CURRANT CLEARWING MOTH. 69 



thrusts itself out of the opening, when in a short time the 

 moth bursts its prison-house and escapes, soon depositing 

 eggs, from which larvae are hatched which carry on the work 

 of destruction." — (W. S.). 



The infestation has only been reported to me in one year 

 (1894) as seriously injurious, and in that year from the distant 

 localities of the South of Scotland, and of Kent ; in both 

 cases the attack was to Black Currants. In the lirst-named 

 case a large number of specimens of caterpillars and injured 

 shoots were sent me early in January, and on slitting these 

 longitudinally I found the pith or centre eaten away for as 

 much as five or over five and a quarter inches in length from 

 where it had been cut across, this consequently only giving a 

 portion of the length of the larval burrow. As in some cases 

 the upper, and in some the lower part of the severed shoot was 

 missing, I could not tell precisely how long the entire tunnel 

 might have been, but it was very neatly and thoroughly 

 cleared out, stopping abruptly at either end, as figured from 

 life, p. 68. In this tunnel I found the larva lying, apparently 

 hybernating, in several instances enveloped in a more or less 

 perfectly spun covering. In one instance it was lying in a 

 fairly tiim opaque coating of dirty coloured web, with a deal 

 of dark brown frass at one end where the grub was lying, and 

 some at the other end. In another instance it was lying in 

 what had been its roughly spun opaque covering, until it was 

 torn open in slitting the shoot ; and in another I found the 

 grub lying with some rubbish or frass on one side, and a little 

 web and frass at the other end. 



The larva or grub was hardly half an inch long, pale or 

 yellowish, sixteen-footed (that is, with three pairs of claw- 

 feet, four pairs of sucker-feet beneath the body, and another 

 pair beneath the tail), the head palish chestnut, the jaws 

 darker, and some chestnut marking on the segment next the 

 head, and also above the tail. These larva were presumably 

 not quite full-grown, as the full length is given by Buckler at 

 three-quarters of an inch, and either from this, or from the 

 conditions of hybernation, the colour of my specimens, 

 examined in January, was rather lighter in the head and 

 back of the following segment than the brownish tint men- 

 tioned both by Saunders and Buckton. 



As some writers have expressed doubt as to the method of 

 entrance of the caterpillar into the Currant shoot, I examined 

 very carefully, and found no reason to doubt that the entrance 

 was made at a bud, and that the maggot worked its tunnel 

 above and below this point. The ends of the tunnel appeared 

 {as a regular thing) to stop abruptly without any entrance 

 hole, and without difference in width of tunnelling, which 



