1!'4 TRANSACTIONS ot THE ILLINOIS 



The larva, which has been described by Mr. Walsh, is of a pale yel- 

 low color, about one-half an inch in length and very narrow, the diame- 

 ter scarcely exceeding one-tenth the length ; somewhat flattened, espe- 

 cially at the sides ; the joint next the head is about one-fourth wider than 

 any other, and has a somewhat horny yellow heart-shaped patch above ; 

 joints two and three are each about half as long as number one (the broad 

 one), and about half the length of the following joints until we come to 

 the eleventh, which is also short. The head, which is quite small, is 

 brown, the jaws black. A somewhat reddish line runs along the back. 

 The posterior extremity ends with two brown thorns, each with three 

 blunt teeth on the inner edge. 



The larvae sometimes prove quite destructive to raspberry and black- 

 berry plants, by producing a kind of gall or swelling at the point where 

 they work their way into the pith. This swelled part, which is usually an 

 inch or so long, is split up into numerous short, rough, brownish, longi- 

 tudinal slits. " These are placed over the burrow of the larva, which gen- 

 erally runs around the axis of the cane, in which or in the pith the borer 

 may be found. 



In Southern Illinois, in the latter part of April, but later in more 

 northern latitudes, it penetrates to the pith, probably to find a more 

 secure retreat from its insect foes, and also on account of the hardening 

 of the wood of the canes. The beetle, comes out in June and July, and 

 the female probably deposits her eggs on the young canes a week or two 

 later. 



The only remedy which has been suggested, and in fact the only one 

 needed if attended to properly and in time, is to cut out all the infested 

 canes in the spring, and burn them carefully before the beetle has 

 emerged from them. If this is done, it will prove as near a specific as 

 any remedy which can be applied to insect pests. 



Mr. Miller, of Anna, Illinois, says these borers infest the Philadelphia 

 and Doolittle raspberries and the Wilson blackberry, but are seldom 

 found in the High-bush or Royal-cane varieties. Prof. Haldeman found 

 them in the Antwerp raspberries also. 



Family Ptinid.k. 



The only species of this family to which I shall refer belong to the 

 ■old genus Bostrichus, under which all the characters necessary to deter- 

 mine the group will be given. 



Bostrichus ( Amphicerus) bicaudaiiis, Say. The Twig Borer. 



The group to which this belongs is distinguished by the oblong, cyl- 

 indrical body, the thorax being about as broad as the wing-cases; both 

 extremities blunt, the head being hid beneath the blunt and rounded 

 thorax, which extends forward, so as to cover the former somewhat after 

 the manner of a hood. 



The antennae are rather short, and terminated by three enlarged joints. 

 The larvse are white, fleshy grubs, furnished with six thoracic feet ; are 



