158 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



INJURIOUS INSECTS 



BYTURUS UNICOLOR Say 



Pale brown Byturus 



Ord. Coleoptera : Fam. Dermestidae 



A number of examples of this small beetle were brought to me May 

 23, by Dr C. H. Peck, state botanist, with the information that from 

 one to five or more were to be found in the opening buds of his rasp- 

 berry plants. A little later he informed me that his bushes had been 

 injured to a considerable extent by the work of this species. The attack 

 is of considerable interest, as there is no record of its having proved 

 injurious since 1870, when Dr Fitch noticed briefly the work of its larvae 

 upon the fruit. Lack of record by no means indicates its absence; on 

 the contrary it is more probable that considerable of the unknown injury 

 to raspberry plants, indicated by failure to bear well, has been caused by 

 the work of this insect. 



Injuries and distribution. The beetles not only eat into the fruit 

 buds of the plant, thereby destroying the berry at its inception, but, 

 according to Dr Packard, may also eat long strips in the leaves. Dr 

 Fitch states that the white larvae of the insect are very common on the 

 fruit throughout the country, their presence rendering the berries unfit 

 for food. The earliest injuries known are those in Massachusetts and 

 New York in 1870, the former by the beetles to the leaves and fruit buds 

 and the latter by the larvae to the fruit itself. In 1873, William 

 Saunders reported this species as very 'destructive to the blossoms, 

 presumably in the vicinity of Ottawa, Canada. At Lansing, Mich., 

 much damage was inflicted on raspberry blossoms by this or a closely 

 allied species in 1885, according to Prof. C. P. Gillette. The beetles 

 were again destructive in Canada in 1887, appearing in numbers and 

 doing considerable damage to the buds and flowers (Fletcher). In her 

 15th report for the year 1893, Miss Ormerod records serious and wide- 

 spread injuries to raspberries in England by the closely allied Byturus 

 tomentosus. The damage done in England may be taken as an indica- 

 tion of the injury that our American form may possibly inflict. Besides 

 feeding on the raspberry, B. unicolor was observed by Prof. Webster eat- 

 ing out the blossom buds of a species of Geiim^ either I'ivale or alburn. 



