Eggs are deposited in the inner bark of laterals and terminals 
through holes chewed in the bark. The larvae feed beneath the 
bark in a manner somewhat similar to that of white pine weevil 
larvae, girdling and often killing the stem. Evidence of their 
presence is the swelling of the bark over feeding areas. Pupation 
occurs in chip cocoons in the wood during March. Adults appear- 
ing in April disappear immediately and aestivate until fall when 
they again appear. Then they feed on the twigs and leading 
shoots, puncturing the bark and eating large areas of the inner 
bark and wood around the holes. Weakened deodar cedars are 
often seriously injured or killed by the species. Damage to 
healthy trees is less serious, consisting of the killing of leaders 
only. Small pines may be girdled and killed. 
Several other species of Pissodes also attack various coniferous 
species in eastern forests. P. affinis Rand. breeds in the stumps 
and logs of eastern white, red, jack, and Scotch pines from New 
England to the Lake States. The adults feed on the inner bark of 
branches of living trees up to 50 feet tall. They are dark brown 
or black, from 5 to 8 mm. long, and are marked with white spots. 
P. dubius Rand. breeds in windthrown, dying, or recently dead 
balsam fir and red spruce. It is probably the most important in- 
sect attacking dead and dying balsam fir following spruce bud- 
worm defoliation (700). It also commonly attacks balsam fir 
weakened or killed by the balsam woolly aphid. P. rotundatus 
LeC. and P. fiskei Hopk. breed in windthrown red spruce. 
The genus Hylobius is represented in North America by six 
species, several of which are important pests. Millers et al. (532) 
published a key to five of the species. 
The pales weevil, Hylobius pales (Herbst.), a very destructive 
pest of young pines, occurs in southeastern Canada from Nova 
Scotia to southern Ontario, and throughout eastern and southern 
United States west to the Great Plains. It breeds in all species of 
pines within its range, and occasionally in spruce, fir, hemlock, 
juniper, larch, cedar, and cypress. The adult is an oblong, robust, 
black to reddish brown weevil, about 6 to 10 mm. long. The elytra. 
are covered with small, scattered patches of yellowish hairs 
(fig. 77 A). 
In the north, winter is spent either as adults beneath the litter 
or as larvae in the roots; in the South, it is spent as adults in the 
soil. Overwintering adults emerge from April to June, depending 
on location, and feed for a brief period on the tender bark of the 
twigs of saplings and at the bases of seedlings. This feeding 
occurs at night, the weevils hiding in the soil about the bases of 
the seedlings during the day. After a few days of feeding, they fly 
to recently cut over or damaged pine land. Here they feed, mate, 
and lay eggs in the roots of pine stumps or weakened trees. Occa- 
sionally, they burrow through the soil for distances of a foot or 
more to reach a root. The larvae feed beneath the bark until early 
fall. Then they form cells in the sapwood where they pupate. 
Adults appearing during late September and October feed for 
awhile on pine bark, twigs, and needles and then enter the soil to 
hibernate. In the North, the life cycle usually requires 2 years; in 
the South there are 1 and usually a partial second generations per 
year. 
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