THE WHITE-PINE WEEVIL. 73 



the insect is changed to a pupa, it gnaws a passage from 

 the inside quite to the bark, which, however, remaining un- 

 touched, serves to shelter the little borers from the weather. 

 After they have changed to beetles, they have only to cut 

 away the outer bark to make their escape. They begin to 

 come out early in September, and continue to leave the wood 

 through that month and a part of October. The shoot at 

 this time will be found pierced with small round holes on 

 all sides ; sometimes thirty or forty may be counted on one 

 shoot. Professor Peck has observed that an unlimited in- 

 crease is not permitted to this destructive insect; and that 

 if it were, our forests would not produce a single mast. One 

 of the means appointed to restrain the increase of the white- 

 pine weevil is a species of ichneumon-fly, endued with sa- 

 gacity to discover the retreat of the larva, the body of which 

 it stings, and therein deposits an egg. From the latter a grub 

 is hatched, which devours the larva of the weevil, and is 

 subsequently transformed to a four-winged fly, in the habita- 

 tion prepared for it. The most effectual remedy against the 

 increase of these weevils is to cut off the shoot in August, 

 or as soon as it is perceived to be dead, and commit it, with 

 its inhabitants, to the fire. 



Such is the substance of Professor Peck's history of this 

 insect ; to which may be added, that the beetles are found in 

 great numbers, in April and May, on fences, buildings, and 

 pine-trees ; that they probably secrete themselves during the 

 winter in the crevices of the bark, or about the roots of the 

 trees, and deposit their eggs in the spring ; or they may not 

 usually leave the trees before spring. 



Perhaps the method used for decoying the pine-eating bee- 

 tles in Europe may be practised here with advantage. It 

 consists in sticking some newly-cut branches of pine-trees in 

 the ground, in an open place, during the season when the 

 insects are about to lay their eggs. In a few hours these 

 branches will be covered with the beetles, which may be 

 shaken into a cloth and burned. 



