CURRANT SHOOT AND FRUIT MOTH. 



71 



egg-laying, as the larva would not be supplied with soft pith 

 for food, nor would it be able to form its tunnel up and down 

 in the customary manner. It has also been suggested (where 

 the moths are numerous) that they may be captured and de- 

 stroyed in the cool of the morning when sluggish ; but for 

 ordinary purposes the most practicable method of prevention 

 appears to be (so far as is possible) destroying the tunnelled 

 shoots, and where attack was very prevalent, it might be 

 found that a manager, or some one interested, would be able, 

 by glancing along the shoots, to distinguish by the condition 

 of the bud, near which the entrance hole had been made (or 

 possibly by the perforation itself being observable), which 

 were the maggot-infested shoots. 



Currant Shoot and Fruit Moth. Incurvaria capitella, Fab. 



Incurvaeia capitei.la. — Moths, magnified and nat. size, from life ; 

 caterpillar, magnified, after Staiuton. 



Incurvaria capitella, figured above, has been known for_ a 

 good many years as mischievous to Currants by means of its 

 caterpillars feeding in the buds and also in the pith of young 

 shoots of Eed Currant; but it was not until the spring of 

 1896 (so far as I am aware) that we had knowledge of this in- 

 festation attacking the Black as well as the Eed Currant. The 

 specimens previously sent to myself had been from Eed 

 Currant {Rihcs ruhrum), and in the various entomological 

 records to which I have access no mention is made of the 

 Black Currant {Rihes nigrum) as attacked, the notes either 

 referring to Currants without specification of kind, or dis- 

 tinctly to Eed Currants. 



In the year 1891 information was sent me by Mr. C. D. 

 Wise (Superintendent of the Toddington Fruit Grounds, 

 Winchcombe, Gloucestershire) of the mischief which had been 



