INSECT AND OTHER PLANT ENEMIES. 



73 



Coach-horse is an inveterate enemy of the ear- 

 wig, destroying large numbers of them, and 

 should be encouraged. 



Raspberry Beetle (Byturus tomentosus). — 

 This is a small oblong beetle about 

 H to If line long. The body is 

 reddish-brown with a pitchy head 

 and shoulders, but the whole is more 

 or less covered with a yellowish-gray 

 down. When the Raspberry is in 

 bloom the flowers are infested by 

 the beetles, which have then reached 

 the perfect state. The females lay 

 their eggs by the side of the young 

 fruit, and the larvae soon after pene- 

 trate this, feeding upon it, and reach- 

 ing their full size by the time the 

 fruit is ripe. The grubs are then 

 dirty-white, with a brown head and 

 six legs, and, leaving the fruit, form 

 a cocoon in some crevice of the stem 

 or other shelter, where they pass the winter, and, 

 reaching the perfect state, attack the flowers in 

 spring. 



Remedies. — A most effective plan of destroy- 

 ing this beetle would be to collect all the fruits 

 that contain a maggot and burn or bury them 

 deeply. The process would be a tedious one, 

 nor can the affected fruits always be determined 

 without pulling them off. A more practical 

 method would be to use tarred trays, boxes, 

 or old sacks, into which the beetles could be 

 shaken in the early morning while sluggish; 

 during the day they fly away when disturbed. 



The fore- wings are shining -brown with four 

 yellow spots near the anterior margin, and two 

 larger ones near the hinder margin. The cater- 

 pillars are red with a black head, and \ inch long. 



Fig. 89.— Raspberry Beetle (Byturus tomentosus). 



1,2. Raspberry Beetles (magnified). 3. Natural size. 4. Maggot (magnified) 



5. Natural length. 6. Infested Raspberry fruit. 



They may also be attacked in the pupa state by 

 cutting away all the old canes after the fruit 

 has been gathered, and burning them at once. 

 In like manner clear away all other rubbish. 



Red-bud Caterpillar (Lampronia EubieUa). 

 — The moth is slightly under \ inch in expanse. 



Fig. 90.— Red-bud Caterpillar (Lampronia Rubiella). 



1. Moth (magnified); 2, natural size. 3. Caterpillar (natural size). 4. Caterpillar (enlarged). 



5. Caterpillar (greatly magnified and natural size). 6. Chrysalis (greatly magnified). 



They live through the winter and enter the leaf- 

 buds, gnawing their way downwards into the 

 pith of the shoot, which ultimately withers, if 

 not already destroyed in the bud stage. When 

 the caterpillar passes through the pupa to the 

 perfect state, the females lay their eggs in the 

 fully open flower, and the caterpillars live in 

 the white core of the fruit till the latter is ripe, 

 and, leaving this, hibernate till spring, when 

 they penetrate the leaf-buds as their parents did 

 the year before. 



Remedies. — The most certain plan of checking 

 the ravages of this insect is to cut off the tips 

 of the shoots as soon as they show clear 

 evidence of the caterpillars at work inside 

 them, dropping them into close baskets 

 as the work proceeds. At short intervals 

 the baskets should be emptied on to a fire 

 kindled for the purpose, or into the fur- 

 nace of a hothouse boiler. 



Yellow Aphis (SiphonopJiora luted). — 

 The larvae and wingless females vary from 

 greenish-yellow to clear shining-yellow, 

 and the latter have a brown or black patch 

 on the back. The winged females are 

 greenish-yellow with long wings. It in- 

 fests the flowers of Orchids at all seasons. 

 In company with it another species may 

 often be found, namely S. circumflexa, which 

 varies from pale-green to yellow. The wingless 

 females have a horse-shoe shaped black blotch 

 on the back and the winged females have a 

 triangular olive or black blotch on the back, or 

 this may be broken up into four blotches of 

 different sizes. 



