2 26 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



The Ichneumon. (See question 64s.) 



The insect sent with your letter of April 17th, and which was received from a 

 correspondent who had found it emerging from a hole as large as a pigeon shot 

 in an old plum tree, and, as he states, leaving a cocoon at the outlet of one of 

 the holes ; is a beneficial insect. It belongs to the Ichneumon flies, all of which 

 are parasitic upon other insects. The holes are probably the work of some 

 boring beetle which had attacked the tree in its larval state. Mr. W. H. Har- 

 rington, of Ottawa, who is our leading Canadian specialist in Hymenoptera^ 

 thinks that, as far as he can judge from the crushed fragment forwarded by you, 

 the species is Ichneumon acerbus. . J. Fletcher. 



Russian Apricot. (See question 646.) 



I explain how I got my trees in bearing. I had a seedling tree of which 

 the pit came from Russia. This was often completely covered with bloom, and 

 that early, but not one would set. I concluded to graft another kind on it, or 

 else kill it. I grafted on Budd and Gibb. On the second year they were cov- 

 ered with, bloom, both the grafts and the original top; and indeed the fruit of 

 the seedling was better than that from the grafts. Since that it has never failed, 

 until lately the borers are destroying the tree. 



D. B. Hoover, Abnira^ Ont. 



The Raspberry Beetle. 



A small black beetle has of late been doing serious injury to the raspberry 

 canes about Grimsby, by eating out the fruit buds, and thus destroying the crop. 

 Spraying with Paris green seemed useless, so we enclosed some samples to Mr. 

 Fletcher, Entomologist of the Central Experimental Farm, who replies as 

 follows : 



The beetles you send in the bottle are the Spotted Paria, Paria sep-notata Say. This 

 a most injurious insect and has done much damage to raspberries in the way you describe, 

 at St. Catharines. It seems to be very difficult to kill. I would suggest you spray the 

 raspberry bushes at once with Paris green and slacked lime, one pound of Paris green to 

 25 of lime. This is easiest applied by putting it in a bag of cheese cloth and shaking or 

 tapping it over the bushes. Of course, if you can get a morning when there is dew on 

 them, so much the better. They may be also killed in large numbers by beating or shaking 

 the insects off the canes into an open pan containing water with a little coal oil on the top. 

 A good plan for collecting them is to hold an open and inverted umbrella beneath the canes, 

 and then brush the insects out into tlie coal oil pan. I shall be much obliged if you will 

 try both of these remedies and let me know whether or not they succeed. 



