29 



bers in " exempt " fields. I believe, too, that killiug- the cane is due, not 

 to the injury- in the pith, but to the injur}- done under the bark. Be- 

 yond this, the history of the insect is well known ; but I am not aware 

 that the gall formation has been as fully observed. Of course the rem- 

 edy is obvious. Cutting the galls out thoroughly in early spring and 

 burning the cuttings is certain. This is already practiced by our best 

 fruit growers, and they are not much troubled. Unfortuiuitely there are 

 many who seem unable to understand their own interests, and will de- 

 la}' cutting or refuse to burn. Some fields, too, belong to men of other 

 occui)ations, and as they become unprofitable, they allow them to g'o to 

 ruin and to become breeding places Tor all sorts of pests, fungous and 

 insect. 



Next in order, and indeed sometimes even worse, is the larva of a 

 Sesnd,pvobiib\yBembeciamarginata, Harr. The eggs of this insect, which 

 I have not yet seen, are laid late in August or in September. The young 

 larva hatches that same fall, and in the following spring is found in 

 canes of the previous year's growth, boring only a short distance up 

 from the roots. It is then less than half an inch long and of a faint 

 reddish tint, which it loses as the summer advances. In July it leaves 

 the cane on which usually no fruit has set, and attacks a new shoot, 

 eating around the base and burrowing up between bark and wood. 

 The shoot wilts, but the larva seems not to travel more until the follow- 

 ing spring. It is then an inch long, white in color, and with a brown 

 bead. It eats at the crown until the new shoots are large and vigorous, 

 and early in July the wilting shoot in infested fields indicate the where- 

 abouts of the larvie. They pupate in August, one pupa newlj- formed 

 being found on the 10th, and a number on the 23d, but at these dates 

 no imago was yet noticed. One pupa had wriggled out through the 

 stem at the latter date, apparently ready to transform. The insect is 

 important because it cuts two years' growth of infested hills. The remedy 

 is also mechanical. It consists in cutting the shoots as they wilt close 

 to the crown, and destroying the contained larva. 



Sometimes in June a hill will suddenly wilt and die as if burnt. 

 Search will in all cases reveal an enormous longicorn larva, which I 

 make out to be that of Pnorius laticolUs. In some old fields it is very 

 mischievous, boring huge channels in the main root. 1 am not aware 

 that this has been heretofore noted as infesting blackberries, and simply 

 record the habit. 



Another insect infesting growing canes escaped me during the pres- 

 ent season because unexpected and unnoticed. In cutting some new 

 shoots I found them marked, through the pith from base nearly to tip, 

 a distance of three or four feet, by a larval channel. The new canes 

 had been already topped a first time and 1 missed the culprit. In some 

 fields not yet topped I found that the borer had emerged or had been 

 })arasitized, fragments only remaining, which seemed to prove it Lepi- 

 dopterous. No ai)parent damage was done by the insect and none of 

 the bored stems died. 



