CURRANT GALL MITE. 63 



On April 19th (continuing to quote from Mr. Newstead) 

 many of the old and badly infested galled buds of the previous 

 year had opened out very considerably, but had not produced 

 nor did they afterwards produce a single leaf. "These and 

 the rest of the infested buds contained a living mass of the 

 mites in all stages, completely covering every embryo leaf in 

 the buds. . . . All the old buds that were examined had 

 no living mites in them, but the dead white desiccated bodies 

 of thousands of mites covered the surface of the dead leaves 

 of the buds." 



In May, galled buds which still retained any life in them 

 (for 90 per cent, of the buds forwarded were dead and dry) 

 contained "many dead mites, which had undoubtedly died a 

 few hours previous to my receiving them, as they still con- 

 tained their colour and outline intact." 



Mr. Newstead's next observation is of great practical im- 

 portance as showing the date at which migration takes place 

 from the old galls to the embryo (the newly forming) leaf-buds, 

 and consequently the date and the locality on the bushes, 

 when and where {if possible) remedial dressings should be 

 applied. " My next examination was on June 2nd. At this 

 time the newly-formed shoots had begun to harden, and the 

 new buds on the first half of them had attained a length of 

 2J-3 mm., very small, but just protruding behind the leaf- 

 stalk. Between the base of the leaf-stalk and the buds, at> 

 the ends of the young shoots, I found both adults and nymphs, 

 but no eggs ; although these latter were not found in the 

 situations indicated, they must have been laid there, or the 

 nymphs would not have been present. 



" It is curious to note that the mites occurred near the 

 terminal buds only; this will account for such buds on an 

 infested bush being most severely attacked. At this date 

 (June 2nd) I could only find one of the old infested buds in a 

 living condition, and this simply swarmed with adult mites. 



" On July 17th I again found the mites located between 

 the leaf-stalks and the buds, and with them many eggs ; 

 while ten days later (July 27th) newly-formed buds, still 

 small, were present, but terminal ones were already showing 

 signs of being infested. On examination these were found to 

 contain adults, nymphs, and eggs, nearly all of which were 

 located in the centre of the buds. This was the first occasion 

 I found the mites within the newly-formed buds. The old 

 infested buds at this date were everyone of them dried up. 



"During the month of August I was unfortunately away 

 from home, and was not able to resume my investigations 

 until Sept, 13th. At this date the new buds showed decided 

 signs of being infested ; they were much swollen, and mea- 



