Additional Notes on Insects. 



479 



black dots over the body ; but after the last moulting they are en- 

 tirely green, except the large eye-dots and the three yellowish 

 joints, one next the head, and the others at the rear. They are 

 about three-fourths of an inch long when full grown. When, as 

 usually happens, they are in large numbers, they rapidly consume 

 the leaves, and whole rows of bushes have been entirely stripped 

 in forty-eight hours. Hence the importance of close watching and 

 prompt attention in applying the remedies to destroy them. A 

 single defoliation, while it does not kill the bushes, retards growth, 

 and commonly greatly injures or prevents the ripening of a crop ; 

 and if often repeated, so that the bushes remain bare for a long 

 time, or for successive seasons, the bushes necessarily perish. 



When the larvae attain full size, they burrow under ground, or 

 hide under scattered leaves, and spin an oval brown cocoon. After 

 some weeks the perfect insect comes out, lays eggs as before, pro- 

 duces larvae, which pass to the pupa state, and remain so till the 

 following season. 



THE NATIVE CURRANT WORM (Pristiphora grossularice) is 

 smaller than the preceding, or about two-thirds in size, and other- 

 wise resembles it somewhat in general appearance. Unlike that, 

 the male and female differ but slightly. The larvae are of a uniform 

 pale green color (a Fig. 502), without any black dots, which readily 

 distinguishes it from the 

 two others already de- 

 scribed, the head becom- 

 ing black. It spins its 

 cocoons among the twigs 

 and leaves. It appears 

 later than the Imported 

 Currant Worm, or near 

 midsummer, and the 

 second brood early in 

 autumn. Unlike the last 

 named, the second brood 

 also passes to the state of winged insects the same autumn, and 

 lays its eggs on the twigs of the bushes, where they remain till the 

 next season. 



The remedy for the three species of currant worms is the same 

 for each namely, killing by poison. Unlike many other insects, 

 this remedy is comparatively cheap, easily applied, and entirely 

 successful if used promptly. It consists in dusting powdered 



urrant Worm. 



