OP THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Ill 



THE RASPBERRY ROOT-BORER— ^Ff/eria rtijl N.Sp. 



(Ord. Lei'IDOptera ; Fam. ^Egeriidj;:.) 



ltio.3o.] The common borer, which works in the canes 



ol' raspberries and blackberries, and is frequently 

 mentioned in entomological works, is a legless 

 grub, the larva of a beetle {Oherea perspicillata 

 Hald.) the female of which, according to Harrisi 

 lays her eggs singly on the stem near a leaf or 

 small twig, but according to Mr. Wm. Saunders, 

 'of London, Ont., girdles the tops of young grow- 

 ing canes in two places, one about an inch from 

 the other, and then between these rings, thrusts 

 a single egg into the cane through a puncture, 

 also doubtless made by her jaw.* But just as the 

 .egku^^uou:-*/,^^^^^^^^^ the Grape, the Maple and many other 



plants are affected with moth larvns as well as beetle larvoe, so the 

 Blackberry and Raspberry have their lepidopterous borer, at once 

 distinguished by its legs from the legless grub of the beetle above 

 mentioned. For several years past, complaint has been made in sev- 

 eral parts of the countryf of a borer working in the root of these 

 plants, and I last summer obtained evidence of its work as far west 

 as Denver, Col., on the farm of Mr. J. Y. Dillon. It was first sent to 

 me seven years ago by Mr. A. S. Fuller, of Ridgewood, N. J., and my 

 late friend Walsh received other specimens in the spring of 1869 from 

 Mr. (Jhas. Farry, of Cinnaminson, N. J.,|. and succeeded in rearing 

 the moth*. Last spring, while visiting Mr. B. F. Hanan, of Kahoka, I 

 learned tl^at it was doing much injury to the Doolittle raspberries 

 around Luray, and from specimens subsequently obtained and reared 

 to the perfect state, proved it to be the same species that had been 

 sent from New Jersey, and which has been captured on blackberries 

 by my friend J, R. Muhleman, of Woodburn, Ills. Its life-history is 



*Rei>. of Eiit. Soc. of Out., 1S73, j). !). 



>I. Pi'uvMuchor {Natiiraliste Canadien,\l. , \\. ]-23) suggests that this girdling is iloiie to cause the 

 cane to bie:ik oft" and eiialde tlie larva to transform ^vithiu the Ijrokeu cauc, or else leave it and enter the 

 ground for that puiijose. The habit of the larva precludes the possibility of either of these hyiiotheses 

 being coiTect. After the girdled tip is dead and broken olf, the larva that hatcheil in it is burrowing in 

 the still standing cane; and no stem-boring lai-va that I am acquainted Avith le.ivcs the stem to transform 

 in the ground. The most plausible explanation, it seems to me, is that the gir<lling in this instance' is 

 only one of the many provisions ■\vhic)i insects are known to make to prevent the growing plant t'ssues 

 from cnishing or drowning the egg before it hatches. 



tXrans. Ills. State Hort. 



isr.7, p. -IW; Trans. Iowa Stale Ilorl Sue, IsUO, ). 20. 



\Am. Kniomoloiiixt, I, i*. KiT. 



