55 



the thorax. Both thorax and wing-covers are pitted with minute dots. The larva of 

 this species, which is very similar to that of tenehrosa^ is occasionally found in sound 

 pine logs, but much more frequently in decay ings logs and stumps. 



Harris' Buprestis — Ghrysohothris Harrisii. 



This lovely little beetle measures about one-third of an inch in length. The female 

 is of a beautiful metallic green all over ; the male has the legs and the sides of the 

 thorax of a reddish-bronze, with a purplish tinge towards the tips of the wing-covers. 

 The thorax has a conspicuous furrow down the centre, and is marked with some irregular 

 indentations, which are repeated also on the finely-punctured elytra. The beetle is found 

 on white pine saplings towards the end of May and in June ; the larva lives under the 

 bark of young trees and* in the smaller limbs of older trees. 



Cylindrical Pixe Borers. 



Eight species of cylindrical bark beetles belonging to the family Scolytidce are known 

 to attack the white pine, of which perhaps the boring Hylurgus {Ryhirgus terebrans) is 

 one of the most common, and since they are all very similar in their appearance and 

 habits, this may be taken as a representative species. The beetle is about a quarter of 

 an inch long, of a nearly cylindrical form, a chestnut-red colour, and is thinly clothed 

 with yellowish hairs. It is found in abundance in May in pine forests and amongst 

 lumber in mill-yards and elsewhere throughout the greater portion of North America. 

 The larva is a small, yellowish-white, footless grub, with a yellow, horny head, which 

 bores winding passages in many directions in the inner layers of the bark of the tree, and 

 also in the outer surface of the wood. 



Xyleborus xylografhicus (fig. 22) is another member of this family, which has proved 

 to be a formidable enemy both to the white pine in the north and to the 

 yellow pine in the south. 



The Pales Weevil — Hylobius pales. 



Among the weeviJs, or snout beetles, there are also several species which 

 injure the white pine, one of them is known as the pales weevil {Hylobius 

 pales). It is a dark chestnut-coloured or black weevil, from three to four- 

 tenths of an inch long, sprinkled with dots more or less bright, which are 

 found, on magnifying them, to be clusters of very fine, short, yellowish-gray 

 hairs. These insects are quite common in May and June among pine trees, and lum- 

 ber piles. The female perforates the bark of the tree with her snout and in the 

 excavation deposits an egg, where it shortly hatches into a white or yellowish-white 

 larva, which burrows beneath the bark, consuming its substance and loosening it from 

 the wood. In the autumn the larva bores into the sap-wood, forming a cell nearly 

 a quarter of an inch deep, arched over the top with a roof of sawdust and woody fibre. 

 Within this enclosure the larva changes before spring to a pupa, from which the beetle 

 escapes early in the summer. It is found frooi Maine and Lake Superior to Florida. 



The White Pine Weevil — Pissodes strobi. 



This is a common weevil met with at all times durinor the season, but most common] v 

 in May. They affect the upper shoots of the trees, depositing their eggs in ; \ 

 the bark of those which are young and growing thriftily. When hatched 

 the young larvae devour the wood and pith, causing the shoots to wither and 

 die. The leading shoots being destroyed, the trees become irregalar in their 

 growth and much disfigured. The larva is white, and about one-third of an 

 inch long. The beetle (see fig. 23) is of an oblong, oval form, rather narrow, 

 about a quarter of an inch long, of a dull dark brown colour, with two 

 dots on the thorax, and a short, irregalar, white band behind the middle 

 of the wing-covers. They are also ornamented with a few patches of tawny 

 yellow. 



Eig. 22. 



Fig. 23. 



