SPECIAL REPORT FOR YEAR I9I4. 21 



In all, eight species were found to be present in Maine. The 

 worst of these, a grayish species, we have called the "white 

 cornicled currant aphid," on account of the milk white color of 

 the so-called "honey tubes." As these insects reproduce rapidly 

 the colony soon gets too numerous to be sheltered by a single 

 leaf so it scatters to infest the growing shoot and under side of 

 fresh leaves. A thriving colony will distort the stem seriously 

 and cause the misshapen foliage to cluster in a dense protecting 

 mass. It occurs on both currant and gooseberry.. 



Associated with the species just mentioned is the "green aphid 

 of the gooseberry," a pale aphid taken on wild gooseberry. 



A third species common in Maine upon currant In spring is 

 probably the same species as one found on sow thistle and let- 

 tuce during the summer. Like many other of the aphids, this 

 insect is migratory and moves to a different sort of vegetation 

 for the summer generations, returning in the fall to the currant 

 to provide for the deposition of the winter eggs. 



It is interesting to notice that another currant and gooseberry 

 species is indistinguishable from a lettuce aphid and is probably 

 also a summer migrant to that plant. It is thus apparent that 

 it is advisable to clear out lettuce in the vicinity of this fruit 

 before late summer, care being taken to leave no neglected 

 lettuce stalks about for the development of aphids. This is as 

 much for the sake of the lettuce as the currants for although 

 these green plantlice are not poisonous, most of us prefer our 

 salad served without them. 



It is no uncommon thing to find currant leaves puffy with 

 reddish or yellowish blister-like deformations. These are the 

 home of Myziis ribis, a delicate little aphid of world wide distri- 

 bution. Though not so serious a pest as some of the other 

 species, still it is troublesome enough to interfere with the proper 

 functioning of the leaves and, as one currant grower in the state 

 complained, "the plants are hurt and look very annoying." A 

 closely related species which belongs to the same genus and was 

 found present with it on the leaves is an aphid which has not 

 been previously described for the currant. 



One of the most interesting of the migratory aphids attacking 

 currant is a species that is found curling the leaves of the English 

 elm in the spring from whence it migrates to currant and goose- 

 berry roots for the summer. As yet this species has not been 

 collected from the bushes in Maine, but as it is present on Eng- 



