STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 423 



CnRRANT. STALKS. 



them, the shrivelled remains of the worm from which these par- 

 asites came gave indications of its having been a Lepidopterous 

 rather than a Coleopterous larva. Five of these parasitic worms 

 had come from it, but of this number three were so weak and 

 immature that they died without forming their cocoons. 



We have only to state in conclusion, that the utter carelessness 

 with which the currant is treated in most of our gardens, with a 

 thicket of young shoots annually left unpruned and crowding upon 

 and smothering each other, gives these borers and other pernicious 

 insects the utmost facilities for lurking unmolested and pursu- 

 ing their devastating work without interruption. Were this shrub 

 suitably trimmed and kept thinned out to only three or four stalks 

 from each root these stalks growing freely exposed to the light 

 and air would be little if any infested by these depredating 

 insects. 



As these worms remain in the dead stalks through the winter 

 their destruction is easily effected. By breaking off all the dead 

 brittle stalks at the surface of the ground and burning them these 

 borers may at once be exterminated from the garden. Eut they 

 will soon find their way back again unless the bushes are well 

 pruned every year. 



135. EcROPKAX CCRRANT BORER, TrochUium Tlpuliforme Linn. (Lepidop- 

 tera. Trochiliidse.) 



Feeding upon the pith of currant stalks causing them to 

 perish, a small whitish worm with a darker line along the middle 

 of its back and a brown head and legs; changing to a pupa with- 

 in the stalks, and the fore part of June giving out tlie perfect 

 insect, which is a small niotli liaving some resemblance to a wasp, 

 its wings being clear and glassy, the fore pair opake yellowish at 

 their tips, with a black margin and band near the middle, and the 

 abdomen black with three yellow bands situated one upon each 

 alt<'rnate seejiiicnt. Width 0.65 to 0.85. 



This insect, to which the common names of Currant hawk- 

 moth and Currant clear-wing are given in Kn^iish works will be 

 more readily known in this country by tlie namt- which we have 

 appended to it. A short history of it is c^iven in Br. Harris's 

 Treatise, p. 255, under the name JEgeria Tipulifonnls. The reason 



