Raspberry crown borer

Pennisetia marginata

Although the adult raspberry borer is a moth, it resembles a yellowjacket wasp. Belonging to the family of clearwing moths, it has a wingspan of about 1 inch and has a black body with four yellow horizontal stripes on the abdomen as well as stripes on the thorax. The legs are yellow, and the feathery antennae, unlike the short antennae of a yellowjacket wasp, curve outward from the head.
The raspberry crown borer takes 2 years to complete its life cycle. The female raspberry crown borer moth lays up to 140 reddish brown eggs most often on the underside edges of caneberry leaflets in late summer. Once hatched, larvae migrate to the base of the caneberry plant where they either dig into the base of cane and form a blisterlike hibernaculum or find a protected area in the bark and stay there for the winter. With the onset of spring the following year, the larva begins to burrow galleries through the crown of the plant and continues to do so through the first summer. The second winter is spent in the roots; the larva is about 0.4 to 0.9 inches (1.3–2 cm) long at this time. The second summer, the excavation continues in the roots and crown. At midsummer of the second year, the larva is full-grown, measuring 1 to 1.5 inches (2.5–3.3 cm) long. It undergoes a short pupation period of 2 to 3 weeks in the burrow in the crown and emerges as an adult moth. Adult moths are active from early August to late September and may be seen during the day resting on foliage.

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