115 



The larvae sometimes prove quite destructive to raspberry and black- 

 berry plants by producing a kind of gall or swelling at the point 

 where it works its way into the pith. This swelled part, which is 

 usuall}' an inch or so long, is split up into numerous short, rough, 

 brownish, longitudinal slits. These are placed over the burrow of the 

 larva, which runs around the axis of the cane, in which or in the 

 pith the borer may be found. 



In Southern Illinois the latter part of April, but later in more 

 northern latitudes, it penetrates to the pith, probably to find a more 

 sure retreat from its insect foes, and also on account of the hardening 

 of the wood of the canes. The beetle comes out in June and July, 

 and the female probably deposits her eggs on the young canes a week 

 or two later. 



The only remedy which has been suggested, and, in fact, the only 

 one needed if attended to properly and in time, is to cut out all the 

 infested canes in spring, and burn them carefully before the beetle 

 has emerged from them. If this is done it will prove as near a speci- 

 fic as any remedy which can be applied to insect pests. 



Mr. Miller, of Anna, Illinois, says these borers infest the Philadel- 

 phia and Doolittle raspberries and the Wilson blackberry, but are 

 seldom found in the high-bush or royal-cane varieties. Prof. Halde- 

 man found them in the Antwerp raspberries also. 



Spec. char. Imago. — Head and thorax of a brilliant coppery color. 

 The head is quite broad as compared with the thorax, which it 

 equals, but the length is scarcely more than a third the width, deeply 

 immersed in the thorax. Form of thorax and body similar to the 

 preceding; the head similarly indented. The elytra are somewhat 

 rough, and at the tips are serrate; black or tinged with dull copper 

 color. There are some varieties which have the thorax of an obscure 

 green, while in others it is of the same dark color as the elytra. 

 Length about one-fourth of an inch ; width but little more than one- 

 fourth the length. 



Family ELATEPvIDiE. 



The insects which belong to this family are well known by the 

 common names, "shipping-jacks,'' " snapping-beetles," etc., given 

 them on account of the habit they have of throwing themselves up- 

 wards with a sudden jerk when laid upon their backs. The hind 

 margin of the presternum or front breast is prolonged backwards into 

 a sharp spine, which jets into a cavity formed for it in the mesoster- 

 num or middle breast ; but this differs from that of the preceding family 

 in being movable, while that is immovable. As the body is some- 

 what flattened and the legs short they have been provided with this 

 arrangement to enable them to regain their feet. The species are 

 usually long and narrow ; the head rather small and deeply immersed 

 in the thorax ; in a few cases the sides of the thorax are parallel, but 

 usually these are more or less rounded, and the thorax narrowed in 

 front ; the posterior corners are prolonged backwards into sharp spines 

 which extend along the shoulders of the wing-cases. The wing-case 

 (elytra) are generally striate or grooved, and taper toward the tips. 



