The meat in your fruit

Watch out those of you who are vegetarians or vegans because there is meat all around! The raspberry season has been spectacular this year and this particular droop is exceeding its lowly cousin the blackberry by a mile. Not only are the raspberry fruits plentiful but they are large, sweet and juicy also. I have been picking a fair few each time I have ventured into the garden and squelched their freshness onto my tongue whilst their pips have juicily jumped down my throat like miniature pomegranate pips. However, recently I nearly got caught out by a tiny green meaty fellow that was so tiny I was only awakened by what appeared to be a little green hair that momentarily seemed to be moving. On closer inspection there was a tiny hair-like worm which I think may have been a newly hatched raspberry beetle in its first stage of life.

Raspberry beetle grub Byturus tomentosus, weaving silk in the centre of a raspberry droop

Close-up pictures of my raspberry, together with its newly hatched grub; pictures of the tiny green hairs that grow between the tiny fruit seeds