72 CUREANT. 



caused by this infestation (noticed about April 20th) in young 

 shoots of Red Currant bushes, and specimens of the moth 

 reared from these caterpillars (one of which is figured above) 

 showed them to be /. capitella. 



It was, not, however, until the careful observations of Dr. 

 Chapman were carried on in 1892 that we learnt the remainder 

 of the life-history of the little moth, and also that its attack 

 is doubly hurtful to the Currants by injuring the fruit as well 

 as the growth of the leaf-buds. 



The main points of the attack from egg-laying in one 

 summer to development of the moth in the next may be 

 given shortly as follows : — The moth lays her eggs within the 

 young fruit, and there the larvae or caterpillars feed awhile, 

 their presence being indicated by a premature appearance of 

 ripening. After a time they creep out of the fruit, and each 

 larva spins a cocoon in some shelter on the twigs, in which it 

 passes the winter. In the following spring the caterpillar (as 

 yet only partly grown) comes out, and, boring into the shoots 

 of the Red Currant, destroys the shoot. It then goes into the 

 chrysalis state, from which, in Dr. Chapman's observations, 

 he found moths emerge in time to insert their eggs in the 

 young fruit at dates of from the 17th to the 20th of May. 



The first noticeable sign (in the spring of the year) of the 

 presence of this attack, is the fading of the young shoots 

 from the injuries caused by the gnawings of the little cater- 

 pillars within, which has been thus noted by various authors : 

 "The larva is very injurious, eating the pith of the young 

 shoots, and betrays its presence by the withering of the young 

 leaves ; when quite young it is dark red, but when full-fed it 

 is greenish white."* Also : " The larvffi " (according to Stainton 

 and A. Hartmann, of Munich) "live early in May in the 

 young shoots and buds of the liihes rubrum. These they de- 

 vour even to the pith of the twig." 



In observations sent me in 1891 from the Toddington 

 Fruit Grounds (before referred to) by Mr. C. D. Wise, he 

 mentioned that "about the 20th of April we noticed num- 

 bers of the young shoots of the Red Currant bushes had 

 withered u-p and drooped. On examination we found in each 

 a small grub which had bored its way up the stem." In 

 April, 1896, Mr. Wise wrote further regarding injury to 

 Black Currants, of which he forwarded specimens on the 

 27th : — " You will see what an enormous amount of damage 

 they are doing us, as each bud contains a Currant blossom 

 which is well formed, but which would not come to per- 

 fection." 



I found the Black Currant shoots very much injured — in 



* Staintou's ' Tineina,' p. 42. 



