80 
RASPBERRY. 
Red Maggot; Gall Midge Maggot. ? Lasioptera Rubi, Heeg. 
On the 2nd of November a packet of Raspberry twigs was forwarded 
to me by Mr. C. Whitehead, of Barming House, near Maidstone, with 
the note that they bad been forwarded to him as being infested with 
some plant-pests in the places abnormally swollen. 
On examination these stem-galls or swellings proved to be inhabited 
by one or more maggots of the same nature as the Red Maggot of the 
Wheat Midge, noted at p. 31, though differing from it in gall¬ 
making habits. It was impossible to name the species from speci¬ 
mens still not advanced beyond maggot-state, but the description of 
the injury caused by the Lasioptera Rubi (Heeg.) corresponds almost 
precisely with the condition of the specimens sent. 
It is stated by Kaltenbach that these grubs (the larvse of the 
Lasioptera Rubi , Heeg.) live in companies in woody stem-galls, and 
are to be found in Raspberry stems. The reddish maggots cause 
round swellings of the stem, in which they lie apart from each other. 
The galls ivhich remain through the winter produce their flies in the spring 
(see ‘ Die Pflanzenfeinde, Insekten,’ p. 238). The flies reared from 
galls of the above kind by Kaltenbach himself were considered by him 
to be of Lasioptera argyrosticta , Meig. 
The exact species of what we have cannot be settled without 
seeing the fully-developed insects ; but, judging by what appear to be 
its habits, it appears that increase of the attack might be quite 
checked by carefully cutting away all the stems that bear these 
roundish swellings or galls on them before the time at which the flies 
or midge-gnats come out in the spring, and carefully destroying these 
galls. They should all be burnt, not on any account thrown to the 
rubbish-heap, or the maggots in the galls would develop to midge- 
gnats just as perfectly there as on the stems. 
It would be very desirable to stamp out an attack of this kind at 
once, or it might increase to a cause of serious loss in bush-fruit 
farming; and there is no difficulty in making sure whether it is 
present by just cutting through a swelling or two to see whether there 
are maggots within. 
This attack is also found on the stems of one and possibly of 
several kinds of Brambles ; therefore, clearing away Blackberries— 
that is, Bramble plants—from hedges near Raspberry grounds would 
be very desirable. 
