790 



REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



York, states that of fifty eggs laid by the parent saw-fly, only four or 

 live hatched out the currant-worm. We see, then, that though the 

 birds apparently destroy none, an immense number are carried off, even 

 before they have a chance of doing any mischief, by minute insects of 

 their own order. 



One of the best remedies next to picking them off by hand, and which 

 is really the most practicable method of getting rid of them, is to dust 

 l)Owdered white hellebore over the bushes, by sprinkling it from a 

 muslin bag tied to a stick, as it otherwise excites violent sneezing. 

 Used in this small quantity it is not poisonous. This is the remedy 

 used with most success in the West, and recommended by Messrs. 

 Walsh and Eiley. I have used it with good success in my own garden, 

 and it is a thorough remedy if thoroughly and persistently applied. 

 Dr. W. Mack, of Salem, tells me that he has used a solution, consisting 

 of a pound of copperas to six gallons of water, with much success. It 

 blackens the leaves, but does not injure them permanently. 



Dr. E. Worcester, of Waltham, according to the Boston Journal of 

 Chemistry, finds that this worm "may be fully and almost immediately 

 destroyed by the use of carbolate of lime. The doctor tried the powder 

 in many instances during the past summer, and found that while it was 

 fully as effective as hellebore, it was less disagreeable, less costly, and 

 perfectly safe. The method of using it is to sprinkle it over the vines 

 as soon as the worm makes its appearance, bringing it well in contact 

 with the leaves, and soon the insect is destroyed. It will need but two 

 or three applications, and the work is done." 



This worm attacks the gooseberry as well as the currant, though in 

 Massachusetts its ravages have been more confined to the latter shrub. 

 As a preventive measure against its further spread, in buying or 

 transporting gooseberry and currant bushes, Walsh recommends that 

 the roots be carefully cleaned of dirt, so that the cocoons may not be 

 carried from one garden or nursery to another. 



The Native Currant Saw-Fly, Fristophora grossulatue Walsh. — 

 As this species may be confounded with the European saw-fly, though 

 belonging to a different genus {Pristiphora), the following brief account 

 of it is extracted from my Guide to the Study of Insects : 



This saw-fly (Fig. 60 a, larva ; 

 &, female, from the "American 

 Entomologist" ; P. grossularice of 

 Walsh) "is a widely diflused spe- 

 cies in the Northern and Western 

 States, and injures the currant 

 and gooseberry. The female fly 

 is shining black, while the head 

 is dull yellow, and the legs are 

 honey-yellow, with the tips of the 

 six tarsi, and sometimes the ex- 

 FiG. co.-NativeCurrant^Saw-Fly. a, larva; j^eme tips of the hinder tibioi, and 



' *^"^'^ ^' of the tarsal joints, pale dusky for 



a quarter of their length. The wings are partly hyaline, with black 

 veins, a honey-yellow costa, and a dusky stigma, edged with honey- 

 yellow. The male differs a little in having black coxae. Mr. Walsh 

 states that the larva is a pale grass-green worm, half an inch long, with 

 a black head, which becomes green after the last molt, but with a 

 lateral brown stripe meeting with the opposite one on the top of the 

 head, where it is more or less confluent ; and a central brown-black 

 spot on its face. It appears the last of June and early in July, and a 



