RASPBERRY BEETLE. 



Si 



On June 1st, specimens were sent by Mr. J. Temple Jolmsou, from 

 Sutton Court, Dartford, with the note, " I enclose some small brown 

 beetles, and some Easpberry blossoms injured by the same. These 

 beetles are very numerous this year " ; and a few days later a farther 

 supply of the beetles were forwarded, together with Easpberry blossom 

 in various stages of consumption, and the further observation, " You 

 will see that it is quite finished off, and if some remedy is not found 

 the whole crop will be destroyed." 



On the 3rd of June, Mr. C. D. Wise noted of this same beetle, that 

 they were feeding in quantities on the Easpberries in the Toddington 

 Fruit Grounds (near Winchcombe, Gloucester), and observed on its 

 habit of feeding by day as a distinction between tliis and the night- 

 feeding Easpberry weevils, which at first it was feared they might be. 

 On the 11th of June Mr. Wise wrote me with regard to remedial mea- 

 sures, " We have been shaking the bushes over bags soaked in paraffin 

 with excellent effect." 



The same attack was noted by Mr. P. E. Morse, of Wickham, 

 Bishop Witham, Essex, on June 8th, as that of a little beetle that 

 attacks the bloom of the Easpberries, and appears, in some instances, 

 quite to destroy it. Mr. Morse observed that it was found quite at the 

 bottom of the bloom where the fruit is forming, and that he heard it 

 was very general in Kent; but with him, and from what he could learn, 

 it was not doing so much harm as the Kentish attack. About a week 

 later, Mr. Morse wrote :— " I do not find so many of the Easpberry 

 Beetles now, and do not think they will do me much harm this year 

 at any rate." 



From Halstead, Sevenoaks, on the 12th of June, they were reported 

 by Mr. W. Bowen as " insects that are very troublesome in our Easp- 

 berry plantations, and doing very great damage just now " ; and from 

 Knockholt, also near Sevenoaks, in Kent, Mr. James Wood forwarded 

 me specimens of the Bytunis, and also of the Otiorhynchus picipes, the 

 " Clay-coloured " Easpberry Weevil, as samples of the insects " which 

 have caused so much damage in our Easpberry and Strawberry 

 plantations. Mr. Wood remarked, " I have been a grower for this last 

 twenty-five years, and during that time have never known so much 

 destruction before." Notes of another locality of Kentish attack of 

 this kind of beetle were also sent by Mr. W. L. Wigan, from near 

 Maidstone, with specimens accompanying, and the observation, " There 

 are sometimes five in one flower. They fly readily ; they lie in the 

 trough round the base of the embryo fruit." 



From Much Hadham, Ware, Herts, the following good note of 

 method of attack of the beetles on the buds was sent me on the 17th 

 of June, by Mr. M. L. Gaytou : — " They are doing much damage to a 

 small garden Easpberry plantation. I first noticed them when the 



