DAMAGE CAUSED BY ANIMALS. 157 



the chrysalid stage. The fully-developed beetle makes its exit 

 from the pupal chamber by boring a circular exit-hole, in the 

 month of August or sometimes later, and hibernates under moss, 

 or in the fissures of the bark of trees. The generation is conse- 

 quently simple or annual, although Eichhoff has recently asserted 

 that it is double, which seems hardly likely to be the case. 



As a beetle, this insect damages plants by boring into them for 

 nourishment, and young growth often shows a great number of such 

 small wounds or punctures ; but the injuiry done by the larvae is 

 of a much more serious nature, frequently leading to the sickening 

 of large numbers of plants, and killing them outright when the 

 borings are numerous or the plants small. In many districts 

 this beetle is considered one of the most injurious insect enemies 

 of young seedling crops and plantations, but fortunately its distri- 

 bution is not nearly so general as that of its near relative, 

 Hylobius dbietis, already described in the preceding paragraph. 



The uprooting of plants infested by the Iarva3, whose presence 

 may be betrayed by the young shoots drooping and losing their 

 colour, about the month of July, and then burning them, is the 

 only really practical way of fighting against this enemy ; but at 

 the same time it is a fairly successful remedy, and, if persevered 

 in consistently for several years in succession, ends by almost 

 completely annihilating the pest. Poles that are attacked by 

 them should also be felled and barked; but it is much more 

 difficult to detect the infested poles than to discover the younger 

 plants attacked. 



77. Other Weevils, or Rynchophorous, Rostral, or Proloscid Beetles, 



Curculionidte. 



Although amongst the numerous rostral beetles there are 

 many which are often decidedly injurious to coniferous woods, 

 mention will be confined to the three following species only. 



The Harz Weevil, or Rostral Beetle of the Harz, Pissodes hercynioe, 

 is a thin beetle about 0*24 inches in length, and almost black in 

 colour, with two narrow whitish-yellow stripes across the elytra, 

 which has frequently committed great devastations on the Harz 

 mountains and the Erz Gebirge. It only attacks Spruce, and 

 principally crops between 60 to 100 years of age. Whilst the 



