LEPIDOPTERA. 235 



municating with its burrow, to admit of the more ready passage of 

 its castings, and to afford it the means of escape when it is trans- 

 formed to a moth. The inferior size of the fruit affords an indi- 

 cation of the operations of the borers ; and the perforated stems 

 frequently break off at the part affected, or, if of sufficient size 

 still to support the weight of the foliage and fruit, they soon be- 

 come sickly, and finally die. In some gardens, nearly every cur- 

 rant bush has been attacked by these borers ; and instances are 

 known to me wherein all attempts to raise currant-bushes from 

 cuttings have been baffled, during the second or third year of the 

 growth of the plants, by the ravages of these insects. They com- 

 plete their transformations, and appear in the moth state, about the 

 middle of June. The moth is of a blue-black color ; its wings 

 are transparent, but veined and fringed with black, and across the 

 tips of the anterior pair there is a broad band, which is more or 

 less tinged with copper-color ; the under-side of the feelers, the 

 collar, the edges of the shoulder-covers, and three very narrow 

 rings on the abdomen, are golden yellow. The wings expand 

 three quarters of an inch, or a little more. 



Some years ago, it was ascertained that a species of JEgeria 

 inhabited the pear-tree in this State ; and it is said that consider- 

 able injury has resulted from it. An infested tree may be known 

 by the castings thrown out of the small perforations made by the 

 borers, which live under the bark of the trunk, and subsist chiefly 

 upon the inner bark. They make their cocoons under the bark, 

 and change to chrysalids in the latter part of summer. The 

 winged insects appear in the autumn, having, like others of this 

 kind, left their chrysalis skins projecting from the orifice of the 

 holes which they had previously made. In its winged form, this 

 iEgeria is very much like that which inhabits the currant-bush ; 

 but it is a smaller species. It was described by me in the year 

 1830, under the name of JEgeria Pyri, the pear-tree iEgeria ; 

 and my account of it will be found on the second page of the 

 ninth volume of the "New England Farmer." Its wings expand 

 rather more than half an inch ; are transparent, but veined, border- 

 ed, and fringed with purplish black, and across the tips of the fore- 

 wings is a broad dark band glossed with coppery tints ; the pre- 

 vailing color of the upper side of the body is purple-black ; but 



