16B JOURNAL OF THE ROtAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The larvje, "when full-grown, change to pup^ in a small cavity 

 hollowed out in the bark at the end of the burrow, and appear 

 as perfect beetles in June or July, emerging from the tree by 

 eating out a circular exit-hole from the pupal chamber. Those 

 which hatch from the first-laid eggs are considerably in advance 

 of the grubs coming from eggs laid at the end of the five weeks' 

 task of the mother, whose dead body can be found at the end of 

 the burrow. The borings of the parents are not at first con- 

 spicuous, but can be detected later by the dust thrown out 

 from between the scales of bark, whereas the holes made by the 

 exit of the beetles, which are in no way concealed, at once indi- 

 cate that they have bred in the trunk. 



It appears from Dr. Somerville's observations that the beetles 

 which appear as early as June breed at once, and a second 

 generation is produced in September. The harm done by the 

 breeding of this insect is not great, as, like Curculio Abietis, 

 it commonly avoids healthy timber. They do sometimes attack 

 sickly trees, and I believe that they not unfrequently complete 

 the destruction of isolated wind-swept clumps of Pine-trees. But 

 the special form of injury done to Pines consists in the boring of 

 the mature beetle into the young shoots for feeding purposes. 

 This is effected by making a lateral hole in the shoot at a dis- 

 tance varying from one to five inches below its tip. This hole 

 becomes marked with a circular ring or collar of exuding resin, 

 and from it there is bored a burrow for about an inch up the pith 

 of the shoot, which is killed, or, if the burrow is only partially 

 completed, crippled. These shoots break off readily above or 

 through the entrance-hole, and strew the ground after a high 

 wind. Their loss, repeated year after year, produces a striking 

 change in the appearance of the tree, which loses its compact 

 crown and becomes " stag-headed," the foliage being thin and 

 scanty, and dead branches sticking out. It is also liable to the 

 attacks of other insects, and to fungoid diseases. 



At the beginning of winter the beetles quit the shoots, as a 

 rule, and hibernate in moss, &c., or in small burrows made in 

 the thick bark at the lower part of the trunk. The great treat- 

 ment for this insect, as for so many others, consists in not 

 leaving timber in the woods for the beetles to breed in — that 

 is to say, during the months from April to July — whether it be 

 felled in due course or destroyed by accident. If it is left till 



