THE CURRANT WORM 



423 



Rochester, N. Y., about 1857, being mentioned in "The Rural 

 New-Yorker" of July 24, 1858, p. 239. The male is black, with 

 some yellow spots, glossy wings and yellow legs. The female is 

 larger than the male, bright honey yellow, with a black head. It 

 is not in this dress, however, 

 that we best know the insect. 

 Its eggs are deposited in rows 

 on the under side of the leaves, 

 along the principal veins (Fig. 

 76) , in early spring. Dr. Lint- 

 ner observed a female de- 

 posit thirty eggs on a single 

 currant leaf within one hour. 

 These hatch in a few days, and 

 open the season's campaign 

 by eating small holes in the 

 leaf. The eggs are laid in 

 rows, and the young larvse at 

 first feed in companies (Fig 

 77), but later, as size and 

 appetite increase, they scatter 

 to all parts of the bush. 



The insect is fastidious in 

 its dress during the larval 

 stage. It first appears in a 



modest garb of dull white, which it soon exchanges for green, 

 to which many black spots are added later, these in turn giving 

 place to a plain green tinged with yellow, as it approaches ma- 

 turity. When full grown, it measures about three-quarters of 

 an inch in length. It then forms a silken cocoon, hidden by rub- 

 bish on the ground, just beneath the surface, or occasionally 

 attached to stems and leaves above ground. The winged insect 

 emerges the last of June or first of July, to repeat the same 

 cycle, there being two broods a year, the last one passing the 

 winter in the pupa state. The separate broods do not emerge all 

 at once, hence there is a practical continuation of hostilities 

 throughout the season. 



Fig. 76. Eggs of the currant worm. 



