THE ENEMIES OF ENGLISH WOODLANDS 281 



ground recently planted with conifers, and in which com- 

 paratively fresh roots and stumps still remain, is the summit 

 of their ambition, and in this they will spend the summer in 

 egg-laying and feeding on the young trees. This egg-laying 

 is a slow and steady process, and continues throughout the 

 summer, and is recommenced after the winter rest, the eggs 

 being laid in stumps, exposed roots, or logs partly embedded 

 in the ground. The grubs from these eggs eat their way 

 into the bark, making galleries one yard in length, and take 

 about fifteen months to mature. They usually hibernate 

 as full-grown larvse, and pupate the following spring ; and 

 Altum l points out that, where the breeding material is limited 

 in quantity, and the swarming beetles numerous, the follow- 

 ing generation appears much about the same date. Eggs 

 may be laid throughout the summer, but the grubs from the 

 later laid ones have no opportunity of developing, owing 

 to the breeding material being either already occupied or 

 already worked over. Where breeding material is always 

 at hand, however, as where the stumps of felled trees are 

 present in large numbers, the grubs may hibernate in a half- 

 grown condition, and thus spend only the one winter instead 

 of the usual two in the full-grown condition. 



The chief injury done by this beetle consists in its 

 attacking recently transplanted trees, and eating off patches 

 of bark to an extent which may completely kill the 

 plant. Conifers are the only class of trees which suffer from 

 its attacks, although Altum mentions instances of oak being 

 attacked in Germany. 2 The localities most affected are 

 those which have recently been cleared of a coniferous crop, 

 and which contain quantities of stumps and roots in which 

 the weevil is able to breed. So extensive is the damage 

 done in such cases, that it is considered useless to plant 

 conifers until at least three or four years have elapsed since 

 the clearing off of the old crop, and time has been given 

 for the resulting swarms of beetles to die off, or depart 

 elsewhere. 



Various remedies have been tried, and some are said to 

 be successful, but the majority are too troublesome and 

 costly to pay for doing on a large scale. The painting of 



1 Forst Zoologie. 2 Op. cit. 



