The Currant Bud Moth. 
269 
The insect belongs to the extensive family of small moths 
known as the Tineidse, of which the clothes moths are familiar 
examples. It measures rather more than half an inch across 
the extended wings, and is easily recognised by its distinctive 
coloration, for the front wings are a dark purple brown, with 
three bright yellow spots upon them, one completely crossing 
the wing not far from its base and the other two near the front 
and hind margin respectively towards the tip. The hind 
wings are pearly grey and fringed with hairs. Unlike most 
moths of this group it does not shun the light, but may be seen 
flying about by day in June. 
The attack this year seems to have been earlier than usual, 
or else to have been noticed at an earlier stage, for the late 
Miss Ormerod, speaking of its occurrence in Gloucestershire, 
in 1891, mentioned April 20 as the date when numbers 
of the shoots were seen to be diseased, and German observers 
allude to the attack occurring early in May. The time, no 
doubt, varies somewhat according to the season, but though 
the summer was exceptionally hot the spring conditions were 
not such as to lead one to expect any of the April pests 
to anticipate their time. 
The dark-red caterpillars when first seen were about the 
tenth of an inch long. Some were found in the buds, some 
in the pith of the shoots, and some wandering on the outside 
of the twigs. On April 18, Mr. Hewitt wrote : “ Here are 
a few specimens of the pest in its present stage. You will 
notice that it is doing the same as last year — apparently eating 
out one bud after another and then establishing itself in the 
topmost shoot.” 
Muslin bags were securely tied round some of the infested 
shoots, and some of these were cut off on April 27 and 
sent to me. They showed fully fed caterpillars in the act 
of wandering away from the damaged buds to turn into 
chrysalids, and some of them had already spun up in the folds 
of the bag. At the same date it was noticed that such 
caterpillars as were not stopped by the muslin took refuge 
under the little flakes of curled bark on the currant stems 
and there pupated. In this situation fresh chrysalids and 
the empty skins of those of last year were found. 
My specimens gave rise to moths about the middle of May, 
which again is somewhat earlier than the recorded experience 
of others, June being the month when the full-grown insect 
is generally met with. 
The moth now seeks the young fruit to lay its eggs, for the 
caterpillar in its earliest stages feeds upon the pips or seeds. 
They appear to cause the currants to ripen prematurely, and 
the infested fruits show red when the majority are still green. 
