Pissodes strobi - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

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

Weevil

A weevil is any beetle from the Curculionoidea superfamily. They are usually small, less than , and herbivorous. There are over 60,000 species in several families, mostly in the family Curculionidae...

attacking and destroying white pines

Eastern White Pine

Pinus strobus, commonly known as the eastern white pine, is a large pine native to eastern North America, occurring from Newfoundland west to Minnesota and southeastern Manitoba, and south along the Appalachian Mountains to the northern edge of Georgia.It is occasionally known as simply white pine,...

. It was described

Species description

A species description or type description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species which have been described previously, or are...

in 1817 by William Dandridge Peck

William Dandridge Peck

William Dandridge Peck was America ’s first native entomologist. He was a professor at Harvard College. His pioneering entomological article was "The Description and History of the Canker Worm" Mass. Mag. Vol.7 , describing the species as Phalaena vernata, the spring cankerworm.-External links:...

, professor of natural history and botany at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

. The weevil is dark brown with white spots.