STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
421 
CURRANT. STALKS. 
than broad, and shaped like a reversed cone, the two succeeding joints longest 
of all, the fifth one much shorter and all the following ones shorter still, the 
last one being pointed at its tip. The under side is black with small punctures 
which are close and somewhat confluent, and the surface is thinly covered with 
short incumbent gray hairs. The legs have similar hairs and are pale chest¬ 
nut with the thickened part of the thighs black and sometimes the tips of the 
shanks also, the forward shanks presenting a slight wide transverse concavity 
on their insides. 
Variety a. Color chestnut brown throughout. 
In the cavity in the interior of diseased currant stalks, I have 
met with a small mite, which is described on one of the following 
pages, and also with two kind c of larvae in addition to those of the 
currant borer. One of these larvae lies naked among the chips 
made by the borer, and is scarcely 0.10 long, white, glassy, with¬ 
out feet, tapering to a point at one end, which point is thrust out 
and retracted at the pleasure of the worm and shows two blackish 
parallel lines upon one side. I have not yet succeeded in obtaining 
these in their perfect state, but they are evidently the maggot of 
some small two-winged fly, which is not a parasite upon the borer, 
for the remains of no dead worm are seen near them. Their fur¬ 
ther habits and economy still remain to be traced out. 
The other worms are parasites, several of which live together 
in the body of the borer till they get their growth, by which time 
they have consumed all the internal parts of their foster-parent 
so that only the outer skin remains. They then crawl from this 
skin and spin their cocoons at short distances one above another 
in the cell. Their cocoons are 0.20 long and of sufficient width 
to fill the cavity where they are placed. They are thin and 
almost transparent, appearing like a fine membranous substance 
through which the worm within can plainly be seen. After finish¬ 
ing their cocoons they cast their skins, which form a little black 
mass in the upper end of the cocoon. The worms as found in 
these cocoons in the winter season are 0.13 long by 0.06 in width, 
white, shining, soft and of a flesh-like substance, their form ellip¬ 
tic but curved into the shape of a crescent, the sutures marked 
by transverse lines slightly constricted, with a very fine pale 
brown transverse line placed at the mouth. These worms change to 
pup® in the spring and give out the perfect insect the fore part'of 
June. They thus come abroad about three weeks after the borers 
have come out, so that by the time they are ready to deposit their 
