CURRANT MITE. 147 
(1). There were a succession of broods produced during the 
months of February to September. Egg-laying taking place in March, 
April, June, July, and September, which was therefore very probably 
carried on throughout the whole season. 
(3). That the Mites first established themselves between the base 
of the leaf-stalk and the young buds early in June (June 2nd), but 
were not found actually inside them until July 27th. 
(4), That so long as any life remained in the old buds swarms of 
the Mites were found in them; as the buds died numbers of the Mites 
disappeared, either dying a natural death, or being destroyed by 
predaceous insects. Of course, as I have already stated, some of them 
did certainly migrate and set up fresh colonies.””—(R. N.) * 
It is a pity that this useful little pamphlet is not more generally 
known of, as the information contained in it as to the dates of egg- 
laying, migration, and other particulars are precisely what are needed 
for a basis of attempts at least towards serviceable preventive measures. 
During the present month,—that is to say, January of 1898,—as 
it occurred to me that in this more southerly locality than Cheshire, 
where Mr. Newstead’s observations were made, and also, in the cir- 
cumstances of the unusually mild weather of the winter up to date, it 
would be of interest to find whether the egg of the Phytoptus was 
present within the galls, as well as the Mites themselves, and on 
opening various Black Currant galls on January 25th and 28th, which 
I was favoured with, at my request, from the Woburn Fruit Farm, 
Ridgmont, Bedfordshire, I found a few eggs present. 
These were oval or ovate when in characteristic condition, but 
sometimes irregular in outline, apparently from being pushed out of 
shape by the developing Mite within; but I was not fortunate enough 
to find a specimen in the very act of developing, as I have seen in the 
case of the Phytoptus of the Birch knots. 
From my own Currant plants being clean, I have not had the 
opportunity of watching progress of the infestation myself; but on 
one occasion in specimens sent me on the 4th of April from Hanbury, 
near Droitwich, I found the minute white eggs in various stages of 
development; some still round or roundish, and others pushed out of 
shape at one end by the pressure on the thin egg pellicle of the 
bluntly-pointed head of the Mite within, the locality of the legs of the 
Mite being also indicated by little knobs, showing the position within 
of what might be called the shoulders. 
* «Recent Investigations of the Currant Bud Mite (Phytoptus ribis),” by R. 
Newstead, F.E.8., Curator of the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, Lecturer on Economic 
Entomology for the Cheshire County Council, pp. 5-7. Reprinted from ‘The 
British Naturalist’ for June, 1894. Price 3d. . 
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