i-"^^ GARDEN FOES. 



is a tubercle used a^s a pro-leg. Ific general colour of the 

 larviT? is yellowish, with the back a deeper and more 

 bi'ownish-yellow tint, and the head brown. The true legs 

 of the larva? are six in number, and are fairly long and 

 hairy. After passing the winter months as hibernating 

 pupoe, the beetles make then- first appearance about the 

 middle of April or beginning of May, the exact date vary- 

 ing with the climatic conditions of the season, a cold 

 spring always retarding their final metamorphosis. On 

 emerging from their pupiie cases the beetles betake them- 

 selves to various flowers, particularly those of the Rasp- 

 berry, attacking both the fully-expanded blossoms and the 

 unopened flower-buds, piercing a hole and eating their 

 way right into the latter, and greedily devouring the 

 stamens and j)etals of the unopened blossoms. As these 

 beetles are present on the raspberry canes the whole time 

 they are in flower, very few of the blossoms, if any, cscajie 

 injury; while the resulting fruit from those flowers which 

 escape the depredations of the perfect beetle fall a ])rey 

 to its hungry larvie. Towards the middle or end of the 

 flowering time of the raspberry canes the female beetle 

 deposits her eggs on or near the blossoms, and the larvas 

 on hatching from the eggs, at once enter the young fruit, 

 on which they feed. With the ripening of the fruit the 

 larval stage of the beetle's existence comes to an end, 

 and the now full-grown and full-fed larva (juits tlie I'uinrd 

 fruit, and, seeking some cosy, sheltered crack oi- crann,\- 

 in the stem or bark of the raspberry, forms a cocoon in 

 which to pass the pupal state of its life, which hists 

 throughout the winter months. 



Remedies.— The best method of combating this pest at 

 present known is to spread old sacks and cloths smeared 

 with a sticky paste of soft soap and parafiin, or tar, undei' 

 the bushes on dull and chilly days, and then to carefully 

 shake the branches, so that the beetks will fall on to the 

 sticky cloths. It is most important that these operations 

 should only be carried out during dull, cloudy weather, 

 when the beetles are somewhat torpid and sluggish in 



