166 Forty- fifth Report on the State Museum. 



Provancher, in his Faune Hymenopterologique de la Province de 

 Quebec, names Rhyssa persuasoria as found in Canada; and Mr. W. H. 

 Harrington in the 21st Annual Report of the Entomological Society of 

 Ontario, 1891, states of it: "I have not recognized this species at Ottawa 

 yet, but have a male apparently belonging to it from Rev. G. W. Taylor, 

 of Victoria, B. C." 



? Janus flaviventris Fitch. 

 The Currant-stem Girdler. 



Of the operations of this insect, which was noticed in the Fourth 

 Report on the Insects of JVeio York, page 47, and which, up to the 

 present we have not been able to refer, positively, to any known currant 

 pest, Mr. J. F. Rose, of South Byron, N". Y., has written, under date 

 of June 6, 1891, as follows: 



I inclose specimens of a few currant stems which show the work of 

 an insect which cats them off so that about two or three inches of the 

 young growth breaks over. A few years ago I was badly tormented 

 with currant borers, and, on marking several shoots in June that were 

 injured in this way, found that each of them in the spring had a borer. 

 Since that time it has been ray habit to go over the currants several 

 times, cutting off these shoots about one inch below the injury and 

 burning the injured tips. I now find very few borers. Am I right in 

 thinking that the saw-fly, or whatever it is that does the cutting, is 

 the egg-inserter that makes the currant stalk-borer ? 



Replying to Mr. Rose, he was informed of the puzzle that this 

 girdler had been, and request was made that he mark some of the 

 punctured stems, and send them in the early spring for examination 

 for the pupa or matured insect, that the insect causing the injury 

 might be identified. Its operations were seen by me on the grounds of 

 Mr. George T. Powell, at Ghent, N. Y., on June 8th of the present 

 year, in his extensive plantation of Fay's Prolific currant, but only in a 

 few examples. 



A dissection of two of the punctured twigs received from Mr. Rose 

 disclosed the egg within the stem, at about a half-inch in each instance 

 below the puncture! It was white, transparent, rounded at the ends, 

 one-twentieth of an inch in length and half as broad. 



The following, taken from Insect Life, iii, 1891, p. 407, may prove 

 to be the recognition and identification of the " currant-stem girdler," 

 above referred to: 



I send you by this mail one male parent of a native flymen op terous 

 currant worm, the same as was noted a year or two ago by Professor 

 Lintner, in his Fourth New York Report. I first bred one pair in 1887 

 from larvae grown in 1886, and this was raised in 1888-'89. The springs 

 of 1888 and 1890 I was not able to find any. Please report name, etc. — 

 [E. W. Allis, Adrian, Michigan, December 3, 1890.] 



