76 CURRANT. 



not scientifically identified and recorded as present in Britain 

 until June, 1889, although we then found on investigation 

 that it had been noticed as present at various places in 

 England and Scotland during a few years preceding that date. 



PuLViNAiiiA raBESi.i;. — 1, female and woolly egg-sac, magnified (natural size 

 given at p. 77) ; la, female Scale magoified, with line giving natural length ; 

 2, larva, magnified. 



On June 18th specimens of the attack were sent me from a 

 garden at Wakefield by Mr. S. L. Mosley, of Beaumont Park 

 Museum, Huddersfield, with a note that "it evidently seemed 

 at home where it was established, and that the Eed Currant 

 bushes were terribly affected by it " ; and he drew my atten- 

 tion to the very great number of eggs in the cottony matter 

 surrounding the Scale. 



The specimens were submitted to Mr. J. W. Douglas, of 

 8, Beaufort Gardens, Lewisham, S.E., for authoritative iden- 

 tification, who reported on them as follows : — " The Coccids 

 are Pidvinaria ribesicB, Signoret (' Essai sur les Cochenilles,' 

 p. 219), a species found on Pied Currant bushes in France, 

 and which I have long expected to hear inhabited Britain, 

 but until now I have not seen it." As this species has not yet 

 been brought forward here, I append in a note * a translation 



* "In its most advanced stage this species, which is nearly allied to P. vitis 

 and P. oxyacantha, is 4 mm. long by 3 broad, not including in this the white 

 cottony matter, which may vary in extent according to the state of growth of 

 the embryos which it contains. The Scale is of a reddish brown, with a line 

 more or loss raised on the back, which gives it almost the appearance of being 

 keeled ; on each side of the body it is wrinkled, and faintly pitted : in a dry 

 state the folds are hardly observable — it might be said to be smooth. It is 

 nearly allied to vitis, but smaller, thicker, rounder, more heart-shaped, and of a 

 deeper brown ; ribesia is distinguished from it, especially in the embryo state, 

 which is longer, with the members thicker, tlie tarsi and tibia? much shorter, 

 and half less in size in P. 7-ibcsice than in P. vitis, and the large hair which is 

 observed on the tibia in almost all the species is very much longer in this one ; 

 the antennas, almost of similar form, have fewer long hairs; thus in the 

 embryo of Pidvinaria t^tis six are observable, whilst in ribesice there are only 

 five, of which that of the third article and that of the disc of the last article 

 are much the longest, the great hair of the extremity of this article being a 

 good third shorter than these. With regard to the cottony matter which is 

 observable, it is very abundant in this species, and entirely of the same nature 

 as that of P. vitis." — 'Essai sur les Cochenilles,' 15, Pulvinaria ribesice nobis, 

 par M. le Docteur Signoret, p, 219 (vol. i. of ' Collected Essays '). 



