420 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW- YORK 



CURRANT. STALKS. 



ed to this genus oi plants but feeds also upon several other small 

 shrubs growing in our fields and forests, the stalks of which have 

 a texture similar to that of the currant. I infer this from the first 

 pair of these insects w^hich I met with, twenty-five years ago. j 

 occurring upon the small-tlowered honeysuckle {Lonicera parvi- 

 fiora) near which no currant bushes w^ere growing. 



The LARVA of this insect is nearly or quite 0.30 long and about 0.07 in 

 diameter, cylindrical and divided into thirteen segments by deep wide trans- 

 verse constrictions, the last segment being narrower and more or less retracted 

 into the one which precedes it. The head is scarcely half as broad as the body, 

 short and wide, flattened, dark chestnut brown with the base whitish and with 

 short stout triangular black jaws. The second segment or first ring is pale 

 tawny yellow above on its anterior part, the rest of this ring and all the remain- 

 ing segments being white, rarely straw yellow, shining, soft and flesh-like. It 

 is wholl}' destitute of feet. To compensate for this deficiency the worm upon the 

 back and beneath is furnished with a cluster of small round tubercles or elevated 

 dots forming an oval spot upon the middle of each segment, whereby it is aided 

 no doubt in clinging to the walls of its burrow as it moves about therein. The 

 breathing pores form a row of cinnamon brown dots along each side. The body is 

 slightly clothed with very fine short hairs, w^hich on the last segment are more 

 numerous and rather longer. 



The BEETLE is 0.18 to 0.23 long, the thorax almost as wide as the wing 

 covers and nearly as broad as it is long, with its sides convex. The head and 

 thorax are covered Avith small deep confluent punctures, those upon the wing 

 covers are much more coarse and are deep and confluent except on the tips 

 where they become smaller and slightly separated. The wing covers have a 

 broad round elevated spot or tubercle at their base, and a narrower hump upon 

 the shoulder. Its color is black with the margins of the wing covers and tho- 

 rax pale chestnut brown. The wing covers have a large milk-white spot 

 beyond their middle, which is transverse, crescent-shaped with the convex side 

 forward, the inner end slightly separated from the suture and the outer end 

 often reaching to the outer margin; and forward of their middle are two small 

 spots which are sometimes buff yellow, sometimes ash-gray, the forward spot 

 being a short oblique line placed nearer to the suture than to the outer margin, 

 the other spot being a small dot which is often oblong, situated back of the 

 inner end of the first and nearly as far from it as from the suture. All these 

 spots are formed by very short hairs or more properly scales, which are 

 appressed to the surface and in old individuals become rubbed so that the for- 

 ward spots are more obscure or partially obliterated. The scutel is ash-gray 

 from similar scales. The antennae are pale chestnut brown, commonly with a 

 darker brown or blackish band on the thickened apex of each joint, and they 

 are thickly covered with short fine incumbent ash-gray hairs which in a par- 

 ticular reflection of the light give a gray color to the basal portion of the long- 

 est joints. They are shorter than the body, thread-like, their first joint thick- 

 est, long and tapering to its base, their second joint short, but little longer 



