78 FOREST ENTOMOLOGY. 



The larva is a white, fleshy, legless, wrinkled grub, with brown 

 head and strong jaws. It generally is in a semicircular form, and 

 about half an inch in length. 



The beetle (fig. 75) is dark pitchy-brown in colour, and sparsely 

 sprinkled over with yellow scales. The rostrum is longer than the 

 thorax ; antennae terra-cotta colour, with darker club. Thorax roughly 

 punctured, with a distinct raised middle line ; elytrae deeply punc- 

 tured, broader than the thorax at its base. On each elytron there are 

 four yellow spots, two in front and two behind the middle. Length 

 about -I inch or 8 to 10 mm. 



Pissodes notatus (Fabr.) 



It is very doubtful if this insect is so common as entomologists 

 maintain. Fowler gives " Chat Moss, near Manchester ; Sunderland, 



probably introduced in Scotch timber - laden 

 ships," 1 and " Scotland, rare Highlands, on 

 Scotch firs Dee and Moray districts." 2 Per- 

 sonally, I have not found it in this country, 

 but found it in Belgium, August 1905, near 

 the roots of Scots pine stems from five to 

 eight years of age. Fig. 76 is a very good 

 representation of the cocoons. It often hap- 

 pens that in plantations of pure Scots pine 

 Fig. 75. Pissodes pini from four to ten years of age, many plants 



die off, just as we wish them to be produc- 

 ing close canopy. Numerous suggestions have been given from time 

 to time that the deaths referred to are due to fungi, but it is just 

 probable that they die off in consequence of being badly handled in 

 the nursery, or very badly planted by the notch method, and there- 

 fore having their roots twisted. I have examined many dead Scots 

 pines of the type referred to in Northumberland with a view to find- 

 ing P. notatus, but so far the search has been unsuccessful. Dr E. 

 Stewart MacDougall found that imported German specimens were 

 spreading in Scotland, so that it is probable we might have an 

 attack through insects having been imported in pit-props or other 

 materials. 



1 P. gyllenliali, Schon., and P. piniphilus, Hbst., are introduced. 



2 It has been taken at Woking and Bournemouth by Commander Walker. 



