The Less Prominent Insects 



249 



making it difficult to detect. No practical remedy seems to be 

 available. 



The giant root-borer, Prionus laticollis, Dm. (Fig. 34), is a very 

 large beetle, two or three inches long, which works in the roots of 

 blackberries, and other plants. Its 

 presence in the blackberry is indicated 

 by the sudden dying of one or more 

 canes in a hill. The insect is not 

 common and can be controlled by 

 digging up and destroying the plants 

 when the injury first appears. 



The raspberry leaf-roller, Exartema 

 permundanum, Clemens, sometimes at- 

 tacks the leaves of raspberries and 

 blackberries, webbing them together 

 in May and June. The larva is dark 

 green with a pitchy-black head and 

 thoracic shield. Although generally 

 distributed in the eastern states it 

 seldom does serious damage. Hand- 

 picking or early spraying with arsenites will control it if treatment 

 becomes necessary. 



The negro-bug, Corimelcena pulicaria, Germar, causes trouble by 

 its presence hi ripe fruit of berries of all kinds. It is a small, shiny 

 black bug about one-eighth of an inch long, with a white stripe on 

 each side of the body. It gives a disagreeable "bed-bug aroma" to 

 the fruit. No feasible means of control is known. 



Several scale insects may become prevalent on brambles at times. 

 Perhaps the commonest is the rose scale, others being the oyster- 

 shell and scurfy scales and the European fruit lecanium. 



Other enemies are leaf-rollers, the red-humped apple caterpillar, 

 climbing cutworms, the apple leaf-hopper, flea-beetles, clover-mite, 

 strawberry root-worms, and other insects. 



34. Giant Root-borer. 

 Prionus laticollis. 



