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species. This may be readily explained by his probably having a 
female which differs in shape, size, and coloration very markedly from 
the male, as will be shown later. The importance of this saw-fly as a 
serious currant pest warrants the collating of the fragmentary facts 
in its life-history, as discovered by Dr. Liutner and his correspondents, 
and by Mr. Allis, and introducing careful descriptions, with figures 
of both sexes, to facilitate its ready recognition by fruit-growers. 
The damage to the Currant, which was first noticed by Prof. C. H. 
Peck, New York State Botanist, in his garden near Albany, and 
afterwards by Dr. Lintner in gardens in Albany, was described by 
Dr. Lintner in his first article as follows : 
A short distance below one of the larger leaves of a tip, five or six somewhat 
sharp curved cuts could be seen encircling the stalk, and from their depth nearly 
severing it, causing the tip to fall over and hang suspended by only some small 
point of attachment. In some instances where, from the dried condition of the end 
of the stalk, it was probable that the cutting had been done a few days previously, 
the tip had broken off and fallen to the ground. 
It was at this time supposed that the egg of the parent insect was 
deposited in the severed tip, and indeed in a single instance a newly- 
hatched larva was found very near the point of excision — its 
occurrence here, as will appear later, being: doubtless accidental. 
Previously, and during the time covered by these observations in 
New York, Mr. Allis succeeded independently in rearing numbers of 
both sexes of the parent fly from Currant stems, in his garden near 
Adrian, Mich. In transmitting his first specimen he wrote: 
I send you by this mail oue male parent of a native Hymenopterous currant- worm, 
the same as was noted a year or two ago by Prof. Lintner in his 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, and so forth. 
In conversation at the time of his visit to Washington in 1891, he 
described the nature of the work substantially as is given in the Eighth 
New York Eeport, by a later correspondent of Dr. Lintner, Mr. J. F. 
Rose, of South Byron, N. Y. Mr. Rose writes under date of June 6, 
1891, as follows: 
I inclose specimens of a few currant stems which show the work of an insect which 
cuts 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, I found that each of them in the spring 
had a borer. Since that time it has been my habit to go over the currants several 
times, cutting off these shoots 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? 
Two of the twigs sent by Mr. Rose were dissected by Dr. Lintner, 
and the egg was discovered within the stem about one-half an inch 
below the punctures. It is described as white, transparent, rounded 
at the ends, one-twentieth of an inch in length and half as broad. 
