84 
CURRANT. 
eye would be too large to convey an idea of the size), there is great 
difficulty in saying with any certainty whether various attacks to 
various plants are caused by one or various species of the mites. 
Where I have traced the life-history the mites hatched (in the same 
shape and with the same number of legs with which they continued 
through their lives) from an egg,* which was of a perfect egg-shape 
at first, but which became, towards hatching, very irregular in form, 
being pushed out by the pressure of the mite inside, which I saw in 
the act of coming out. As the mites grow they cast their skins, and 
these empty cast-skins may be found among the living multitudes. 
The injury to Black Currants consists in the mites, which shelter 
themselves in the buds, feeding on the outer surfaces of the embryo 
leaves, and setting up a diseased growth, which first causes a swollen 
condition of the bud, distinguishing it very plainly from those in a 
healthy state, and at last renders the whole, leaf-bud and flower-stem 
together, abortive. 
On March 25tli specimens were forwarded by a correspondent, 
showing exceedingly bad attack of the gall-mite to Black Currant 
shoots. On two lengths of about three inches of the shoots sent 
- there were as many as six or seven swollen buds, and on another piece 
there were about seven of the swollen distorted buds. 
On May 7tli specimens of Black Currant twigs badly infested by 
Phytoptus galls were forwarded from the neighbourhood of Cottenham, 
Cambs., by Mr. Arthur Bull, with the information that there was 
about half an acre so affected. The attack had been coming on for 
about two or three years. Three years ago these bushes bore an 
enormous crop, and ever since then had been getting worse, until the 
specimens sent were a fair sample of the condition of the whole 
piece. Another kind of Currant growing near was stated not to be 
attacked. 
The figure of the infested Birch shoot shows the shape of the 
infested buds, some small, some, as the bud at the end of the shoot, 
partially developed; but in Black Currants they are not massed 
together, as in this figure of Birch attack. Sometimes the shoot is 
stunted, but often the shoot remains uninjured, and the buds, though 
infested, are still at the natural distance from each other. 
The best remedy for moderate attack is to cut off attacked shoots 
and burn them. This would answer well at first, but if attack is 
established it is very troublesome to get it under, as the mites stray 
about and shelter under rough bark or in crannies near the ground, 
and are almost certain to come out again from them to cause new 
injury. The various remedies used for Bed Spider are desirable, and 
* See “ Notes on the Egg and development of the Phytoptus by E. A. Ormerod, 
in ‘ Entomologist,’ vol, x., p. 280. 
