196 PROTECTION OF WOODLANDS. 



The Green-necked Rostral Beetle, Curculio (Phyllobius} viridicollis. 

 This tiny beetle is only 012 to 0*2 inches in length, and of a 

 smooth, glossy, black colour, whilst the sides of the neck-plate 

 and the breast have green scales ; the antennae and legs are 

 brownish-yellow. It chiefly devours the buds of young Oak and 

 Beech, but is also found on Aspen and Sallow. 



The Glittering Rostral Beetle, Curculio (Polydrosus) micans. 

 This beetle is 0'28 to 0'32 inches in length, and of a blackish 

 ground-colour, covered with greenish, golden-bronze or copperish 

 lustrous scales on the elytra, and whitish scales on the breast. 

 It gnaws the buds of Beeches, Hazels, and Oaks principally, but 

 also of other broad-leaved trees and shrubs, attacking them at the 

 side first and hollowing them out ; after the leaves have fully 

 flushed, it feeds on the foliage. Its attacks can easily be pre- 

 vented by ringing the stems with patent tar in April. 



2. Having a Greyish Metallic Sheen. 



The Hazel-nut Rostral Beetle, Curculio (Strophosomus) coryli. 

 This beetle is 0*16 to 0*24 inches in length. It is almost spherical 

 in shape, and brownish-grey in colour. The basal junction of the 

 elytra is black, without hairs or scales ; the feelers and the legs 

 are rusty red. 



It is principally to be found on Hazel, Oak, Beech, and Birch, 

 whose buds it hollows out, and then proceeds to gnaw the young 

 shoots. 1 Preventive or exterminative measures against these 

 insect enemies, which often occur in large numbers, are only 

 applicable to a limited extent, as, for example, the collecting of 

 the beetles in nurseries, although this is made troublesome by their 

 habit of dropping to the ground whenever the plants they are 

 on are touched or shaken in any way. Altum points out the 

 advantage to be thus gained by ringing the stems with patent 

 as this will effectually prevent the fallen beetles from re-ascendi 

 them. 



Among the other rostral beetles which make themselves con- 

 spicuous by their frequent occurrence may be mentioned the black 

 Beech hopping -beetle, Orchestes fagi, a tiny weevil only 010 to 012 

 inches in length, and of a black colour, with grey hairs and a 

 rostrum bent back under it ; its feelers and legs are of a light 



1 The unwinged imagines also feed on the edges of needles and on the bark of 

 young Pine and Spruce, especially of 2 year-old seedlings, in spring, and have 

 recently done very considerable damage in many localities. (Hess, op. tit., vol. i. 

 p. 243.) Trans. 



the 



:": 



