34 



IMISC. PUBLICATION 273, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



Late in the spring and in the early part of the summer the adults 

 feed on the tender bark of the previous year's terminals and with 

 their beaks make little cavities in which eggs are laid. The 3"oung 

 larvae, which are white, legless, curled grubs, work down the stem, 

 boring through the bark and into the wood. Upon reaching maturity 



Figure 14. — The lodgepole terminal weevil (Pissodes terminaU'i) : A, Grubs in 

 terminal shoots ; B, weeviled tip showing emergence hole ; C, adults, natural 

 size. 



they form in the wood or pith an oval cell lined with shredded wood 

 fiber in which to pupate. There appears to be only one generation 

 a year, but some of the insects transform in the fall of the year and 

 others change and emerge the following spring. The winter is passed 

 in all stages except the egg. Upon emergence the new adults do 

 some feeding on the fresh bark of the terminal shoots and make 

 numerous small feeding punctures, which later heal over with a bit 

 of resin, ^o effort has yet been made to control this species. 



Similar in habits and appearance to the above is the Engelmann 

 spruce wee^^l (Pissodes engeJmanni Hopk.). It works in the termi- 

 nals of Engelmann spruce throughout this tree's range, in tlie Eocky 

 Mountain region and the Pacific Northwest. 



The lodgepole terminal weevil {Pissodes terminaJ/s Hopp.) {711)) 

 mines through the j)ith of lodgepole pine terminals (fig. 14) and kills 

 them down to the first whorl of branches. It is particularly de- 

 structive in open-grown stands of young lodgepole pine in California^ 



