REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 209 



for investigation, and some of which were forwarded to you. Upon referring the matter 

 to the shippers of the plants, they stated that the stock was not grown by them, but 

 bought from another nursery in their neighbourhood, and that the pest was altogether 

 new to them. Mr. H. E. Dosch, of the Oregon State Board of Horticulture, also wrote 

 in regard to the pest that he had not found it in Oregon in the course of his experience,, 

 which would indicate that its occurrence in Oregon as a fruit pe^t is, at least, unusual. 



'' I shall be glad to know where the borer belongs, and its usual food plants, if you 

 can supply the information. I had supposed is was a species native to Oregon, and that 

 it probably fed naturally upon indigenous plants. 



" I feel quite safe in stating that there is no possible chance of any of the insects 

 from this lot of plants having escaped destruction, but in view of the fact that large 

 quantities of gooseberry bushes have been imported from Oregon for many years past, 

 it is quite possible that it may exist in the province, and I propose to examine closely 

 for it all plants which come under my observation. I am glad to say that Mi\ E. A. C. 

 Gibson has been successful in rearing mature specimens of the insect and is forwarding 

 some to you as well as capital photographs of the larva? and pupje as they occurred in 

 the plants. — [R. M. Palmer.] 



In reply to an inquiry as to the occurrence of the Black Gooseberry-borer as an 

 enemy of the gooseberry on the Pacific coast, Prof. A. B. Cordley, Entomologist of the 

 State Agricultural College, at Corvallis, Oregon, writes : " The attack of X. Agassizii, 

 which you describe, has never come under my notice, and I hardly think that this 

 borer could have appeared in injurious numbers of late years in this State, or I should 

 have heard of it." 



Mr. Carew-G ib.son, who by successfully carrying through to the perfect form three 

 specimens of this very rare insect, has added one more to his triumphs in the investiga- 

 tion of the life-histories of insect pests, has forwarded to me the following notes upon 

 this species : — 



Notes on the Black Gooseherry-borer by Mr. E. A. Careiv-Gibson. 



The gooseberry bushes from which the specimens sent you were reared were 

 brought into this province in a consignment of 500 two year old gooseberry 

 bushes which came from the Oregon Wholesale Nursery Co., late in the fall' 

 of 1897. At the time of their importation no signs of the presence of the- 

 borers could be detected. The bushes were heeled in when received, and the 

 damage done by the borers was first noticed in the spring of 1898, when the bushes 

 were being planted out. Later on, after a thorough further examination, the whole of 

 this consignment of 500 bushes was condemned by the Inspector of Fruit Pests and, 

 except those bushes kept for experimental purposes, was destroyed under the inspector's 

 direction. On inquiring from the Oregon Wholesale Nursery Co., it was ascertained: 

 that these bushes were not really their own stock, but had been bought from a neigh- 

 bouring nursery to fill up the order. 



The larva of which you can form a very fair idea both from the photo I send and 

 from what you saw of them while here this summer, seems able to adapt itself very 

 readily to its surroundings. I have now (31st December, 1898) a grub from the same 

 lot of bushes which I took from a stem on 12th September, when it appeared to be full 

 grown, and placed in a small glass phial tightly corked. It is still alive and wriggling ; 

 for the first two months it appeared undecided as to whether it would pupate without 

 further food or not, later it began gnawing the cork of the phial, and it has now worked 

 its way into the centre of the cork. One of the grubs pupated on 19 th August (see 

 photo) and the adult beetle appeared on the 18th day after, although at the time it was 

 still soft. On opening another twig on 13th September I found another adult beetle 

 apparently ready to emerge. There only appeared lo be a single grub in each aflTected 

 tree, and as the bushes were small this proved a very wise arrangement, as there would 

 not have been room for more than one. The grub generally starts in from a convenient 

 crotch somewhere about where the branches make a fork, it then works downwards, 

 apparently wintering in the roots, in one case I noticed that it had worked so near to 

 the soil that there must have been only the thinnest possible covering between it and the 

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