202 DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS. 



proceeds deftly to place its white eggs along the principal 

 veins on the under sides of the leaves. The eggs soon hatch 

 into twenty-legged larvae or " worms " of a green color, with 

 black heads and numerous black dots on the body (Fig. 270). 

 They are about three-fourths of an inch long when full grown. 

 When, as usually happens, they occur in large numbers, the 

 leaves are rapidly consumed, and whole rows of bushes have 

 been entirely stripped in forty-eight hours. Hence the impor- 

 tance 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 



FIG. 268. Male. FIG. 269. Female. 



Adults of Imported Currant Worm. 



injures or prevents the ripening of a crop. When the larvse 

 attain full size, they burrow underground, or hide under scat- 

 tered leaves, and spin an oval brown cocoon. After some 

 weeks the perfect insect comes out and lays eggs, from which 

 a second brood may appear in Southern localities. The win- 

 ter is passed as larvae in their cocoons in the soil beneath the 

 bushes. 



Fortunately this currant pest is easily destroyed by the ap- 

 plication of poisons.* White hellebore has been the standard 

 remedy for many years. It is either dusted on to the bushes 

 or a water mixture of it sprayed on. It is the only safe thing to 

 use after the fruit is over half-grown. But extensive currant- 

 growers now use a Paris-green spray (one pound to one hun- 

 dred and fifty gallons of water) freely when the larvae first ap- 

 pear, and often so effectually destroy the first brood that the 

 insect is not a serious menace to the crop during the rest of 

 the season. 



