THE 



BRITISH NATURALIST. 



NEW SERIES* 



RECENT INVESTIGATIONS ON THE CURRANT-BUD 



MITE (Phytoptus ribis). 



BY R. NEWSTEAD, F.E.S., CURATOR OF THE GROSVENOR MUSEUM, CHESTER, 

 LECTURER ON ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY FOR THE CHESHIRE 



COUNTY COUNCIL. 



This destructive pest of the black currant causes the disease known 

 more generally as " knotting," " knobbing," or "bobbing," the latter 

 term being the one most frequently used in Cheshire. Although the 

 disease is only too well known to fruit growers, hitherto very little has 

 been published that gives anything like a detailed account of the life- 

 history of the pest, and it is almost entirely owing to this that I made 

 the series of observations during the past year. Although a great 

 deal of time was spent in making the investigation, I was unfortunately 

 unable to ascertain the entire period of the migration of the mites from 

 bud to bud, which is one of the most important points in the economy 

 of the species, so far as the application of insecticides is concerned. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



In England and Scotland the disease seems generally distributed; 

 but I have not heard of its occurrence in Wales ; it may, however, be 

 equally common there as in any other part of Great Britain. In 

 Cheshire it is very prevalent indeed ; I have seen it in no less than 

 80 different localities, extending over the whole of the county. The 

 infested bushes frequently occupy some out-of-the-way corner, or fill up 

 a gap in the garden, where it is supposed that nothing else will grow ; 



