88 RASPBERRYi 



flower-buds were forming; apparently piercing a hole in each bud. 

 Now as the buds are opening, they seem to be eating the stamens and 

 petals. I have killed quite two hundred in a short time, generally two 

 on every bud." 



From much further north, namely, from Newton Farm, near 

 Glasgow, Mr. John Speir sent me specimens, on the 13th of June, with 

 the remark that " the enclosed small brown beetles are making con- 

 siderable havoc on the remaining canes of my Easpberries. They eat 

 away the flower-bud." Various localities also in west Perthshire 

 apparently suffered from the same trouble, as on the 30th of June, Sir 

 James T. Stewart Eichardson, of Pitfour Castle, near Perth, directed 

 my attention to complaints, then appearing in the ' Dundee Courier ' 

 from district correspondents, regarding a very destructive beetle which 

 had attacked the Easpberry. Two of the localities where the infesta- 

 tion was reported as being injurious were the neighbourhoods of Scone, 

 which is a few miles from Perth, and Alyth, on the border of 

 Perthshire and Forfar. As I had not (as in all the other cases of this 

 infestation) specimens sent me for examination, I cannot be certain 

 that this attack was of the Byturus tomentosns, but as the attack was 

 described as of a voracious little black beetle, which fed on the Easp- 

 berry blossom, it is presumable it was of this kind. 



All the above observations, it will be noticed, refer to the attack of 

 the Byturus beetle to the flower or blossom bud of the Easpberry, the 

 first application being sent on the 2Gth of ]\Iay, and enquiries or 

 remarks on presence of attack being continued until the last day of 

 June. This injury, however, which is caused by the l)eetles to the 

 blossoms is only one portion of the mischief. Following on this is the 

 harm done by the maggot in the Easpberry fruit. Of this I received 

 very thorough examples from Toddiugton, sent me by Mr. Wise on the 

 19th of August with the following observations : — 



•' I am sending you some Easpberries which will, I fear, arrive in 

 a pulp, but at this time of year they are so very soft. In them you 

 will find a quantity of grubs, and our Easpberries are infested with 

 them. Can you tell me what they are ? " 



These I carefully identified from descriptions as being maggots of 

 the Byturus beetles of which so many had been seen earlier in the 

 year, and of which the chief characteristics are given at pp. 85 and 86, 

 and on forwarding the information received the following confirmatory 

 note from Mr. Wise : — 



" I looked out the Easpberry Beetle, on the evening I sent you the 

 grub, in your Eeport of 1883, and thought they were our old friends. 

 I think they are more plentiful this year than I have ever seen them, 

 and you will remember in the spring of the year we were very much 

 troubled with the beetle." 



