THE GENUS PISSODES AND ITS IMPORTANCE IN FORESTRY. a0 
Pissodes piniphilus, the Pine-Pole Weevil. 
Description.—The pine-pole weevil measures less than a quarter 
of an inch in size, and ia colour is rusty brown, powdered all over 
with whitish scales. The posterior corners of the prothorax are 
rounded, being more round than in any of the other Pissodes 
species. Scutellum whitish. In place of the ordinary transverse 
band behind the middle of the elytra, there are two large rusty 
yellow spots, one on each side, between the suture and the outside 
edge. These spots are very characteristic, and, along with the 
absence of the band at the front of the elytra, are of great service 
in determination. 
Distribution.—This bettle, widely spread over Europe from 
France in the south to Sweden in the north, is said by Fowler 
to be rare in Britain. Mention is made of it as found at Sunder- 
land in imported timber, whence doubtless it has or will spread. 
Life-History.—This troublesome and sometimes very harmful 
pest attacks, as its name indicates, chiefly pine forest in the 
pole stage. While trees from twenty to forty years old are the 
favourite breeding-places, yet piniphilus is not uncommon on old 
pines, its tunnels being found, not in the thick-barked underparts, 
but in the thin-barked upper parts of the branches of the crown. 
While tunnels of a star-shaped pattern are not unknown, the 
female pine-pole weevil seems most usually to lay her eggs singly 
in the small needle-like prickings made by her rostrum. On 
peeling off the bark from an attacked stem, the larval tunnel is 
easily traced by the brown-black bore dust which fills it. The 
tunnels measure from 4 to 6 inches in length, but, as each tunnel 
winds in and traverses the bast at different levels, one is apt to 
think, from the comparatively small part presented at any one 
level, that the tunnels are much shorter. The pupal cradles 
gnawed in the wood by the grown larve are small, in keeping 
with the small-sized weevil, and the covering consists of very 
fine particles. Whilst weakly trees are preferred, piniphilus also 
besets healthy trees, which may soon succumb to this quickly- 
spreading pest. As piniphilus makes its onset on a tree high 
up, and not on lower, more easily seen and examined parts, the 
determination of attack is rendered difficult. 
There is this, however, in favour of the forester, that pinephilus 
does not pass through its round of life rapidly, but that, as it 
takes two years from the tiie of egg-laying till the beetles are 
