CLEAR-WINGED MOTHS. 63 
and is held in position by its posterior portion. It now 
splits open in the usual manner upon its back and the 
winged moth appears. 
To this account of the life-history of this injurious borer 
may be added that no parasites have as yet been discovered 
in Minnesota. Yet several times a silken cocoon was found 
in a tunnel which, apparently, had been recently inhabited 
by a borer. The small wasp issuing from this cocoon is dis- 
tinguished by blackish wings, black body, and bright red 
abdomen; it is a species of Bracon. In some cases mites 
were found upon the dead caterpillars inside the burrow, 
but whether these had killed the caterpillar, or had simply 
come to feast upon its dead body, is impossible to say, 
though most likely the former was the case. 
REMEDIES.—An insect so well hidden as this borer can 
not be reached by any poison; and our only hope is to pre- 
vent it from entering at all. This seems to be very feasible, 
as the egg is deposited upon the cane or pushed beneath 
loose bark, which is frequently the case with borers belonging 
to the order of beetles. When the youngcurrant-borer leaves 
the egg it has to come in contact with the bark through 
which it has to eat its way. If, therefore, the bark could be 
poisoned, we should have a sure remedy; but when it comes 
to a practical application of this spraying, it will be found 
that currant bushes are rather difhcult to spray so thor- 
oughly as to coat the canes in a uniform manner with the 
poison. The writer has tried repeatedly to coat the canes 
with arsenical poisons before the foliage had appeared. 
There was no difhiculty in doing so, but it was found later 
that the plants sprayed in this manner contained just as 
many borers as those not sprayed. This is owing to the 
fact that at the period when this spraying can be done, we 
usually have the most frequent rains. There is, however, 
another remedy which is easily applied and which, if care- 
fully carried out, will eradicate this insect from our gardens. 
Canes that harbor the borer can always be detected and if 
