User:Thea.sar/Pissodes strobi

Distribution
White pine weevils, native to North America, can be found in a number of different tree species.

Diet
The diet of adult white pine weevils consists of the needles and shoots of both pine and spruce trees. Terminals of targeted trees are another aspect of the diet of adult white pine weevils. Holes in the bark as a result of this feeding habit are evident as a white pine weevils will eat through the bark in order to reach the terminals. Also associated with feeding of adult pine weevils is sap, which can noticed on the terminals. Feeding occurs in the spring, when white pine weevils emerge from overwintering.

Damage to White spruce and white pine
Reproduction of white pine weevils in host trees is damaging to the trees. The time in which white pine weevils will lay their eggs occurs within spring. When white pine weevils lay eggs, they typically do so on the apical shoot. The phloem of the shoot is what the larvae of the white pine weevils will feed on once they hatch. In around a week, or seven days, larvae will hatch from eggs. As a result of larvae feeding on the phloem, recent growth of the affected tree will begin to wilt or droop. Feeding can even cause death of recent growth. While certain trees may have resistance to an attack by white pine weevils, this does not necessarily mean they will not be attacked. This involves factors that aid resistance to white pine weevil attacks, but also factors that may encourage pine weevils to initiate an attack on more resistant trees, like food scarcity. A possible reason for resistance to white pine weevil attacks, and ensuing damage, is the white pine weevil's reaction to resistant trees. This involves the reproductive capabilities of the white pine weevils being affected, which can be seen in interruptions to growth of the ovaries.

Reproduction
White pine weevils will typically emerge in spring, waiting out the winter. This is the point at which females will lay their eggs in targeted trees. It takes until late summer for these larvae to become adults, and after winter passes in the following spring these adults which were once larvae in the previous spring will reproduce and females will continue to lay eggs in host trees. Storage of fertilized eggs within female white pine weevils through the winter season is an observed ability. Meaning that in following egg-laying seasons occuring in spring, female white pine weevils do not necessarily have to breed in that period. Typically, the life expectancy of white pine weevils is around four years.