72 COLEOPTERA. 



the bark, devouring its soft inner surface, and the tender, 

 newly formed wood. When they abound, as they do in 

 some of our pine forests, they separate large pieces of bark 

 from the wood beneath, in consequence of which the part 

 perishes, and the tree itself soon languishes and dies. 

 The white-pine weevil, Rhynchcenus {Pissodes) Strobi* 

 Fj 3 . of Professor Peck (Fig. 37), unites with 



the two preceding insects in destroying 

 the pines of this country, as above de- 

 scribed. But it employs also another 

 mode of attack on the white pine, of 

 which an interesting account is given by 

 the late Professor Peck, the first describer 

 of the insect, in the fourth volume of the 

 " Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal," ac- 

 companied by figures of the insect. The lofty stature of the 

 white pine, and the straightness of its trunk, depend, as Pro- 

 fessor Peck has remarked, upon the constant health of its 

 leading shoot, for a long succession of years ; and if this shoot 

 be destroyed, the tree becomes stunted and deformed in its 

 subsequent growth. This accident is not uncommon, and is 

 caused by the ravages of the white-pine weevil. 



This beetle is oblong oval, rather slender, of a brownish 

 color, thickly punctured, and variegated with small brown, 

 rust-colored, and whitish scales. There are two white dots 

 on the thorax ; the scutel is white ; and on the wing-covers, 

 which are punctured in rows, there is a whitish transverse 

 band behind the middle. The snout is longer than the 

 thorax, slender, and a very little inclined. The length of 

 this insect, exclusive of its snout, varies from one fifth to 

 three tenths of an inch. Its eggs are deposited on the lead- 

 ing shoot of the pine, probably immediately under the outer 

 bark. The larvae, hatched therefrom, bore into the shoot in 

 various directions, and probably remain in the wood more 

 than one year. When the feeding state is passed, but before 



* PUsoJes nemorensis of Gennar. 



