426 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 



CURRANT. STALKS. 



or livid color, shining, with a chestnut-colored head and a horny 

 spot of the same hue on top of the neck and of the last segment, 

 and with faint dots symmetrically arranged, each yielding a very 

 ^fine short hair. Burying itself about a month, the moth coming 

 out in July, its fore wings rusty red clouded with gray and black- 

 ish, with the usual round and kidney-shaped spots near their 

 centre large, pale gray or white, and beyond these spots a broad 

 bluish-gray band parallel with the hind margin and not reaching 

 the outer edge, this band margined on its hind side by tawny yel- 

 low followed by a wavy white line extending across the wing and 

 ending outwardly in a large gray spot which occupies the tip. 

 Colors and marks sometimes dull and obscui-e, sometimes bright 

 and distinct. Width 1.80. 



This is one of our most common night-flying moths. Having 

 been found arranged with British species in some old English col- 

 lections it was supposed to be a native of that country and was 

 described as such by Mr. Stephens, who conjectured it to be the 

 species named arnica by Treitscke. Now that it is so evident that 

 this was an error it is improper to continue using tliis name for 

 this species, and I therefore propose for it a new one having refe- 

 rence to the habits of the larva, this being the first characteristic''* 

 which comes into the mind, commonly, when this insect is thought 

 of. By this insect in addition to the borers above mentioned 

 Nature endeavors to lop off all that redundancy of stalks which 

 the roots of the currant produce and which man neglects to 

 remove. See Harris's Treatise, p. 350. 



Apple bark louse. No. 15. I have occasionally seen the bank 

 of both the garden and the wild currant crowded with these 

 minute oyster-shaped scales, the stalks being commonly dead in 

 consequence of their attack. A currant stalk thus excessively 

 over-run may be seen in the Entomological Museum of the Society. 



139. Circular bark louse, Aspidiotus circularise new species. (Iloraop- 

 tera. Coccidae. 



On the bark of currant stalks in gardens of the city of Albany, 

 early in the spring, I have observed a minute circular flat scale, 

 only 0.03 in diameter, similar to a species named Aspidiotus J\'Vrn\ 

 but differently colored, being of the same blackish brown hue 

 witli the surrounding bark and having in the centre a smooth 

 round wart-like elevation of a pale yellow color. 



