PACKARD] THE EUROPEAN CURRANT SAW-FLY. 789 



mandibles (jaws), dull honey-yellow. Tbe antennae are brown-black, 

 often tinged with reddish above, except toward the base, and beneath 

 entirely dull reddish, except the two basal joints. They are four-lifths as 

 long as the body; the third joint, when viewed sideways, is four times 

 as long as wide ; the third, fourth, and fifth joints are equal in length, the 

 remaining joints slowly diminishing in length. On the thorax are four 

 conspicuous black spots and other smaller ones. The legs are bright 

 honey-yellow; the basal or hip-joints (coxreand trochanters) whitish, 

 while tbe extreme tips of the hind shanks (tibiaj) and the whole of the 

 hind toe-joints (tarsi) are blackish brown. The wings are glossy, with 

 dark veins, and expand a little over half an inch. 



The male (Fig. 59 «) is rather smaller (y2_o_ inch in length), and is 

 black. The head is dull honey-yellow. The antenuoe are brown-black, 

 often a little reddish beneath, except toward the base; they are as long 

 as the body, and while longer than in the female, are also somewhat 

 flattened out. The thorax has the wing-scales and the prothorax, or 

 collar, honey-yellow. * The under side and tip of the abdomen are honey- 

 yellow. 



The injury done to currant-bushes during the past year was very 

 great. In June, we saw them in great numbers in a garden at Law- 

 rence, where they had stripped the bushes, eating the leaves down to 

 the leaf-stalk, myriads clustering upon the branches. The birds evi- 

 dently do not feed upon them, and thus, in dealing with this insect, we 

 are deprived of one of the most powerful agencies in nature for restrain- 

 ing a superabundance of insect-life. 



As this is an important and practical subject, let ns digress for a 

 moment to notice some facts brought out by Mr. J. J. Weir, of the London 

 Entomological Society on the insects that seem distasteful to birds. 

 He finds by caging up birds whose food is of a mixed character (purely 

 insect-eating birds could not be kept alive in confinement), that all hairy 

 caterpillars were uniformly uneaten. Such caterpillars are the '^ yellow 

 hears" {Arctia and Spilosoma), the salt-marsh caterpillars {Lencarctia 

 acrcva), and the caterpillar of the Vaporer moth (Orgyia), and the spring 

 larvae of butterflies ; with these may perhaps be classed the European 

 currant saw-fly. He was disposed to consider that the " flavor of all 

 these caterpillars is nauseous, and not that the mechanical troublesome, 

 ness of the hairs prevents their being eaten. Larvfe which spin webs- 

 and are gregarious, are eaten by birds, but not with avidity ; they ap- 

 pear very much to dislike the web sticking to their beaks, and those 

 completely concealed in the web are left unmolested. When branches 

 covered w^ith the web of Hyponomenta evonymella (a little moth of the 

 Tinea family) were introduced into the aviary, those larvae only which 

 ventured beyond the protection of the web were eaten." " Smooth- 

 skinned, gaily-colored caterpillars (such as the currant Aftraxas, or span 

 worm), which never conceal themselves, but on the contrary appear to 

 court observation ", were not touched by the birds. He states, on the 

 other hand, that " all caterpillars whose habits are nocturnal, and are 

 dull-colored, with fleshy bodies and smooth skins, are eaten with the 

 greatest avidity. Every species of green caterpillar is also much rel- 

 ished. All Geometrw, whose larvre resemble twigs, as they stand out 

 from the plant on their anal prolegs, are invariably eaten." Mr. A. G. 

 Butler, of Loudon, has also found that frogs and spiders will not eat 

 the same larvae rejected by birds, the frogs having an especial aversion 

 to the currant span-worms [Abraxas and Halia). 



The natural enemies of the currant saw-fly are three kinds of ichneu- 

 mon-flies, of which one is a minute egg-parasite. Mr. Lintner, of Xew 



