''Pissodes strobi'', known as the white pine weevil or Engelmann spruce weevil, is the primary

weevil Weevils are beetles belonging to the Taxonomic rank, superfamily Curculionoidea, known for their elongated snouts. They are usually small, less than in length, and Herbivore, herbivorous. Approximately 97,000 species of weevils are known. They b ...

attacking and destroying white pines. It was described in 1817 by

William Dandridge Peck William Dandridge Peck (May 8, 1763 – October 8, 1822) was an American naturalist, the first native-born entomologist and a pioneer in the field of economic entomology. In 1806 he became the first professor of natural history at Harvard, a pos ...

, professor of natural history and botany at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. The weevil is dark brown with white spots and is native to North America. The eggs are laid inside a tree, usually white pine,

Sitka spruce ''Picea sitchensis'', the Sitka spruce, is a large, coniferous, evergreen tree growing to almost tall, with a trunk diameter at breast height that can exceed 5 m (16 ft). It is by far the largest species of spruce and the fifth-larg ...

white spruce White spruce is a common name for several species of spruce (''Picea'') and may refer to: * ''Picea glauca'', native to most of Canada and Alaska with limited populations in the northeastern United States * ''Picea engelmannii'', native to the Ro ...

Engelmann spruce ''Picea engelmannii'', with the common names Engelmann spruce, white spruce, mountain spruce, and silver spruce, is a species of spruce native to western North America. It is mostly a high-altitude mountain tree but also appears in watered canyon ...

, or other

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...

, and the offspring feed on this tree until the

host A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it. Host may also refer to: Places * Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County People *Jim Host (born 1937), American businessman * Michel Host ...

is killed.

Damage to white spruce and white pine

Severe damage to

and white pine can be created by the white pine weevil. Kiss, G.K. 1989. Genetic improvement of white and Engelmann spruce. p. 132 ''in'' Magnussen, S.; Boyle, T.J.B. (Eds.). Proc. Part 1, 22nd Meet. Can. Tree Improv. Assoc., Edmonton AB, Aug. 1989. Weevil resistance is a trait found in some trees and might be heritable. A study showed that the

resin In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. Resins are usually mixtures of organic compounds. This article focuses on natu ...

(sap) released from wounds in white spruce leaders (tips) susceptible to the white pine weevil showed a different terpenoid composition than wounds induced in resistant white pine leaders. (Tomlin et al. 2000).Tomlin, E.S.; Antonejevic, E.; Alfaro, R.I.; Borden, J.H. 2000. Changes in volatile terpene and diterpene resin acid composition of resistant and susceptible white spruce leaders exposed to simulated white pine weevil damage. Tree Physiol. 20:1087–1095. In coastal British Columbia, Sitka spruce trees developed a resistance against the white pine weevils which includes disruptions in egg & larvae development, deters host selection & mating, and delays the development of ovaries in female white pine weevils.Robert, et al. Behavioral and Reproductive Response of White Pine Weevil (Pissodes Strobi) to Resistant and Susceptible Sitka Spruce (Picea Sitchensis). MDPI, Molecular Diversity Preservation International, 19 Aug. 2010.

References

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q7198435 Molytinae Insect vectors of plant pathogens Taxa named by William Dandridge Peck Beetles described in 1817