THE INSECT WORLD. 



263 



Currants and lilacs are frequently attacked by borers of this 

 family, and on currants considerable injury is sometimes done by 

 Sesia tipiiliforrnis. Here the best remedy is to cut out the dead 

 stalks in spring, just as soon as leafing out shows where the 

 attack is located, and every wilted shoot seen at any time should 

 be cut off at once below the point affected. The cut stems must, 

 of course, be burnt immediately. An occasional liberal pruning 

 back will prove useful in keeping dow^n the insects, and is some 

 times a benefit to the plants as well. 



As a whole, we may say that our methods of treatment of this 

 family are in the nature of prevention where the species attack 

 trees, and cutting out where they attack shrubs or herbaceous 

 plants. 



Grape-vines, especially in city gardens or in villages, are often 

 attacked by light-brownish caterpillars with black dottings, 

 which are sometimes so abundant as actually to defoHate them. 

 They become nearly an inch 



and a half in length when full ^'^^^ ^83. 



grown, then bore into any soft, 

 rotten, or even comparatively 

 sound wood, where they pupate 

 and eventually emerge as active 

 little moths, expanding rather 

 more than an inch, with black 

 fore-wings having two pale yel- 

 low blotches, and black hind 

 wings with two white spots, of 

 which that near the base is 

 much the largest. The shoul- 

 der tippets are yellow, and the 

 insect is active during mid-day, 

 hovering about the vines in the 



brightest sunshine. It is the Alypia octo-maculata, or 8-spotted 

 forester, common throughout the Eastern and Central United 

 States on wild as well as cultivated vines and Virginia creeper, but 

 rarely troublesome, except near or in cities or towns. The cater- 

 pillars feed quite exposed, and may be easily destroyed by means 

 of the arsenites. In city gardens, pyrethrum in the form of a 

 spray, two ounces to a gallon of water, will prove sufficiently 



Alypia octo-maculata, 8-spotted forester. 

 — a, larva; b, an enlarged segment; c, 

 the moth. 



