THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



15 



The Imported Currant-wonu. 



/^ {^Nenuiius rcntricosus , King.)* 



It is only about a dozen years since this most 

 pernicious enemy to the Currant and Goose- 

 berry was introduced from Europe into the 

 United States. So far as can be ascertained, it 

 made its first appearance among us in the neigh- 

 borhood of Rocliestcr, N. Y., and is supposed 

 to have been imported along with some goose- 

 berry buslies from Europe by the celebrated 

 Rochester nurserymen, Messrs. Ellvvaiiger & 

 Barry. In nine years time, besides colonizing 

 in other directions, it had gradually spread to 

 "Washington Co., N. Y., on the east side of the 

 Hudson Eivcr — a total distance of about 22.5 

 miles. Thus, as it appears, it traveled at the 

 average rate of some 25 miles a year, establish- 

 ing a permanent colony wherever it went, and 

 not passing through the country as a mere 



•In the Practical ENTOMuLnin^r li.r Si-iiicniliir, l.siKl. 

 the Senior Editor published the ih-i r.jiii|.|. t.- Iii>l.jr\ ..iiiiis 

 Insect, as it exists in the Utiitcd m;)1i-. :mii1 in an A|i}m mtix 

 to the Article gave its full .--riintiiic ^\ nonyni}', tlinwinj^^ 

 that, in accordance with the Law (if I'linrit'y, "its correct 

 name was Nemalus ventricosus, Klutf , and that, according 

 to Snellen Von Vollenhoven^ this was as early as IS.')!) the 

 received name for the species in Kurope. As is stated in 

 that Article, the species was first described liy Klni; in the 

 year IS19 under the above specific name, and li was'n.iiiill 

 four years afterwards that St. Fa rye an binndri i)iyly ile- 

 scribcil tile male under the specific name of njlini.^, and Uie 

 female under the specific name of /?-//*j(U''/(7/(».v— tlins jininii- 

 factui'iny two species ont of one! 'I'wo \ ears ailer ilie abi.\o 

 Paper fVum llie |.en of the Senior Editnr'liail l)een |iiibli>hed. 

 Dr. Fitch gave to ihc world an Article "11 this snlijeei in Ihe 

 Transactions of the New York Stale Aqnculttnal .'^i>,i,ii/ lor 

 1867, pp. 9Cfl-9;i2 In this Article, tliouRli he incideniallv 

 remarks (p. 910) that the same insect had l^ieen de-crilied hy 

 another author under the name of ventricosus, lie yef adojits 

 St, Fargeau's name for it, or rather that one of St. Far- 

 geau's two names which applies exclusively to the female 

 sex— namely " trimaculatus." This, however, is a trifling 

 matter; for although Dr. Fitch has frequently busied him- 

 self in upsetting old established names, and in accordance 

 with the rigid taw of Priority supplanting those old names 

 by still older ones, which he has chosen to resurrect from 

 the buried dust of ages, we oui"selves attach but little im- 

 jiortaiice to this kind of scientific legerdemain. But Dr. 

 Fitch has not been satisfied with adopting St. Fargeau'.s 

 name published in 1823 in preference to King's name iii.li- 

 lished in 1819, thus flying in the face of that very Law of 

 Priority, for which he is generally so great a .sticl^h-r: lie 

 must also adopt St. Fargeau's blunder in giving Ilial iiann'. 

 It will scarcely he believed, but it is positively and aliso- 

 lutelyti-ue, that Dr. Fitch describes exclusively' tlie female 

 sex of this insect, and palms it oil' upon liis r.a'Ier- a^ a de- 

 scription of both sexes! (See pp. 9i(i-7) Yc I Ihi mil. - are 

 almost entirely black and the females almo,-t .niin !', '.rl- 

 low; so that a description that suits the I'eniah' i- alto-eiii,!- 

 inapplicable to the male. Nor is this an niuisn.il Ihinj,' 

 among the Sawflies; for it was shown liv the .senior Ivlitor 

 as long ago as December, 1866, that in this Funiilv the body 

 of the miue is very generally much darker than that of tlie 

 female, while in the /cftn.e«»io7i faniilv it is exac.tlv the re- 

 verse. (.See Pmc, Ent . Soc, Phil ,'VI, p]). iiiw-il") . 



In the Paper in the Practical Eiitomoloi/i^l which has been 

 alreaily relen-ed to (Vol I, pp. lio-l) it is expressly stated 

 that • ' the males and females of this Sawfly differ so widely 

 that fhey would scarcely be taken by the inexperienced en- 

 tomologist for the same species;" and a very full descrip- 

 tion of each sex is then and there given. Yet two years suh- 

 sequently Dr. Fitch, as it appears, was totally unu'c(|nainted 

 with the male se.\, or at all events his description aiiplies 

 exclusively to the female, .and he says not one single word 

 about the sexes. And this when, bv his own account, Ihe 

 insect was swarming in his own garden under his very nose ! 

 Of course, under these circumstances, it is impossitile that 

 he could ever have looked into the Paper on the same sub- 

 ject iiublished two years before in the Practical Entomoloffist . 

 JJut when an author is careless enough to make such blund- 

 ers as the above, would he not do well, before he gives his 

 own lucubrations to the world, to see what others have pub- 

 lished in the same special department of Xatural IlistoryV 



moveable colnmn of invaders. In 1800 or "Gl 

 it appeared at Erie in the N. W. corner of renn- 

 sylvania. In 1864 Prof. Winchell found it at 

 Ami Arbor, Michigan. In 18G6 it was generally 

 distributed over the N. E. counties of Pennsyl- 

 vania. And judging from a conversation which 

 we had in October, 18GS, willi Mark Carlcy, of 

 Champaign, in Central Illinois, this gentleman 

 must have had it in great numbers upon his 

 currant bushes in the summer of that year. At 

 all events he described the worm which had 

 infested his bushes as being green with many 

 black spots and as not being a loopcr. 



But besides the principal centre of distribu- 

 tion at Rochester, N. Y., this Currant-worm 

 seems to have been imported from Europe at 

 one or two other points in the Eastern States, and 

 as at Rochester to have spread therefrom as from 

 a focus. Unless onr memory greatly deceives 

 us, Mr. Geo. Brackett, of Maine, described this 

 same insect many years ago, as existing in that 

 State, though he gave it a different specific name, 

 and was not at all aware that it had been intro- 

 duced from the other side of the Atlantic. We 

 also heard of it in the summer of 18G7, from Mr. 

 A. II. Mills, of Vermont, as being very destruc- 

 tive in his neighborhood. Not improbably, it 

 was independently imported at other points in 

 the East. Wherever it is introduced it spreads 

 with great rapidity, and as there arc two broods 

 every year, it soon multiplies so as to strip all 

 the currant and gooseberry bushes bare and 

 utterly ruin the crop, besides eventually destroy- 

 ing the bushes, unless proper measures be taken 

 to counteract it. Throughout the western parts 

 of New York, as we have been informed by our 

 ornithological friend Dr. Velie, the cultivation 

 of currants and gooseberries has been almost 

 entirely given up, on account of the depreda- 

 tions of this seemingly insignificant little sav- 

 age. And, according to Dr. Fitch, at Water- 

 town, N. Y., "it kept the bushes so destitute 

 of leaves in most of the gardens, that in three 

 years they were nearly or quite dead." 



The Imported Currant-worm Fly (Fig. 7, a 

 male, b female, both enlarged), belongs to the 

 Sawflies (jTej^^/^ref/o 'Family) — a group of the 

 Order of Clear-winged Flies {Hymenoplera) , 

 which is remarkable for having most of its larva; 

 with the same plant-feeding propensities as those 

 of the great bulk of the larvie of the Moths, and 

 with very much their general appearance. Saw- 

 fly larvoe, however, may be readily distinguished 

 from moth larvas, in the majority of cases, by 

 having either 22, 20 or 18 legs; whereas the 

 greatest number of legs that any moth larva has 

 is 16. The species that wc now have to do with 



