932 Annual Report of New York 
CURRANT-WORM* EGGS DESTROYED BY A PARASITE. 
lighten from us the task of combatting it and diminishing its devas¬ 
tations. But our valued friend J. A. Lintner, of Schoharie, greets 
us with the erlad tidings that he has discovered we have such a foe 
to this formidable scourge. An egg parasite of this saw-fly inhab¬ 
its our State, an exceedingly minute Hymeuopterous insect, which 
inserts its eggs into those of the saw-fly, that its young may subsist 
upon and consume the contents of those eggs. This diminutive 
little fly has probably existed hitherto upon the eggs of some one 
of our American saw-flies similar in size to those of the Currant 
Saw-fly; and it has now discovered that the eggs of this newly 
arrived foreigner are equally well adapted to its wants. And so 
multiplied has this little friend of the gardener become, that in 
Utica Mr. Lintner finds that among fifty eggs of a saw-fly upon a 
currant leaf, there will not be more than four or five that will 
hatch currant worms, all the rest being occupied by the little mag¬ 
got, the young of this parasite. At Schoharie, also, where the 
saw-fly has arrived more recently than at Utica, he finds this para¬ 
site is now beginning to appear. Everywhere this little creature is 
no doubt following upon the tracks of the saw-fly, and within a 
very few years after the one arrives in any placo the other will be 
there also, and will speedily become so multiplied as to quell and 
extinguish it. This is a most important discovery, and renders it 
quite probable that in this country this currant worm can never be 
but a temporary evil. Whenever circumstances favor it and enable 
it to multiply and become numerous in any section of our country, 
this little enemy, its mortal foe, will speedily be there to subdue 
and stamp it down. Thus nicely are the works of nature balanced, 
and no creature is permitted to usurp a place in her domain which 
does not belong to ' 
