DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS. 



203 



The Native Currant Worm ( Gymnonychus appendiculatus) is 

 now rarely seen on cultivated currants or gooseberries ; hence 

 need not be discussed here. 



The Currant Spanworm {Eufitchia ribearia) (Fig. 271), is 

 occasionally destructive to currants and gooseberries in cer- 

 tain localities. It is a bright yellow looping caterpillar with 

 black spots, that hatches in the spring from eggs laid on the 

 twigs in the fall by a 

 pale yellowish moth 

 with several dusky spots 

 on its wings. Hellebore 

 or Paris green, used as 

 recommended for the 

 green currant worm, 

 will destroy these span- 

 worms. 



Th e Raspberry - cane 

 Borer ( Oberea bimacu- 

 lata) is sometimes a se- 

 rious pest in raspberry 

 and blackberry planta- 

 tions. The adult insect 

 is a slender dark-colored 

 beetle, about one -half 



an inch long, and with a yellow thorax. The beetles appear in 

 June, and the female with her mandibles makes two rows of 

 punctures, about an inch apart, around the growing cane near 

 the tip. She then deposits an egg in the cane midway be- 

 tween the punctures which serve to girdle the cane and cause it 

 to droop and wither. The little white grub soon hatches from 

 the egg, and proceeds to tunnel its way down the pith of the 

 cane. Recent observations indicate that the grub lives in the 

 cane for two seasons, often extending its tunnel down to the 

 ground, where it transforms through the pupa stage to the 

 beetle. 



This borer is easily controlled by cutting off when first no- 

 ticed all canes with drooping tips several inches below where 

 they are girdled ; this will destroy the young grubs. Later, 

 when harvesting the fruit, the infested canes can often be 

 detected by their sickly appearance or the drying of the 



FIG. 270. Imported Currant Worm. Larvae. 



