22 



THE PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Kotes on Insects infesting the Currant and Gooseberry. 



To those who pay any attention to the cultivation of 

 the Currant and Gooseberry, the following notes may 

 prove both serviceable and interesting. 



We do not pretend to give here any new information 

 concerning the depredations of these insects, nor to suggest 

 any new remedies for their destruction, for since the pub- 

 lication of Harris' and Fitch's works on Noxious Insects, 

 little or nothing has been published on this sadly neg- 

 lected subject. Perhaps not one Farmer in five hundred 

 has had the opportunity of reading the writings of either 

 Harris or Fitch, while the Practical Entomologist is 

 within reach of the humblest Farmer, and the informa- 

 tion given in its pages will be more widely circulated, and 

 consequently prove more useful. For these reasons, the 

 following notes have been compiled for publication in 

 this Bulletin. 



g. — Affecling the stalks. 



The American Currant Borer. — Psenocerus supernotatus 

 Say. 



The larva of this insect is a email, cylindrical, white, 

 footless grub, with the head brown and the jaws black. 

 It feeds upon the pith of the stalks, and therefore killing 

 them. It passes its pupa state in the stalks, and in the 

 latter part of May or beginning of June changes to a 

 small, narrow, cylindrical, brownish beetle, darker behind 

 the middle, with a whitish dot a little before the middle 

 of each wing-case, and a large, slightly oblique mark of 

 the same color just behind the middle; the horns or an- 

 tennae, are slender and nearly as long as the body. 



Dr. Fitch, who has written considerably about this in- 

 sect in his Reports to the New York State Agricultural 

 Society, says : 



" In all our gardens numbers of the currant stalks pe- 

 rish every season. To such an extent does this mortality 

 prevail, that this fruit would soon disappear from our 

 country were it not that the roots of this shrub are so 

 vigorous, sending up a multitude of new shoots every 

 year, whereby the places of those that perish are con- 

 stantly re-supplied. 



" After the leaves have fallen in the autumn and during 

 the winter, these dead stalks are readily distinguished 

 from the live ones by being dotted over with a pretty 

 little funf;03 the size of a pin head, and of a pale bright 

 red color and a corky texture."— ( T/tica! Report, g 13-1.) 



The parasite of the Currant borer, whether of this or 

 tbe European borer, it is not yet satisfactorily ascertained, 

 is a small Ichneumon-fly, about one-tenth of an inch in 

 leugth, black, with the legs, the fore-breast and base of 

 the abdomen, yellowish. 



As to the most reliable method of destroying the Cur- 

 rant borer, we can do no better than to quote the words 

 of Dr. Fitch, which are as follows : 



" We have only to state in conclusion that the utter 

 carelessness with which the currant is treated in most of 

 our gardens, with a thicket of young shoots annually left 

 unpruned and crowding upon and smothering each other, 

 gives these borers and other pernicious insects the utmost 

 lacilities for lurking unmolested and pursuing their de- 

 vastating work without interruption. Were this shrub 

 suituably trimmed and kept thinned out to only three or 

 lour stalks from each root, these stalks growing freely 

 cc posed to the light and air, would be little if any infested 

 by these depredating insects. 



"As these worms remain in the dead stalks through 

 the winter, their destruction is easily efl'ected. By break- 

 ing oil' all tlie dead brittle stalks at the surface of the 

 ground and burning them, these borers may at once be 

 exierminated from the garden. But they will soon find 

 their way back again unless the bushes are well pruned 

 every year." — (Ibid.) 



The European Currant Borer (yrocAiVmm tipvliJ'orrt\e 

 Linn.) is an insect which destroys our Currant bushes in 

 the same manner as the American borer, but instead of 

 the perfect insect being a beetle, it is a .small black wasp- 

 like moth, with three narrow yellow bands on the abdo- 

 men ; the wings are transparent, margined with black 

 and tipped with copper-color. The larva is a small, 

 whitish grub, with a darker line down the middle of its 

 back, and with the head and legs brown; it changes to 

 pupa within the stalk, and appears a perfect insect the 

 fore part of June. 



The same remedy suggested for the American borer is 

 applicable to this insect, both having similar habits. 



About the last of May, the young stalks of the Currant 

 are sometimes severed by a cut- worm, about ^i inch long, 

 of a shining bluish-brown color, with faint dots regularly 

 arranged, each bearing a short fine hair; the head is red- 

 dish-brown, as well as a spot on the neck and another on 

 top of tlic last segment. In ,Tune it enters the ground, 

 and the perfect insect, a rather large moth, appears during 

 July. Dr. Fitch has named it the "Amputating brocade 

 moth, — Hadenaamputatrix," but was previously described 

 by Boisduval as Mamentra arctica; it is mentioned in 

 Harris (InJ. Ins.) as Hadcna arnica. The anterior wings, 

 above, are blackish, varied with reddish-brown and cine- 

 reous, with a broad, submarginal, oblique, ashen-gray 

 band, and a spot of the same color a little beyond the 

 middle near the anterior margin; the posterior wings are 

 silky-greyish, with a broad dusky band behind, as well 

 as a dusky spot above the middle of each wing, much 

 more distinct on the under side ; the body is pale reddish- 

 brown, with dorsal and apical tufts. 



There are three species of Bark lice mentioned by Dr. 

 Fitch ( Third Report, pp. 108 and 109) as being found upon 

 the bark of the Currant stalks ; the first a minute oyster- 

 shaped scale (the "Apple bark-louse, Aspidiotus conchi- 

 formis"), more common upon the Apple; the second a 

 minute flat, circular scale (the "Circular bark-louse, As- 

 pidiotus circularis") "being of the same blackish-brown 

 hue with the surrounding bark, and having in the centre 

 a smooth, round, wart-like elevation, of a pale yellow 

 color ; " and the third a hemispherical scale (the " Currant 

 bark-louse, Lecanium ribis"), of a brownish-yellow color, 

 with its margins finely and transversely wrinkled. These 

 minute depredators are often very numerous, sometimes 

 crowded together in such numbers as to wholly cover the 

 bark, which they puncture with their little beaks and 

 suck out its juices. They belong to the suborder Homop- 

 tera, family Coccid.e, to which the Cochineal insect, so 

 highly prized as a material for dyeing, also belongs. 



^j). — Affecting the leaves. 



The American Currant Moth. — miopia rtbearia (Walk- 

 eT)^Abraxas ? ribearia. Fitch. 



This is a very destructive insect to the Currant in this 

 country. It is a long, cylindrical, yellow measure or 

 spaw-worm, varied on the sides with white, and with nu- 

 merous black spots regularly arranged ; from each spot 

 or dot proceeds a black hair; it is found eating the leaves 

 of the Currant, as well as the Gooseberry, from the mid- 

 dle of May to the middle of June, sometimes stripping 

 the bushes entirely naked. The worms descend to the 

 ground, and burying themselves slightly beneath the sur- 

 face, change to the pupa state; the pupce are of a shining 

 black color, about half an inch long, and are easily de- 

 tected ; they may be found in abundance in the earth, 

 immediately beneath the defoliated Currant and Goose- 



