THE WHITE-PINE WEEVIL. 
73 
the insect is changed to a pupa, it gnaws a passage from 
the inside quite to the bark, which, however, remaining un¬ 
touched, serves to shelter the little borers from the weather. 
After they have changed to beetles, they have only to cut 
away the outer bark to make their escape. They begin to 
come out early in September, and continue to leave the wood 
through that month and a part of October. The shoot at 
this time will be found jjierced with small round holes on 
all sides ; sometimes thirty or forty may be counted on one 
shoot. Professor Peck has observed that an unlimited in¬ 
crease is not permitted to this destructive insect; and that 
if it were, our forests would not produce a single mast. One 
of the means appointed to restrain the increase of the white- 
pine weevil is a' species of ichneumon-fly, endued with sa¬ 
gacity to discover the retreat of the larva, the body of which 
it stings, and therein deposits an egg. From the latter a grub 
is hatched, which devours the larva of the weevil, and is 
subsequently transformed to a four-winged fly, in the habita¬ 
tion prepared for it. The most effectual remedy against the 
increase of these Aveevils is to cut off the shoot in Auonst, 
or as soon as it is perceived to be dead, and commit it, with 
its inhabitants, to the fire. . 
Such is the substance of Professor Peck’s history of this 
insect; to which may be added, that the beetles are found in 
great numbers, in April and May, on fences, buildings, and 
pine-trees ; that they probably secrete themselves during the 
winter in the crevices of the bark, or about the roots of the 
trees, and deposit their eggs in the spring; or they may not 
usually leave the trees before spring. 
Perhaps the method used for decoying the pine-eating bee¬ 
tles in Europe may be practised here Avith advantage. It 
consists in sticking some ncAvly-cut branches of pine-trees in 
the ground, in an open place, during the season Avhen the 
insects are about to lay their eggs. In a feAv hours these 
branches Avill be covered Avith the beetles, AApich may be 
shaken into a cloth and burned. 
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