910 
Annual Report of New York 
CURRANT-WORM. A EUROPEAN INSECT. ITS FOREIGN HISTORY. 
tants of a large portion of the State at the present time is the new 
worm upon the currant hushes. Introduced upon this side of the 
Atlantic about twelve years ago, it has been multiplying and 
extending itself over the country in all directions, and within two 
or three years past has arrived in numerous localities in the northern, 
eastern and southern sections of the State, showing itself such a 
formidable destroyer as to attract much public attention, and eveiy 
item of information relating to its past history, its habits and reme¬ 
dies is sought for with avidity. 
This currant worm has been known many years to European 
gardeners and men of science, as being the very worst of all the 
enemies by which the gooseberry and currant are attacked. It 
would appear to have made its advent there at a recent date. So 
multiplied and destructive as it has been in Europe in our day, it 
is remarkable that it was wholly unknown there a century ago. 
It was not till the year 1823 that it was first noticed and described, 
by a French entomologist, Count Le Pelletier de Saint Fargeau, in 
his treatise upon the saw-flies ( Monographia Tenthredinum, page 
69,) who named it the Three-spotted Saw-fly, Nematus trimaculatus, 
in allusion to the three black spots on its thorax. Nematus Ribesii, 
Tentkredo Grossulariae , and Tenthredo ventneosa are also names 
which have been given it by different writers. The gooseberry is 
much more largely and the currant much less cultivated in Europe 
than in this country, and consequently this insect in Great Britain 
is popularly named the gooseberry saw-fly, and its larva, which, 
wherever it is known in our country is called the currant worm is 
there termed the gooseberry caterpillar. 
For several years, about twenty-five and thirty years ago, this 
insect became multiplied to an unusual extent and was very destruc¬ 
tive, at least in England, and was much noticed in the Horticultu¬ 
ral and Scientific publications of those days. In the year 1841 its 
ravages appear to have been most severe, transcending everything 
that had been previously experienced. In the Gardener's Chronicle 
of that year, page 597, C. Lawrence says, “ I never recollect any 
season in which this pest made such determined and repeated 
attacks upon the gooseberry and currant trees. I have always 
found hand-picking the only sure mode of arresting their'progrcss, 
but this season that was unavailing; for after employing many 
persons to pick off and destroy the caterpillars and looking over 
the trees to see that the work was effectually done, in the course 
