53 
CURRANTS. 
Currant Shoot and Fruit Moth. Incurvaria capitella, Fab. 
IycurvaRiA caprreLia.—Moths, magnified and nat. size, from life ; 
caterpillar, magnified, after Stainton. 
The 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 Red 
Currant. In 1892, thanks to the careful observations of Dr. Chap- 
man, of Hereford,* we learnt the further points of life-history, that 
the moth laid her eggs on the Currant fruit, and that the young larve 
hatched from these eggs fed for a while within the Currants (thus 
adding another item to the regular yearly course of mischief); but 
it was not until the past season, so far at least as I am aware, 
that we had knowledge of this infestation attacking the Black as 
well as the Red Currant. The specimens previously sent to myself 
have been from Red Currant (Ribes rubrum), and in the various 
entomological records to which I have access no mention is made 
of the Black Currant (Ribes nigrum) as attacked, the notes either 
referring to Currants without specification of kind, or distinctly to 
Red Currants. 
Under these circumstances, the appearance of this pest to a very 
injurious amount on the Black Currants at the Toddington Orchard 
Grounds, Winchcombe, Glos., in April last, is of interest to record. 
On April 10th Mr. C. D. Wise, the superintendent of the grounds, 
wrote me from Toddington of the pest being present in the Black 
Currants, and added :—‘‘Is not this unusual? We always have an 
* See paper by Dr. Chapman entitled ‘‘ Lampronia capitella,” in ‘ Entomologist’s 
Monthly Magazine’ for Dec. 1892, pp. 297-300. In this paper, for various reasons 
there given, Dr. Chapman notes that he thinks it would be desirable to change the 
generic name of Incurvaria for that of Lampronia; but as I am not aware of the 
change having been made, I retain the name of Incurvaria as above. 
