280 The American Naturalist. [Mareh, 
and die; and, eventually, as the insects increase in size and destructive 
power, the leaves become 
withered and dead, as repre- 
sented in Fig. 2 of the ac- 
companying plate. “ When 
all the tenderest leaves hava 
succumbed, the insect contin- 
ues its attack on the older 
leaves lower down. During 
its lifetime a single insect will 
destroy at least two or three 
currant or gooseberry leaves. 
This accounts for the fact that 
the injury wrought often seems 
Fic. 1.—The adult insect; its natural size Terre neh out of proportion to the 
number of insects at work. 
“ When the insects are very numerous, the growth of the shoots is 
often checked, they droop, wither, and die. Some have thought that 
this blasting of the growth was caused by a poisonous saliva which the 
insect injected into the wound made by its beak. However, it is more 
probable that the shoot dies or its growth is checked on account of the 
death of its breathing organs—the leaves. On the currant, gooseberry, 
and many other plants the insect confines its attacks to the leaves, but 
on some ornamental plants, as the dahlia and rose, the most frequent 
point of attack seems to be the buds.” ç 
Mr. Slingerland has, for the first time, traced 
the annual cycle of this pest. He finds that 
“the nymphs appear in the latter part of May 
upon shrubby plants where they continue to 
sented in small figure at the right. 
appear early in June and often spread to differ- 
ent surrounding succulent plants. Egg-laying 
begins in the latter part of June; the eggs 
being laid in slits cut in the stems of shrubs 
near the tips of the new growth. The adults 
disappear in July and the insect hibernates in 
‘the egg. Only one brood occurs each year in 
our State.” 
The eggs are deposited in the stems, several 
sy ea side by side in a longitudinal 
Tow (Fig. 2). The egg cl ya 
aa paria a: altar as they appear tion; z, egg, greatly 
