72 
COLEOPTERA. 
the bark, devouring its soft inner surface, and the tender, 
newly formed wood. When they abound, as they do in 
some of our pine forests, they separate large pieces of bark 
from the wood beneath, in consequence of which the part 
perishes, and the tree itself soon languishes and dies. 
The white-pine weevil, RJiynclicenus (^Pissodes) Strohi* 
of Professor Peck (Fig. 37), unites with 
the two preceding insects in destroying 
the pines of this country, as above de¬ 
scribed. But it employs also another 
mode of attack on the white pine, of 
which an interesting account is given by 
the late Professor Peck, the first describer 
of the insect, in the fourth volume of the 
“ Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal,” ac¬ 
companied by figures of the insect. The lofty stature of the 
white pine, and the straightness of its trunk, depend, as Pro¬ 
fessor Peck has remarked, upon the constant health of its 
leading shoot, for a long succession of years ; and if this shoot 
be destroyed, the tree becomes stunted and deformed in its 
subsequent growth. This accident is not uncommon, and is 
caused by the ravages of the white-pine weevil. 
This beetle is oblong oval, rather slender, of a brownish 
color, thickly punctured, and variegated with small brown, 
rust-colored, and whitish scales. There are two white dots 
on the thorax ; the scutel is white ; and on the wing-covers, 
which are punctured in rows, there is a whitish transverse 
band behind the middle. The snout is lono:er than the 
thorax, slender, and a very little inclined. The length of 
this insect, exclusive of its snout, varies from one fifth to 
three tenths of an inch. Its eggs are deposited on the lead¬ 
ing shoot of the pine, probably immediately under the outer 
bark. The larvae, hatched therefrom, bore into the shoot in 
various directions, and probably remain in the wood more 
than one year. When the feeding state is passed, but before 
Fig 37. 
* Pissodes nemorensis of Gennar. 
