CUREANT-SHOOT AND FRUIT BIOTH. 



73 



many dead scales that persist from earlier buds, and amongst these the 

 young larva buries and hides itself, spinning a small firm white 

 cocoon, in wliicli to pass the winter." — (T. A. C.) 



Detailed description of the caterpillar and chrysalis are given in 

 Dr. Chapman's paper, but for ordinary purposes the knowledge of this 

 being a minute reddish grub, much like other moth caterpillars in 

 shape, that is, furnished with head, claw-feet, and sucker-feet, to be 

 found in the shoots of the Currants in spring, and (noticeably) in the 

 prematurely ripening fruit in summer, appears sufficient. The portion 

 of life-history recorded by Dr. Chapman is so very valuable practically, 

 that I feel greatly obliged, and beg to express my thanks for being 

 allowed to extract so largely from his minute observations.* 



The moths (as described in my own Fifteenth Eeport) are about 

 five-eighths of an inch across in spread of the fore wings ; head with 

 a thick tuft of ochrey hair above. Fore wings dark brownish or 

 fuscous, sometimes with a purplish satiny gloss, a pale yellow band 

 across the wing at about one-third of its length from the root, and two 

 patches, also pale yellow, about half-way between the yellow band and 

 the tip of the wing ; these two patches are respectively on the fore and 

 hinder edges of the wing, and the hinder patch is somewhat triangular 

 in shape. The hinder wings are pale grey. 



Prevention and Remedies. — One remedy is obviously to pick off 

 and destroy the infested shoots which have been bored by the little 

 caterpillars which came out from the little white cocoons in which they 

 passed the winter. Thus we get rid of a great quantity of infestation 

 which would very shortly have supplied a new brood of moths to infest 

 the Currant fruit with their eggs, and caterpillars hatched from them. 

 As Mr. Wise remarked, relatively to the infestation at Toddingtou in 

 1891 : — " The remedy we adopted for this pest was to pick off the 

 infested shoots and burn them, which of course means a lot of labour; 

 but what else were we to do ? " 



Dr. Chapman's observations of the young caterpillars which come 

 out from the fruit, hiding themselves amongst the dead scales to be found 

 at the bases of buds and fruit spurs, and there spinning a white firm 

 cocoon in which to pass the winter, opens out another method of pre- 

 vention. We could not very well do anything towards clearing out 

 individually cocoons spun for the accommodation of a caterpillar only 

 about one-twelfth of an inch long (" the young larva on retiring for 

 hybernation is only 2 mm. in length." — T. A. C.) ; but looking over 

 the bushes, and if little white spots were seen, clearing out the old 



* See " Lamproida capitella,'' by Dr. T. A> Chapman, ' Ent. Monthly Mag.,* 

 No. 30, December, 1892. Price bd. Guruey and Jackson, 1, Paternoster Kow, 

 London. 



