STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
425 
CURRANT. STALKS. 
place. A few years since I made a partial investigation of the 
insects which occur in diseased potatos. Among these I met 
with excessive numbers of mites, mostly pertaining to two differ¬ 
ent species. Within a few days past having received from M. 
Guerin Meneville his paper upon this same subject, published in 
the Bulletins of the Royal and Central Society of Agriculture, 1 
observed that two species of mites were here described and figured. 
On comparing these figures with the sketches which I had hereto¬ 
fore taken, their coincidence was apparent on a moment’s glance, 
rendering it evident that these two little creatures which resided 
in myriads in my own cellar were identical with those found in 
the same situation in the distant city of Paris. 
The mite which occurs in diseased currant stalks, appears to 
be unlike anything which I find mentioned by authors. It has a 
considerable resemblance to the longer mite (Tyrcglyphus loiigior , 
Gervais) which has been discovered in company with the cheese 
mite in the rind of old cheese, but the head here is much larger 
and the thorax longer, so that the abdomen forms but two-thirds 
of the length of the insect. A slight but very distinct constric¬ 
tion separates the thorax from the abdomen and a more slight one 
divides the head from the thorax. The head is shaped like an 
egg and from its anterior end two small very short bristles project 
forward like little horns. Two longish bristles project backward 
from the tip of the abdomen, and there are two shorter ones upon 
each side of these and another standing directly outward upon 
each side of the abdomen towards its base. The legs are of equal 
length, rather slender and cylindric, each having near the tip a 
longish bristle standing outward. When walking the four hind 
legs are wholly hid as the insect is viewed from above. 
Many hundreds of these mites may sometimes be met with in 
their winter quarters, heaped together in a mass in the lower end 
of the cavity which has been excavated by a borer. On bringing 
them into a warm room they immediately awake to life, all 
moving their legs but showing no disposition to separate and 
crawl away. 
138 . Amputating brocade moth, Hadena ampul atrix, now species. (Lepi- 
doptera. NoetuiiUe.) 
The latter part of May, severing by night the young succulent 
stalks of currants, roses, &c., a cut-worm 1.50 long, of a brownish 
