THE RASPBERRY AND MAGPIE MOTHS. 13 



The Raspberry Moth. 



Lampronia ruliella, Bjerk. 



The small pinkish-red caterpillars of this beautiful little moth, have 

 proved very destructive to raspberry canes in Buckinghamshire and 

 elsewhere. 



The eggs are laid upon the raspberry flowers towa'rds the end 

 of May, and hatch out in about five or six days, when the larva maybe 

 found in the small white receptacle upon which the fruits develope. 

 It next makes its way out of the receptacle, and either crawls or 

 lowers itself by means of silken cords, to the earth ; here it forms 

 a small, flat, white, silky cocoon, in w r hich it remains for the winter. 

 Up to this period it has not fed upon the fruits. Hibernation 

 continues until early in the spring, March or April. The caterpillar 

 is about a quarter of an inch long and of a pinkish-red colour. 

 The head is black, and on the first segment there are two fused 

 patches of black. It now commences to crawl up the canes, and 

 makes its way into the base of the buds. Later it eats its way into 

 the pith of the canes, just below the base of a bud, where it remains 

 as a pupa for about three weeks. 



PREVENTATIVE AND REMEDIAL MEASURES. 



The ground around the canes and poles should be deeply buried, 

 in order to kill the hibernating caterpillars. The lower parts of the 

 canes should also be painted with a mixture of soft-soap and paraffin 

 early in March, so as to prevent the caterpillars from crawling up 

 to the buds. Badly infested canes should be cut and burnt as soon 

 as the caterpillars are noticed. 



The Magpie Moth. 



Abra.cas yrossulariata, Stephens. 



The attacks upon currant bushes of the caterpillars of this moth have 

 not been particularly injurious. In connection with another much 

 more injurious pest, the black-currant gall-mite, I have had to 

 examine large numbers of currant bushes, and excepting where the 

 bushes were growing against walls, all were particularly free from 

 either the caterpillars or pupae of this moth ; the former were found 

 to have numerous caterpillars and pupae on them. 



THL-; MAGPIE MOTH (Abraxas grossttlariata, Steph.y. 

 Figs. 15 and 16. The moth and larva. 



