RASPBERRY BEETLE. 205 



feet. The colour is yellowish, with brownish yellow on the 

 back, and the head brown. 



When the Easpberries are ripe, the maggots are stated by 

 our chief writers on the subject to leave the fruit and seek for 

 some cranny under the bark or in the wood of the Easpberry 

 stem, or some similar sheltering place, where they form a 

 cocoon or case in which the}^ turn to the pupal state, in 

 which they pass the winter, and from which the beetles 

 come out in the following spring to attack the Easpberry 

 blossoms. 



Prevention and Eemedies. — The most available method 

 appears to be shaking off the beetles in such a manner that 

 they may have no chance of escaping and flying back to the 

 Easpberry blossoms, and no better plan appears to have been 

 mentioned anywhere than the treatment which Mr. Wise 

 wrote me was carried on at Toddington : "We have been 

 shaking the bushes over bags soaked in paraffin with excellent 

 effect." 



Anything, as, for instance, cloths, tarred boards, or baskets 

 tarred inside, on to or into which the beetles w^ould fall, and 

 from which they could not escape by reason of their being 

 either poisoned or stuck fast, would answer well. But in any 

 case the operations should be carried on early in the morning, 

 or when the beetles will be dull and sluggish. " On liot days 

 these little beetles Jii/ away directly they are alarmed." 



If it was possible to have the fruit which from its ruined 

 condition is noticeably infested by the maggots gathered and 

 burnt, this would save much recurrence of attack. 



The only other available methods of prevention appear to 

 be — Istly, so to clear away all old wood and places in which 

 the chrysalids may be sheltered, that they may thus be (to a 

 great measure) got rid of on the bushes ; but, 2ndly, it seems 

 not unlikely that, as these little chrysalis-cases are stated to 

 be formed in crannies under the bark or in the wood of the 

 Easpberry stems, there may be many hidden about the 

 bearing-stems of the past season which are regularly cut 

 away in course of orclinary treatment. If so {iiidess these 

 trimmings are destroyed), the beetles which come out from 

 them in spring would be a most fertile source of infestation 

 to the neighbouring blossoms. As in any case the old bearing 

 wood must be cut away, it would add little to expense (where 

 this is not already practised) to burn it, and it might be that 

 this would strike at the root of much further mischief. 



