62 



Raspberry Moth. 



a chrysalis, from which the moth appears in about twenty-one 

 days. The caterpillar is three sixteenths of an inch long, of 

 a red colour, varying in shade from pinky red to scarlet, 

 and becoming darker as it gets older. It has a black head, 

 with a pale central longitudinal line traversing it, two distinct 

 black spots on either side of the segment next the head, three 

 pairs of black legs, on the thoracic segments, four pairs of 

 forelegs, and a pair of anal feet. The chrysalis is a quarter 

 of an inch in length, of a light brown colour, and has 

 two hooks or recurved spines on the back of the last seg- 

 ment but one. These hooks are described by Westwood, 

 and may be easily seen by the help of a magnifying glass. 



As the caterpillars of this moth pass the winter in the 

 earth and rubbish around the stocks of the raspberry canes, 

 remaining there from midsummer until March, it would be 

 well to dig or prong-hoe deeply the earth all round them, so as 

 to destroy or bury the caterpillars deeply. Soot and lime, in 

 the proportion of two bushels of lime to one of soot, might be 

 useful if dug or hoed in close round the canes and scattered 

 over the stocks. Kainit is also a most useful application in the 

 case of these and other larvae in the earth. In field-culture 

 raspberry stocks are pruned closely, and there are but few 

 stems or canes from each stock. After a bad attack it would 

 be desirable, and not very difficult, to put a little thick soft 

 soap mixed with paraffin oil or carbolic acid, or some other 

 offensive, sticky substance, such as cart grease with a little 

 tar or carbolic acid added to it, upon the lower part of the 

 stem of each cane with a large paint brush, so as to prevent 

 the caterpillars from crawling up. Where infestation is very 

 bad, the canes should be cut off and carried away and burned. 

 In gardens and allotments buds seen to be withering may be 

 pulled off or pinched, so as to kill the caterpillars within 

 them. 



It has been noticed that tom-tits are useful in clearing off 

 these caterpillars. They cling to the canes, and with their 

 sharp beaks pull them out of their holes in the buds. 



