THE WHITE-PINE WEEVIL. 737 
trees which had been deformed, as is not uncommonly the case with the 
white pine. 
The life-history of this weevil, then, in brief, is as follows : The eggs 
are laid early in summer, at intervals, on the terminal shoots of the 
white pine, or sometimes in the bark of old trees ; the grub on hatching 
bores into the pith, or simply mines the sap-wood ; it becomes full-grown 
at the end of summer, hibernates, and transforms in the spring to the 
pupa, most of the beetles appearing through May, when they pair and 
the eggs are laid, but some delay their appearance till June, July, and 
even August. 
Thus far we have said nothing as to the remarkable effects produced 
by the grubs upon the young trees. When the terminal shoot of a small 
tree, say 4 or o feet high, is filled in midsummer with these grubs, per- 
haps fifteen or twenty, or more, gouging or tunneling the inner bark 
and sap-wood, and for a part of the way eating the pith, the shoot, with 
the lateral ones next to it, as well as the stock immediately below the 
terminal shoot, will wilt and gradually die ; the bark will loosen, the 
pitch will ooze out, and by September the shoot will be nearly dead, 
black, and the bark covered externally with white masses of dry pitch. 
The tree thus pruned will fail forgone and probably several succeed- 
ing summers to send out a new terminal shoot ; the result will be that 
the adjoining lateral shoots will continue to grow, their direction will 
be changed to a nearly upright one, and instead of a tall shapely young- 
tree, destined to be the pride of the forest— aud there is no finer orna- 
mental evergreen tree in our lawns or parks than the white pine — it be- 
comes distorted, prematurely bent, or its noble shaft becomes replaced 
by one, two, or half a dozen or more stunted, shriveled aspirants for 
leadership. 
In walking through any forest of white pines of secondary growth in 
Kew England or northern New York, one's attention is drawn to these 
deformed trees. They are not necessarily dwarfed, as some are among 
the largest and noblest trees of the wood. They may occur singly, but 
often there are several, differently affected, growing near each other, 
though not in clumps. Some have but a single bend, a single shoot 
growing up, the original, and perhaps several, lateral shoots, having 
been destroyed ; one, we well remember, consists of two shafts which 
separate about 6 feet from the ground (see Plate xxvn, fig. 3). 
The most remarkable example which we have seen in the Maine woods 
stood in a wood southwest of Bowdoin College, but which has since 
been cut down. Fortunately, shortly before the destruction of the tree, 
we requested Prof. G. L. Vose, then of Bowdoin College, to make a 
drawing of the tree. He kindly sent us the accompanying excellent 
sketch (see also Plate xxvn, fig. 4), in part reproduced, with -the fol- 
lowing letter, giving the measurements of the tree : 
Brunswick, Me., September 5, 1881. 
I send you a sketch of the tree, not, as you will see, in any way as a work of art, 
as I make no pretense in that line, but as a botanic specimen. The arrangement of 
5 ENT 47 
