30 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



WHITE PINE WEEVIL 

 Pissodes strobi Peck 



The extensive planting of white pines in the reforestation work 

 of recent years has produced conditions very favorable for this 

 weevil, since the pest breeds by preference in vigorous shoots of 

 trees 2 to 10 or 15 feet high. The species is widely distributed 

 and quickly establishes itself throughout even large plantings. 

 There appears to be no practical way of preventing this invasion 

 of reforested areas. The beetles feed upon the vigorous shoots of 

 the previous year's growth, placing their eggs in shallow pits just 

 under the bark. The white, brown-headed grubs hatching there- 

 from soon destroy most of the vital tissues, killing many leaders 

 and practically ruining the young trees. 



Signs of injury. A serious infestation is liable to result in many 

 leaders turning brown and dying in early July. Affected shoots 

 have the inner bark and more or less of the sapwood riddled by 

 irregular galleries partly filled with borings. The first evidences 

 of attack in the spring are drops of resin or pitch exuding from 

 small punctures made by the beetles, the severity of the damage 

 depending upon the extent of feeding and the number of eggs 

 deposited. An examination of a recent planting at Cooperstown, 

 N. Y., July 8, 1913 showed all gradations of injury from wilting 

 leaders to those which had been entirely destroyed. Occasionally 

 a young tree bore pitch masses an inch or two below the uppermost 

 ring of branches, and in such cases the leaders were usually 

 infested. In cases where the injury extended for perhaps 3 or 4 

 inches along the stem there was a distinct shortening of the new 

 growth with a corresponding massing of the needles. This looked 

 a little as though there might have been a fungous infection, though 

 an examination showed that the trouble was with little question 

 due to the work of the weevil. Unless the grubs are numerous 

 enough to girdle the leaders partly, there seems to be a fair chance 

 of the shoot recovering from the attack and developing satisfactorily 

 the following year. 



Description. The parent insect is a snout beetle about one- 

 fourth of an inch long, reddish brown to dark brown, with a 

 peculiar whitish spot near the posterior third of each wing cover 

 and white mottlings upon the sides and the legs. 



The globular eggs are whitish transparent, about one-sixteenth 

 of an inch in diameter, and are placed just under the bark. 



