Eleventh Report of the State Entomologist 171 



tunately I did not hear of it until too late to obtain specimens. I am 

 ashamed to say that I have allowed all my first collections to be destroyed 

 by Dermestes, and have nothing but one wing left. I remember reading 

 somewhere that Mr. G. C. Davis, of Michigan, had detected it in some 

 numbers." 



Observed in Michigan, 



Mr. Davis has referred me, as containing all that he knew of the insect, 

 to a brief notice entitled : " A Dipteron Raspberry Girdler," pubUshed in 

 Insect Life, vii, 1894, pp. 199-200. His attention had first been called to 

 it by a fruit-grower in Lansing, Mich. On visiting the locality it was 

 found that about half of the young shoots had been killed by the maggot 

 early in May. The infested tops had been destroyed as soon as seen 

 and only a few specimens could be secured. The larvae were then 

 '' about five mm. long, white, with black jaws, truncated posteriorly and 

 sloping gradually to the pointed head. In general appearance they 

 resemble very closely the larvae of Anthomyiidse. They work only in the 

 young shoots of the black varieties. Entrance is made near the top of 

 the shoot in a leaf axil, and from this entrance the larva works its way 

 in an irregular course down through the pith until within a few inches of 

 the ground, when it girdles the cane [' by making a complete circle near 

 the outside of the shoot so close to the bark that it can be distinguished 

 by close inspection without breaking the stems']." 



Only the one berry patch at Lansing was found to be infested. Two 

 weeks later Mr. Davis heard of the work of the insect in the same 

 manner, at Costello, Pa., where the injury to the canes was stated to be 

 considerable. 



By transferring the larvse every few days to fresh shoots Mr. Davis suc- 

 ceeded in feeding them until the last one had attained a length of 1 1 mm. 

 when it died. 



How the Attack may be Indentified. 



The attack of this insect may always be readily distinguished from that 

 of the raspberry-cane girdler, notwithstanding the bending over of the 

 tips in the same manner, by the absence of the two rings of punctures 

 about an inch apart, between which the egg of the beetle, Oberea biniac- 

 ulata, is placed — the position indicated by a dark colored spot marking 

 the puncture. For account of this insect, see Saunders' Insects Injur- 

 ious to Fruits, and Fifth Report on the Insects of New York, 1889. 

 Moreover, the two attacks may also be separated by that of the fly 

 occurring during the middle of May when the canes are but a few inches 

 in height, and that of the beetle, toward the latter part of June. 



