SUMMER MEETING. 77" 



so well to prepare the delicious pies and sauces which graced the tables of the 

 time, and also from which she made the ruby, transparent jellies and wines so 

 palatable and appetizing to the fevered mouth of her sick neighbor. 



As the sturdy New England people moved farther to the west, with their 

 other fruits they brought, also their currant, and now, as we go through the 

 gardens and farms of the west, we may still see this healthful fruit hanging in 

 beautiful clusters from the bushes. 



For some unaccountable reason the vigor of the currant bush was not 

 allowed to continue, but, like most of our cultivated plants, became infested 

 with numerous insect enemies, which have materially lessened the profits, and, 

 in many instanc s, where sufficient preventive measures had been neglected, 

 entirely destroyed the plants. 



There is hardly a plant, either cultivated or uncultivated, that has not its 

 insect, enemies; and like these, the currant, even in its wild state, in this 

 country, has its enemies. As these have done no very extensive damage, I will 

 not mention any of them, but proceed to more destructive ones, imported from 

 Europe. 



The first of these to do any very great damage was the imported gooseberry 

 saw-fly, Nematus ventricosus, commonly known as the currant worm, but in- 

 correctly. Properly tnis is not a worm at all but the larva of the saw-fly. 

 This insect appeared in 1858, is a European species, and is so well known that 

 a description here is unnecessary. This is undoubtedly the most destructive of 

 any currant insect up to this date, though when the proper remedy, white hel- 

 lebore, is used in time does little damage. It is a strange fact that all the im- 

 ported iusects or we^ds, probably from the change of climate or of soil, prove 

 more destructive than when in their native home. 



Thus it is with the insect to which I now call your attention, viz. : the im- 

 ported currant borer, JEgeria tipuliformis. Although the currant has a na- 

 tive borer very similar in habit to the one under consideration, there was little 

 damage observed from this cause until within a few years with the introduction 

 of the imported currant borer. The insect that does the damage is the little 

 white larva of a very pretty wasp-like moth, about three-quarters of an inch in 

 width when the wings are expanded, and a body about seven-sixteenths of an 

 inch in length. The body is of a bright blue-black color, with the abdomen 

 crossed by three narrow golden-yellow bands, one just back of the thorax, 

 another near the caudal end, and the third about half way between these two. 

 The thorax is also marked by two bands of the same color running longitud- 

 inally back from the head between the wings. These are slightly wider in the 

 center. At the extremity of the abdomen is a fan-like expansion of the scales. 

 The wings are gauzy and transparent, margined with a brownish-black color, 

 having an iridescent luster. The margin of the forward or first pair of wings 

 is widest toward the extremity, where it gradually widens to the tip, where it 

 forms a broad band. The wing is also crossed by a slightly curved band of 

 the same color. Between this and the outer baud is an oval transparent space, 

 crossed by four veins, made more prominent by their color. 



The second pair of wings is not barred but is only margined. The outer 

 and back margin is fringed by the projection of a great number of very nar- 

 row scales 



The moth usually aj>pears about the middle of June, but this year, on ac- 

 count of the early season, it appeared a little earlier, and may now be seen 

 flitting about among the bushes, now sipping the nectar from the flower of 



