INSECT ENEMIES OF EASTERN FORESTS ISd 
slightly longer and more slender beak, and different range and habits. 
They puncture the bark on the small twigs and leading shoots, and 
eat a considerable area of the inner bark and wood around the hole, 
often causing the twig to break. In the South the adults attack the 
cedars in the late fall, and the twigs and leaders begin to die by the 
middle of January. The larvae feed in a manner somewhat similar 
to those of P. strobc, girdling the stem and killing it. They pupate 
in March, and the adults issue in April. Apparently they aestivate in 
the ground litter and reappear in the fall. Healthy trees are attacked, 
and may lose their leading shoots, while weakened trees are attacked 
also on the twigs, and very often are killed. The native pines are at- 
tacked only when either dead or greatly weakened, and then on only 
the trunk and larger limbs and roots. 
Pissodes approximatus Hopk. resembles P. strobi so closely that it 
is almost impossible to distinguish adults of the same size. They may 
be separated by their feeding habits. The natural habitat for P. ap- 
prowmatus is the under side of freshly cut logs, stumps, blowdowns, 
or the bases of young trees weakened by some other agency, whereas 
P. strobi always attacks the leading shoot, or the tip of a lateral that 
is striving for leadership. P. approvimatus may be important occa- 
sionally in attacking young trees. 
Pissodes dubius Rand., a grayish-brown to black weevil, mottled 
with black and white scales, attacks recently dead or dying balsam 
fir. Swaine, Craighead, and Bailey (403) considered it the most ag- 
eressive insect attacking dead and dying trees after budworm defolia- 
tion. The larvae, however, never develop to maturity unless the tree 
is almost dead. Two or three successive attacks may be made on the 
same tree apparently before the tree’s vitality is at such a low ebb 
that the larvae can survive and mature. This weevil is also common 
on trees weakened or killed by the fir bark louse. It is essentially a 
secondary insect. P. similis Hopk., and P. affinis Rand. are two fairly 
common species in the Eastern States. The first is found on balsam 
fir, and the second on white pine. P. votundatus Lec. attacks weakened 
spruce trees in somewhat the same manner as P. dubdius attacks balsam 
fir. None of these last three are of economic importance. 
The pales weevil (Hylobius pales (Hbst.)) is a robust weevil, 7 to 
10 mm. in length, dark brown to reddish brown, and marked irregu- 
larly and somewhat sparsely on both thorax and elytra with gray or 
yellowish hairs. The beak is stout, with the antennae inserted well in 
front of the middle. The eggs are pearly white. The larvae are 
white and footless, and when full grown are shghtly longer than the 
adult. This weevil is found from Nova Scotia to Florida, and west 
to the Lake States. Eastern white pine is the most favored host, and 
red pine is commonly attacked. Carter (82) placed other conifers in 
both planted and natural growth, within the range of the insect, as 
also susceptible. 
The beetles pass the winter in the litter, becoming active, depending 
on locality and altitude, from April to June, during which time they 
feed on the tender bark of the twigs of saplings, and at the bases of 
seedlings. The eggs are laid singly, about July 1, in the inner bark 
of freshly cut pine logs or the large roots of freshly cut pine stumps. 
They hatch in about 2 weeks. The new adults emerge in September, 
and it is at this time that the severe damage occurs on the young trees. 
