Pine-Shoot Beetles

a number of beetle species of the family Scolytidae (bark beetles). Two species are especially harmful to forestry: Blastophagus piniperda and B. minor. The first is black-brown, shiny, and 4–6 mm long. The second, a red-brown beetle with a black abdomen, is 3.4–4 mm long. Pine-shoot beetles are distributed in Europe and northern Asia. The beetles gnaw into the apical shoots of coniferous trees, mainly pines, eating out the heartwood and causing the shoots to break off. They winter in passages that they gnaw out in the lowermost part of the trunk. The larvae make long, winding passages (B. piniperda) or short, longitudinal ones (B. minor) under the bark. Control measures include setting out “trap” trees at the end of the winter and removing their bark in June.