THE RASPBERRY-CANE MAGGOT 261 



then proceeds to girdle the cane inside the bark. The part above 

 the girdle soon wilts, turns to a dark blue color and dies. The 

 effect is usually to kill the entire shoot also. The larva continues 

 to bore downward in the dead or dying cane, transforms to a pupa 

 near the base, and there remains until the following spring, when 

 it emerges as the adult fly. 



Although often a serious pest, the insect may readily be over- 

 come. If the wilting tips are gathered and burned as soon as 

 noticed, which will usually be during May, the work of those 

 larvre will be forever ended. Professor Slingerland also found* 

 that many of the pupse were destroyed by a hymenopterous para- 

 site, Idiasta incomplete!,. 



THE PALE BROWN BYTURUS (Fig. 35) 

 Byturus unicolor, Say. Order Coleoptera Family Dermestidre 



Saunders, Ins. Inj. Frts. 310. 



French, Trans. 111. Hort. Soc. 1881: 198. 



Fitch, N. Y. Rep. 14: 358. 



Jayne, Proc. Amer. Philosoph. Soc. 1882: 345. 



This insect is a doubly troublesome one, on account of the 

 injury and annoyance which it causes both in the perfect and in 

 the larval state. The mature insect is a small beetle about three - 

 twentieths of an inch long, of a yellowish brown 

 or pale reddish color, and densely covered with 

 fine, pale yellow hairs. In this form it is injur- 

 ious to raspberries and blackberries by eating into 

 the flower buds and destroying the sexual organs. 

 A hole in the side of the bud will show where 

 the beetle has entered. When the injury is com- 

 plete, the buds usually wither and fail to open: , Flg ' 35t . 



' turns unicolor. 

 if only partial, the flower may expand, but only 



to develop an imperfect, worthless berry. It also attacks the 

 open flowers, partially hiding at the base of the stamens. It 



* Local citation. 



