232 Forty-second Report on the State Museum. [90] 



Oberea perspicillata. Eiley: 6th Kept. Ins. Mo., 1874, p. Ill (quotes 



Provancher). 

 Oberea trij)unctata. Provanchek: Pet, Faun. Entomolog. Can., 1S77, p. 636. 

 Oberea btmaculata. Horn; in Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, vii, 1878, pp. 46, 48. 

 Obei^ea btmaculata. Henshaw: List Coleop. N. Amer., 1885, p. 1U4, No. 6496. 



An insect attack on the new shoots of the raspberry which is often 

 the occasion of inquiry, is that which attends the oviposition of the 

 raspberry-cane borer. The following is received from Potsdam, 

 N.Y.: 



You will find herewith a small vial containing an insect and three 

 pieces of canes of Brinckle's Orange raspberry. You will see the two 

 rings that are made in the canes between which an egg is deposited — 

 usually in the center, but not always. Can you give me the name of 

 the creature which is causing so much mischief; and what shall we do 

 to prevent the destruction of our rasjjberries ? 



Synonymy of the Insect. 

 The author of the mischief above described is a longicorn beetle 

 having the scientific name of Oberea bimaculala. As may be seen above, 

 it was given the name of Saperda bimaculata by Olivier in 1795. It had 

 been previously named by Fabricius as trijnmctata, from the three black 

 spots that its thorax frequently bears, and it was for a long time, and 

 until quite recently, known under the Fabrician name. When it was 

 found, however, that the name had been preoccupied in the same genus 

 by a species by Swederus occurring also in the United States, it was 

 necessarily abandoned for that given it somewhat later by Olivier. 

 Of the other specific names, that bestowed on it by Dr. LeConte, 

 basilis, was based on examples in which the entire basal margin of the 

 thorax is black; and persjncillata of Haldeman, on smaller forms 

 showing some other features not of specific importance. 



Description of tlie Beetle. 



The beetle is of a slender cylindrical form, about a half-inch in 



length, with delicate antennce nearly as long as the 



body and tapering slightly toward the tip. It is of 



a deep black color except the forepart of the breast 



and top of the thorax which are rusty-yellow. There 



are two black elevated dots on the middle of the thorax 



Fio. 28. — The (sometimes absent) and a third dot (usually) on its hinder 



borer. "^Obbeea boi*<iei'- The wing-covers are closely punctured in the 



BIMACULATA. rows, aud irregularly on the sides and tij^s — each of 



the latter slightly notched and ending in two little points. 



