414 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



should be cut off several inches below the girdled point and 

 burned. This may be done best late in May or in June after all 

 the eggs are laid. 



The Raspberry Saw-fly * 



Occasionally raspberry leaves, as well as those of blackberry 

 and dewberry, are skeletonized in May by small green, spiny 

 saw-fly larvae, which sometimes quite defoliate the plant. Such 

 injury has been commonly noted in the Eastern and Central 

 States. The adult female is a typical saw-fly about one-quarter 

 inch long and with a wing expanse of one-half inch. The body 

 and wings are black except the second and sixth abdominal seg- 

 ments, which are yellowish-white, and the under side is rusty. 

 The male is somewhat smaller and is entirely black except the 

 shoulders, which are yellowish-white. 



Life History. The adults appear about the middle of May 

 in central New York, and the females deposit their eggs late in 

 that month. The eggs are inserted just under the cuticle of the 

 under surface of the leaf, and the tissue around them turns 

 yellowish, so that infested leaves soon become spotted on the upper 

 surface. The egg is nearly pear-shaped, yellowish-white, about 

 one-twentieth inch long, and hatches in seven to ten days. As 

 many as twenty-four eggs have been observed in a single leaf, and 

 frequently the leaves are so spotted as to be readily recognized. 

 The young larva is about one-twelfth inch long, yellowish-white or 

 pale yellowish-green and well covered with spiny tubercles, the 

 spines being first white and later dark brown. The young larvae feed 

 on the soft parts of the leaf, but as they grow older all but the midrib 

 and larger veins are devoured. The mature larva is about three- 

 quarters inch long, from light yellowish-green to darkgreen, closely 

 simulating the color of the foliage, and the body is covered with 

 transverse rows of tubercles, bearing a varying number of strong, 

 barbed spines, which are dark brown on the back and pale green 

 or white along the sides. The larva feeds for about ten days and 

 then enters the soil for from two to three inches and there con- 

 structs a small oval cocoon about one third inch long, which looks 

 like a pellet of earth, being formed of a brown mucilaginous sub- 



* Monophadnus rubi Harris. Family Tenthredinidce. See V. H. Lowe, 

 Bulletin 150, N. Y. Agr. Exp. Sta. 



