204 Insect Pests. 



It is well known to most currant growers, being fairly widely 

 distributed over England and on the Continent, but only occasionally 

 is it found in sufBeient numbers to cause any serious damage. It is 

 well known in Germany, and I have found it working in considerable 

 numbers in IsTormandy and Picardy (1). Prom Europe it has been 

 imported, according to Lintner(2), into America, where it is also 

 destructive to the currant. 



Eed, white and black currants are attacked, but it is especially 

 the latter which suffer. Mr. Buley, writing me from Woodnesborough 

 in 1906, said that he had found it boring into the gooseberry. 



Pieports of its damage have also reached me from Cambridge, 

 from several places around London, and many in Kent. 



Life-History, Etc. 



The moth (Pig. 156) is a little more than f inch in expanse of 

 wings and about J inch in length of body. The abdomen is metallic 

 black or bluish, the segments edged with yellow, the abdomen thus 

 being banded with three yellow stripes in the female and four in the 

 male, the apex ending in a fan-shaped mass of metallic purple or 

 black hair-like scales. The thorax is also metallic purple with a 

 yellow stripe on each side. The fore wings are transparent, the upper 

 margin black with a dark orange tint on the upper edge ; tip streaked 

 with black ; lower edge black, tinged with orange ; hind wings with 

 black margins, tinged with orange ; fringes black. 



The moths appear mainly in June. The 

 earliest record I have is 25th of May, when I 

 found numbers in a garden at Ealing in 1884. 

 One habit I have repeatedly noticed in 

 this species is that they always occur on the 

 wing early in the day, between seven and 

 ten seeming to be the favourite hours, and 

 then only on warm, sunny mornings. They 

 [F- E. are seen hovering around the bushes, now 

 FIG. 166.-CUREANT oLEARwiNu ^nd again Settling on the leaves and sunning ' 

 themselves. Once in 1892 I found them in 

 numbers in a garden at Cambridge resting on the stems and on the 

 undersides of the leaves of red currants during the latter part of 

 the day. 



The female lays her eggs on the stems ; as a rule I only found 

 one placed on each stem. 



The eggs are oval and yellowish-white in colour and seem to be 

 mainly laid near where a small shoot or a bud arises. In ten days 



