PINE WEEVIL. 
89 
Pine Weevil. Hylobius abietis. 
Pine Weevil, rather larger than life ; line shows nat. length, with snout extended; 
Larch-twigs injured by Weevils; head, with snout, horn, and fore leg, much mag. 
During last year I had a few notes of observation of the Pine 
Weevil. These beetles are sometimes excessively injurious in planta¬ 
tions of young Conifers, as Scotch Fir, Larch, Spruce, &c., where they 
do harm by feeding on the bark of the young shoots, or eating off the 
bark of the young trees, sometimes completely baring lengths of the 
young stems. 
The means of preventing the presence of these weevils, or of 
getting rid of them if established (mainly by not allowing the accumu¬ 
lations of waste wood, as loppings, trimmings, &c., often left in Fir- 
plantations, after thinning, in which rubbish the weevil-maggots 
especially feed), has been very fully entered on before. But in a note 
kindly sent me by Prof. Allen Harker, of the Boyal Agricultural 
College, Cirencester, the Pine Weevil-attack mentioned is so completely 
traceable to (so to say) the “nursery” for it being kept up in the 
plantation, that this example of the success with which it may be reared 
by letting the maggot-food remain undisturbed is of very serviceable 
interest. 
The Pine Weevils are hard pitchy-black or brown beetles about 
half-an-incli long, with the wing-cases rounded down at the side so as 
to give them a somewhat boat-like shape. The head is prolonged in 
front into a snout or proboscis, near the end of which are placed the 
elbowed horns; the body behind the head much pitted, and the wing- 
cases with alternate rows along them of punctures and tubercles, or 
wrinkles, and also marked across with yellowish bands and spots, as 
figured above. 
The beetles lay their eggs (in this country chiefly in June or July) 
in rifts in the bark, and especially choose such places as pieces of fallen 
or felled timber, logs with the bark on, or the pieces of wood with the 
