788 



REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



Previous to the last molt, however, and before it had gained its full 



size, preparatory to 

 passing into the adult 

 or winged condition, 

 the body is covered 

 with black tubercles ; 

 from each of which 

 arises a stiff black 

 hair. There is also 

 a supraaual or dorsal 

 black patch on the 

 last segment of the 

 body, from which 

 arises a pair of black 

 spines. On the back 

 of the false caterpillar 

 the tubercles become 

 smooth and trans- 

 versely oval, and ar- 

 ranged in two regular 

 rows. Moreover, a 

 still more important 

 characteristic of the 

 Fig. 58. — Currant saw-fly larva, natural size ; a, enlarged, ^qj-jj^ 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 MapJiv ^h.Q found them feeding on the currants in his garden 



June 8. At this time they were spin- 

 ning their cocoons, which were of silk, 

 tough, dense, like parchment, and at 

 first green, then becoming blackish, and 

 covered with particles of dirt, and at- 

 tached to the leaves in the breeding-box. 

 Out of doors they may be found the first 

 week in June, and again during the 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 sur- 

 face of the ground. Here they remain 

 between two and three weeks in June, 

 the adult flies (in Salem) appearing 

 June 25. At nearly the same date (June 

 29) the worms of the second brood were 

 spinning their cocoons. These cocoons 



Fig. 59!"— European Currant Saw -Fly. (belonging to the Second brood) remain 

 a, male, b, female. (After Kiley.) under ground or ou 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 liaviug specimens of both sexes of this saw-fly at hand, I compile 



the following description (often using their own words) from Messrs. 



Walsh and Riley's account in the American Entomologist, vol. ii, p. 16, 



from which these illustrations (Fig. 59 a, b) are taken. 



The female (Fig. 59 b) is a quarter of an inch long {i^^o-riru)^ ^^^ ^^ 



of a bright honey -yellow color. The head is black, with all the parts 



between and below the origin of the autennse, except the tip of the 



