, one can pretty safely diagnose them as the 
work of a Pissodes. 
(b) The tunnels are long, a considerable distance intervening 
between the place of egg-laying and the pupa-bed. 
If the tunnels, for some reason or other, instead of winding on, 
form a sort of interlacing network confined to one place, then 
the work may be confused with the larval borings of some of the 
long-horned beetles. Several times I have found Péssodes larvee 
and the larve of long-horned beetles working side by side, In 
