MOTir CATKRPILLAItS AND I'LANT-LICE. 



59 



Fro. 11. — PisBodcs sirobi: beetle at left; a, 

 larva; h, pupa — cnlar<;(*<l alxuit three 

 linifs (from Packanl). 



spots, as shown in tlie iiccoinpaiiyiiip illnstratioii (lig. 11). It is ]>rovi(UMl with ;i liitlicr long 

 rostrum or snout to whicjli arc attaclied its elbowed aiitcniiu'. 'I'lic larva, wliicli is wliitc and foot- 

 less, is illustrated at «, and tlio i>upa, also white, is iifiured at h. 



This weevil is ou(>. of the lirst S])ring visitants in the North, oceurrinj;- as early as ]\Iarch about 

 Washington City and in April or May farther north. Its eggs are deposited on the terminal slioots 

 of pine, particularly of young trees, but sonietinies also in the bark of old trees. The larva, when 

 hatched, bores into the pith or mines the sai)wood. Toward the 

 end of summer it attains full growth, when it goes into hiberna- 

 tion until the next spring, transforming to pupa and soon after- 

 ward to the mature or beetle form. The presence of this inst^'t in 

 a tree is first manifested by the wilting of the leading shoots,whi(h 

 becomes most evident toward the close of summer. The identity 

 of the species at work may be established at once from its peculiar 

 cells beneath the bark. (See fig. 12.) These cells, which are 

 destined for its winter nest and for further transformation, are 

 sunk into tiie pith and covered over with long fibers of chii)ped 

 wood. When a terminal slioot of a small tree beconu's tilled in the summer with these larva-, to 

 the number sometimes of a score or more, the shoot, with its lateral branches, as well as the stock 

 below, wilt and gradually die, the bark becomes loosened, pitch oozes out, and by autumn the 

 shoot turns blaclc, and the bark is covered with masses of pitch. A tree thus damaged will fail 

 sometimes for several successive seasons to send out a new terminal shoot, with the result that 



the lateral shoots continue to grow, and the tree becomes more or less 

 distorted. 



Owners and overseers of jjine groves will do well to make a practice 

 of examining the young trees each year, say in August, and when one 

 witli a wilting terminal shoot is found to cut or break it ott" and commit 

 it to the tlames. With every blighted twig thus treated from a dozen to 

 fifty or more weevils will be destroyed, and thus the numbers of the 

 insects for the coming year will be greatly lessened. All dead growth 

 or such trees as have from any cause been injured beyond recovery 

 and which might serve as centers of infestation by harboring this weevil 

 or other injurious species should be similarly treated. What is most 

 needeil is a preventive, and for this purpose a good thick fish-oil soap 

 mixed with Paris green and carbolic acid, in the proportion of about a 

 pound of the former and a quart of the latter to 100 gallons of the wash, 

 is re(^ommended. It should be sprayed in April and May on the terminal 

 shoots of the trees and repeated at the end of a month if necessary. 



MOTH CATERPILLARS AND PLANT-LICE ON TRUNKS AND LIMBS. 



The trunks and limbs of pine are also subject to the attack of sev- 

 eral insects besides those in the order (loleoptera that have been men- 

 tioned. Of these are three tortricid moths of tlie genus Eetinia, which 

 allect the pitch and other pines. Two other moths of similar habits to 

 the above occur on White Pine, wounding the trunk below the insertion 

 of the branches and causing the resinous sap to exude. These are 

 „. ^ ,. , the pitch-drop worm (PinipesUs zimmermanni Grote) and Jfarnioiiid 



Fir.. 12.— Pis»odc» »(ro(n: a, larval " i i ^ -^ 



minoa under bark; 6, jmpal ^>t?tt Ivell. 



cells-natural size (from iiiioy). ijj,g game remedies advised for other boring species, and particularly 



those specified to be used against the white-pine weevil, are indicated for the present class of 

 insects. 



Several species of plant-lice afifect the White Pine. The white-pine aphis (Lachnus strohi 

 Fitch) is very abundant in the Northern States, living in colonies on the branches of trees and 

 puncturing and extracting their Juices. The so-called "i)ine blight,'' Chcrincs pitiiri>ftiriK Fitch, is 

 sometimes very destructive, its presence being manifested by large patches of a white, floccnlent 



