CURRANT WORMS. 



357 



arises a pair of black spines. On the back of the false caterpillar 

 the tubercles become smooth and transversely oval, and arranged 

 in two regular rows. Moreover, a still more important charac- 

 teristic of the worm in this stage is the jet-black head, which in 

 the fully grown insect is pale pea-green. 



In Salem, my attention was drawn to the ravages of this worm 

 by Dr. William Mack, who found them feeding on the currants 

 in his garden June 8th. At this time they were spinning their 

 cocoons, which were of silk, tough, dense, like parchment, and 

 at first green, then becoming blackish, and covered with particles 

 of dirt, and attached to the leaves in the breeding box. Out of 

 doors they may be found the first week in June, and again dur- 

 ing tfte first week in July among the leaves and stalks on the 

 bushes, or among the leaves lying on the ground, or perhaps 

 more frequently a little under the surface of the ground. Here 

 they remain between two and three weeks in June, the adult 

 flies (in Salem) appearing June 25th. At nearly the same date 

 (June 29th) the worms of the second brood were spinning their 

 cocoons. These cocoons (belonging to the second brood) 

 remain under ground or on the leaves about the roots through 

 the winter, the flies appearing in the spring and laying their 

 eggs as soon as the leaves unfold. 



Not having specimens of both sexes of this saw fly at hand I 

 compile the following descrip- 

 tion (often using their own 

 words) from Messrs. Walsh and 

 Riley's account in the Amer- 

 ican Entomologist, Vol. 2, p. 16, 

 from which these illustrations 

 (Figs. 3 a and 3 6) are taken. 



The female (Fig. 3 &) is a 

 quarter of an inch long Qyqq- 

 -^^^ inch), and is of a bright 

 honey- yellow color. The head 

 is black, with all the parts be- 

 tween and below the origin of 

 the antenna?, except the tip of pj^, 3_ 



the mandibles (jaws) dull honey-yellow. The antenna? are 

 brown-black, often tinged with reddish above, except towards 

 the base, and beneath entirely dull reddish, exceptthe two basal 



