STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
735 
PINE. TWIGS. 
bod}', round, flattened, polished and horn-like, tawny yellow, with an im¬ 
pressed line along its middle, a faint whitish line on each side parallel with 
this, and a more distinct transverse arched white line anteriorly, and a minute 
black dot on each side representing the eye; the mouth darker colored, with 
the points of the mandibles slightly projecting, these organs being black, tri¬ 
angular, and with exceedingly minute sharp teeth along their inner edge. The 
neck has two smooth pale tawny yellow spots above. It has no °feet, but 
their places are supplied by roundish elevations of the skin on the under side 
of the three segments next to the head. The surface shows a few very fine 
short hairs, particularly on the ends. 
1 Iiesc laivas change to pupas and to perfect insects in their 
cells, the latter coining abroad mostly early in the spring. The 
short description at the commencement of this account will 
suffice to distinguish this weevil from all our other species. It 
varies in its length from 0.20 to 0.30. Dr. Harris thinks they 
are more than a year in obtaining their growth, hut I am quite 
confident the eggs deposited in the spring become mature 
beetles by the following spring or earlier. 
In midsummer, as soon as the shoot in which these insects are 
nestling becomes withered and dry, the thin bark covering it is 
commonly sepn to be broken and peeled off in spots, or all its 
lower part is torn away, and newly perforated holes, larger 
than the mouths of the burrows of this insect, may be observed 
here and there in the wood. This is the work of small birds, 
which are very efficient and serviceable in ferreting out and 
devouring the larvae and pupae of this weevil. And in addition 
to these, it has several insect enemies which aid in restraining 
it from becoming excessively numerous. But notwithstanding 
the great inroads which are hereby made upon its ranks, this is 
quite a common insect in every part of our State and country 
where the pine abounds, deforming these valuable trees and 
retarding their growth. The proprietor of every grove of young- 
pines should therefore make it a rule to examine them every 
yoar, in August or September, and cut or break off the top of 
every tree that is blighted by these weevils and commit it to 
the flames. With every shoot that is thus treated, from ten 
to fifty or more of these weevils will be destroyed, which other¬ 
wise will come abroad the following year to dwarf and deform 
a number of the other trees in the same manner. No one, on 
