434 Insect, Fungus, and other Pests. [sept., 



This insect is harmful both in the adult stage as beetle, when 

 it bites the bark of young shoots, and as grub, when it tunnels 

 the wood, sometimes to the very pith. This is the most harmful 

 stage, and the affected shoot may be completely ringed by the 

 grub galleries. Alder (Alnus) is the most commonly infested 

 tree, but the grubs have also been found infesting various 

 willows — Salix caprea, S. viminalis, S. purpurea, S. triandra — 

 and in rarer cases poplar and birch. The adult beetles issuing 

 in May or a little later may be combated by shaking them off 

 the plants on to tarred boards or on to sheets spread for the 

 purpose. As the beetles rest on alder stumps or stems they 

 are not easily seen owing to their protective colouration. Signs 

 of attack are discoloured bark at the place of egg-laying and 

 first attack, falling in of the bark at the place of boring, and the 

 brown bore dust which is pushed to the outside. Adult 

 beetles may be expected at the end of July, so that infested 

 branches should be cut and burned with the enclosed brood of 

 grubs. 



Beetles in Malt. — Specimens of beetles and grubs from 

 Manningtree, found in a heap of English barley malt, were 

 identified as Tribolium ferrugineum, a species which, with its 

 very close ally T. confusum, often proves very troublesome to 

 cereal and other seeds and to stored products, especially those 

 of a farinaceous nature, such as flour, meal, grain, peas, beans, 

 &c. The pale-coloured eggs are laid on the food or other 

 material, or in cracks or crevices in the receptacle containing 

 the product. The eggs hatch into larvae, and in favourable 

 temperatures the development is soon completed. The new 

 generation proceeds to egg-laying and the number of beetles soon 

 becomes large. If the infested grain be placed in an air-tight 

 box and fumigated with bisulphide of carbon the pests will 

 be destroyed. Fumigation may be carried out in the manner 

 described in Leaflet No. 150. 



Beetle on Raspberries. — Specimens of raspberry buds infested 

 with the beetle By turns tomentosus were received from Twicken- 

 ham. This beetle in its adult stage attacks the blossom, while 

 the grubs infest the fruit. Where the beetles are present in 

 numbers they should be jarred off the plants into a vessel con- 

 taining paraffin or on to a tarred board. When full fed the 

 grubs become pupae, which pass the winter either in the soil 



