with those that infest the Sweet Potato. We have commenced a series of articles, throwing light upon the multifarious species that destroy the health and vigor of the Grape-vine. In the present Paper we propose to give the Natural History of three perfectly distinct kinds of worms, or larvæ as they would be more properly termed, that devour the foliage of the Currant and the Gooseberry. There are other larvæ that bore into the stems or twigs of one or both of these plants, and should rather be called "Borers" than "Worms;" but with these we have at present nothing to do. In a future Paper we shall perhaps treat of these last by themselves.

The Currant and the Gooseberry, although the general appearance of the two plants is very different, and although almost all the species of Gooseberry are thorny and bear each fruit upon a separate stem, while all the species of Currant are devoid of thorns and bear their fruit in a peculiar kind of bunch technically known as a "raceme," are yet referred by Botanists to the same genus (Ribes). Our common Garden Gooseberry (Ribes grossularia) has been introduced among us from Europe; but we have four wild species commonly found in the Northern States; and besides these four there is a Californian species, the Showy Gooseberry (R. speciosum), which is sometimes cultivated as an ornamental plant in our gardens, for the sake of its fine deep-red hanging flowers and red stamens. On the contrary, our common Garden Red Currant (R. rubrum), of which the White Currant is a mere variety, is indigenous in the more northerly of the Northern States from New Hampshire to Wisconsin, although it is also a native of Europe; while on the other hand the Black Currant of our gardens (R. nigrum) is a European plant, and is thought by the best authors to be distinct from our American Wild Black Currant (R. floridum). Besides the above we have three other Currants peculiar to America. One of these, the Missouri or Buffalo Currant (R. aureum), grows wild in the Far West and is often cultivated in gardens, where its small, bright-yellow, spicy-scented flowers are very conspicuous in the early spring. Another of them, peculiar to Oregon and California, the Red-flowered Currant (R. sanguineum), is also occasionally grown as an ornamental plant on this side of the Rocky Mountains.

We have entered into these botanical details, because it is a remarkable fact that the three different Currant and Gooseberry Worms, now to be brought under our notice, all of them attack almost indiscriminately in our gardens the Red

Currant and the Gooseberry, while they are none of them ever found upon our cultivated Black Currant or, so far as is known, upon our wild Black Currant. On the other hand our common imported Currant Borer (Egeria tipuliformis) infests the Red or White Currant, but is never found in the twigs of the cultivated Black Currant or in those of the Gooseberry, whether wild or tame; while our wild Black Currant has a peculiar borer of its own (Egeria caudata), belonging to the very same genus as the imported species which attacks the Red Currant; and we ourselves recently noticed, in the grounds of Mr. D. F. Kinney at Rock Island, Ill., that the tips of the rank vigorously growing twigs of the tame Black Currant were extensively bored on the last of June by that very general feeder the Stalk Worm (Gortyna nitela).* Finally, the common Currant Plantlouse (Aphis ribis)—a species introduced among us from Europe-may be noticed almost every spring in every patch of Red Currants, curling up the leaves in great numbers into blister-like elevations, on the inferior surface of which it resides; while neither this particular species of Plant-louse, nor any other species so far as we are aware, is ever met with either upon the Gooseberry, whether wild or tame, or upon the Black Currant, whether wild or tame. These facts may serve to show us how unsafe it is to infer that, because one insect can thrive upon a number of different species of a particular genus of plants, therefore another insect can do the same thing.

The Gooseberry Span-worm.

(Ellopia [Abraxas] ribearia, Fitch.)

This may be at once distinguished from any other worm, found either on Gooseberry or Currant, by its being what is popularly called a

66

measuring-worm" or span-worm. The annexed sketch (Fig. 5) shews this larva in three different positions, No. 1 representing it in profile in the looping attitude, and No. 2 giving a dorsal view of it as it hangs suspended by a thread. When full-grown it measures about an inch, and is of a bright yellow color, with lateral white lines and numerous black spots and round dots. The head is white, with two large black eye-like spots on the outer sides above and two smaller ones beneath. The six true legs are black and the four pro-legs yellow. It attains its growth about the middle of June, when it descends to the ground and either burrows a

little below the surface or hides under any rubbish that may be lying there; but in neither [Fig. 5.]

Colors-(1 and 2) yellow, black and white; (3) mahogany brown.

case does it form any cocoon. Shortly after this it changes to a chrysalis (Fig. 5, No. 3), of the usual shape and shining mahogany brown color. After remaining in the pupa state about fourteen days, it bursts the pupa shell and in the forepart of July appears as a moth (Fig. 6), of a pale nankin yellow color, the wings shaded with faint dusky leaden-colored spots arranged so as not to present any definite pattern. The sexes then couple as usual, and the female lays her eggs on the branches and twigs of the bushes. Owing to

[Fig. 6.]

carried in the egg state upon transplanted bushes from one neighborhood to another; which accounts for its sudden appearance in parts where it was before unknown. For there is but one brood of this insect in one year, and the eggs must consequently, like those of the Tent-worm of the Apple-tree, be exposed, on the twigs and limbs to which they are attached, to all the heats of July and August without hatching out, and to all the frosts of December and January without freezing out. At length, when the proper time arrives, and the gooseberry and currant bushes are out in full leaf so as to afford plenty of food, the tiny but tough little egg hatches

out about the latter end of May, and in a little more than three weeks the worms attain their full larval development.

This Gooseberry Span-worm was first noticed near Chicago in 1862 or '63; and for two or three years afterwards it increased rapidly, so as in most gardens not to leave a single leaf on the gooseberry, and in many instances to entirely strip the currant bushes. It is quite common also in St. Louis and Jefferson counties in Missouri, and for the past two seasons has entirely stripped the Gooseberry bushes on many farms in these counties. Elsewhere in the Western States it is not by any means common; but in many localities in the East it has been a severe pest for a great number of years, especially in the States of New York and Pennsylvania. Near Rock Island, Ill., in the course of twelve years collecting, we only met with one solitary specimen of the moth, although there are plenty of wild gooseberries growing in the woods there, which plant was in all probability its original home, before the introduction into this country of the cultivated gooseberry. We have observed that the species shows a decided preference for the gooseberry, always attacking that plant first when growing side by side with the currant. Hence we have given it the English name of the "Gooseberry Span-worm," to distinguish it from the Imported Currant Worm next to be treated of, which conversely prefers the Currant to the Gooseberry. In reality, however, as we hinted before, the "Gooseberry Span-worm " frequently becomes a Currant Span-worm, and the "Imported Currant Worm" is often to be met with performing the part of an Imported Gooseberry Worm.

It should be carefully observed that the Gooseberry Span-worm is a native American insect, not to be found on the other side of the Atlantic. In Europe, indeed, there is an allied span-worm (Abraxas grossulariata), which infests their gooseberry and currant bushes much in the same way as our indigenous species infests our bushes; but the larva and especially the perfect moth are marked very differently.* We mention this fact, because it was erroneously stated four years ago in an Article in the Prairie Farmer, that the two were identical; and because, as we shall show in a future article, the truth is here of some considerable scientific interest and involves some very curious consequences.

Figures of both will be found in Westw. Introd. II. p. 396, Figs. 1 and 3.

The Imported Currant-worm. (Nematus ventricosus, Klug.)*

it

It is only about a dozen years since this most pernicious enemy to the Currant and Gooseberry was introduced from Europe into the United States. So far as can be ascertained, made its first appearance among us in the neighborhood of Rochester, N. Y., and is supposed to have been imported along with some gooseberry bushes from Europe by the celebrated Rochester nurserymen, Messrs. Ellwanger & Barry. In nine years time, besides colonizing in other directions, it had gradually spread to Washington Co., N. Y., on the east side of the Hudson River-a total distance of about 225 miles. Thus, as it appears, it traveled at the average rate of some 25 miles a year, establishing a permanent colony wherever it went, and not passing through the country as a mere

In the PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST for September, 1866, the Senior Editor published the first complete history of this Insect, as it exists in the United States, and in an Appendix to the Article gave its full scientific synonymy, showing that, in accordance with the Law of Priority, its correct name was Nematus ventricosus, Klug, and that, according to Snellen Von Vollenhoven, this was as early as 1859 the received name for the species in Europe. As is stated in that Article, the species was first described by Klug in the year 1819 under the above specific name, and it was not till four years afterwards that St. Fargeau blunderingly described the male under the specific name of affinis, and the female under the specific name of trimaculatus-thus manufacturing two species out of one! Two years after the above Paper from the pen of the Senior Editor had been published, Dr. Fitch gave to the world an Article on this subject in the Transactions of the New York State Agricultural Society for 1867, pp. 909--932 In this Article, though he incidentally remarks (p. 910) that the same insect had been described by another author under the name of ventricosus, he yet adopts St Fargeau's name for it, or rather that one of St. Fargeau's two names which applies exclusively to the female sex-namely trimaculatus." This, however, is a trifling matter; for although Dr. Fitch has frequently busied himself in upsetting old established names, and in accordance with the rigid Law of Priority supplanting those old names by still older ones, which he has chosen to resurrect from the buried dust of ages, we ourselves attach but little importance to this kind of scientific legerdemain. But Dr. Fitch has not been satisfied with adopting St. Fargeau's name published in 1823 in preference to Klug's name published in 1819, thus flying in the face of that very Law of Priority, for which he is generally so great a stickler: he must also adopt St. Fargeau's blunder in giving that name. It will scarcely be believed, but it is positively and absolutely true, that Dr. Fitch describes exclusively the female sex of this insect, and palms it off upon his readers as a description of both sexes! (See pp. 926-7). Yet the males are almost entirely black and the females almost entirely yellow; so that a description that suits the female is altogether inapplicable to the male. Nor is this an unusual thing among the Sawflies; for it was shown by the Senior Editor as long ago as December, 1866, that in this Family the body of the male is very generally much darker than that of the female, while in the Ichneumon family it is exactly the reverse. (See Proc. Ent. Soc., Phil, VI, pp. 238-9).

In the Paper in the Practical Entomologist which has been already referred to (Vol I, pp. 120-1) it is expressly stated that the males and females of this Sawfly differ so widely that they would scarcely be taken by the inexperienced entomologist for the same species;" and a very full description of each sex is then and there given. Yet two years subsequently Dr. Fitch, as it appears, was totally unacquainted with the male sex, or at all events his description applies exclusively to the female, and he says not one single word about the sexes. And this when, by his own account, the insect was swarming in his own garden under his very nose! Of course, under these circumstances, it is impossible that he could ever have looked into the Paper on the same subject published two years before in the Practical Entomologist. But when an author is careless enough to make such blunders as the above, would he not do well, before he gives his own lucubrations to the world, to see what others have published in the same special department of Natural History?

moveable column of invaders. In 1860 or '61 it appeared at Erie in the N. W. corner of Pennsylvania. In 1864 Prof. Winchell found it at Ann Arbor, Michigan. In 1866 it was generally distributed over the N. E. counties of Pennsylvania. And judging from a conversation which we had in October, 1868, with Mark Carley, of Champaign, in Central Illinois, this gentleman must have had it in great numbers upon his currant bushes in the summer of that year. At all events he described the worm which had infested his bushes as being green with many black spots and as not being a looper.

But besides the principal centre of distribution at Rochester, N. Y., this Currant-worm seems to have been imported from Europe at one or two other points in the Eastern States, and as at Rochester to have spread therefrom as from a focus. Unless our memory greatly deceives us, Mr. Geo. Brackett, of Maine, described this same insect many years ago, as existing in that State, though he gave it a different specific name, and was not at all aware that it had been introduced from the other side of the Atlantic. We also heard of it in the summer of 1867, from Mr. A. H. Mills, of Vermont, as being very destructive in his neighborhood. Not improbably, it was independently imported at other points in the East. Wherever it is introduced it spreads with great rapidity, and as there are two broods every year, it soon multiplies so as to strip all the currant and gooseberry bushes bare and utterly ruin the crop, besides eventually destroying the bushes, unless proper measures be taken to counteract it. Throughout the western parts of New York, as we have been informed by our ornithological friend Dr. Velie, the cultivation of currants and gooseberries has been almost entirely given up, on account of the depredations of this seemingly insignificant little savage. And, according to Dr. Fitch, at Watertown, N. Y., "it kept the bushes so destitute of leaves in most of the gardens, that in three years they were nearly or quite dead."

The Imported Currant-worm Fly (Fig. 7, a male, female, both enlarged), belongs to the Sawflies (Tenthredo Family)—a group of the Order of Clear-winged Flies (Hymenoptera), which is remarkable for having most of its larvæ with the same plant-feeding propensities as those of the great bulk of the larvæ of the Moths, and with very much their general appearance. Sawfly larvæ, however, may be readily distinguished from moth larvæ, in the majority of cases, by having either 22, 20 or 18 legs; whereas the greatest number of legs that any moth larva has is 16. The species that we now have to do with

comes out of the ground soon after the leaves of the currant and gooseberry bushes, upon which it feeds, put forth in the spring, or from [Fig. 7.]

Colors-Black and yellow.

the latter part of April to the forepart of May. The sexes then couple, and the female proceeds to lay her eggs along the principal veins on the under side of the leaf. From these eggs shortly afterwards hatch out minute green 20-legged larvæ or worms, which at first have black heads and many black dots on their bodies, but after moulting for the last time are entirely of a grassgreen color, except the large dark eye spots on each side of the head found in all larvæ belong. ing to this genus, and except that the joint next the head and the two hindmost joints are of a yellow color, as is also the case in the less mature larva, which bears so many black markings. In the annexed Figure 8, a, a, a, a shows larvæ of different sizes in different positions; and b gives [Fig. 8.]

black spots. When full-grown the larvæ are about three-quarters of an inch long, and from their greatly increased size, make their presence readily known by the sudden disappearance of the leaves from the infested bushes. Shortly afterwards, having attained a length of fully three-quarters of an inch, they burrow underground, generally beneath the infested bushes, or, if there are many leaves lying on the ground, simply hide under those leaves. In either case they spin around themselves a thin oval cocoon of brown silk, within which they assume the pupa state. But frequently, as we are assured by Mr. Saunders of Canada West, and as European observers have noticed, they spin their cocoons in the open air upon the bushes. About the last week in June or the first part of July, or occasionally not until the beginning of August, the winged insect bursts forth from the cocoon and emerges to the light of day; when the same process of coupling and laying eggs is repeated. The larvæ hatch out from this second laying of eggs as before, feed on the leaves as before, and spin their cocoons as before; but the perfect fly from this second brood does not come out of the cocoon till the following spring, when the same old series of phenomena is repeated.

From the drawings of the Male and Female Fly given above (Fig. 7), the reader will see at once that the two sexes differ very widely. This is very generally the case among the Sawflies, and it is a remarkable and most suggestive fact that, when this takes place, the body of the male is almost invariably darker than that of the female. Nor does our species, as will be observed at the first glance, form any exception to the rule. Indeed, as with two other Sawflies that devour the foliage of our Pines and Firs (Lophyrus Abbottii and L. abietis), the body of the male is almost entirely black and that of the female almost entirely yellow; so that at first sight we should suppose the two to belong to different species. Since, from some unaccountable oversight, Dr. Fitch has overlooked this fact, and described both sexes as being colored in the manner which is exclusively to be met with in the female, it will be as well to add here full descriptions, first of the female fly and secondly of the male fly. These descriptions were, indeed, published by the Senior Editor two years before Dr. Fitch's appeared; but the writings of that gentleman circulate so extensively that, when he makes an important mistake such as this, it is proper that it should be corrected in our columns in detail.

FEMALE FLY.-General color of body bright honeyyellow. Head black, with all the parts between and below the origin of the antennæ, except the tip of the

mandibles, dull honey-yellow. Antennæ brown-black, often tinged with rufous above, except towards the base, and beneath entirely dull rufous except the two basal joints; four-fifths as long as the body, joint 3, when viewed laterally, four times as long as wide, joints 3-5 equal in length, 6-9 very slowly shorter and shorter. In two females the antennæ are 10-jointed, joint 10 slender and as long as 9. Thorax with the anterior lobe above, a wide stripe on the disk of each lateral lobe which is very rarely reduced to a mere dot, or very rarely the whole of each lateral lobe, a spot at the base and at the tip of the scutel, the two spots sometimes confluent and very rarely subobsolete, a small spot at the outer end of each cenchrus and a geminate small spot transversely arranged between the cenchri, the tip of the metathoracic scutel, the front and hind edge above of what seems the 1st abdominal joint, but is in reality the hind part of the metathorax, or very rarely its whole surface above, and also the whole lower surface of the breast between the front and middle legs, or very rarely two large spots arranged Crossways on that surface, all black. Cenchri whitish. Abdomen with joints 1 and 2 very rarely edged at tip with black. Sheaths of the ovipositor tipped more or less with black, the surrounding parts sometimes more or less tinged with dusky. The triangular membrane at the base of the abdomen above, whitish. Legs bright honey-yellow; all the coxæ and trochanters whitish; the extreme tip of the hind shanks and the whole of the hind tarsi, brown-black. Wings glassy; veins and stigma brown-black, the latter as well as the costa obscurely marked with dull honey-yellow. In a single Qall three submarginal cross-veins are absent in one wing, and only the basal one is present in the other wing. In another all three are indistinctly present in one wing, and in the other only the basal one and a rudiment of the terminal one. In a single wing of two other, the terminal submarginal cross-vein is absent. And in a single there are but three submarginal cells in either wing, precisely as in the genus Euura -Length Q0.22 0.28 inch. Front wing 0.27-0.33 inch. Expanse of wings Q 0.53-0.64 inch, (wings depressed). MALE FLY.-General color of body black. Head with the clypeus and the entire mouth, except the tip of the mandibles, dull honey-yellow. Antennæ brownblack, often more or less tinged with rufous beneath except towards the base: as long as the body, the joints proportioned as in Q, but the whole antenna, as usual in this sex, vertically much more dilated, so that joint 3 is only 2% times as long as wide when viewed in profile. Thorax with the wing-scales and the entire collare honey-yellow. Cenchri whitish. Abdomen with more or less of its sides, the extreme tip above, and its entire inferior surface honey-yellow. Legs as in 9. Wings as in. In two the middle submarginal cross-vein is absent in both wings, so that if captured at large they would naturally be referred to the genus Euura. In two other this is the case in one wing only. Another has but the basal submarginal cross-vein remaining in each wing. And in two other the terminal submarginal cross-vein is absent in one wingLength 0.20-0.22 inch. Front wing 0.23-0.25 inch. Expanse of wings 0.44-0.51 inch, (wings depressed.)

Described from 22 ♂ and 13 9, 3 ♂ and 1 f of the spring brood. The fact of two, contrary to the established character of the genus Nematus, having 10-jointed instead of 9-jointed antennæ is a variation of a kind of which no other example in the whole Family of Sawflies is on record. Had such a specimen been captured at large, instead of being bred, along with a lot of normal, from the same lot of larvæ taken from the same lot of bushes, it would probably have been made the basis for a new genus and a new species by some of our genus-grinding closet-entomologists.

The mode in which this Currant Worm has

been transmitted, first from the European nursery to the American nursery, and afterwards all over several States of the Union, can be easily explained. As has been stated just now, it usually passes the autumn and winter in the ground under the bushes, where it has fed, housed in a little oval cocoon from to inch long. Hence if, as often happens, infested bushes are taken up in the autumn or early in the spring, with a little dirt adhering to their roots, and sent off to a distance, that dirt will likely enough inclose a cocoon or two. A single pair of cocoons, if they happen to contain individuals of opposite sexes, will be sufficient to start a new colony. The first and probably the second year the larvæ will not be noticed; but increasing, as almost all insects do, unless checked from some extraneous source, in a fearfully rapid geometric progression, by the third or fourth year they will swarm, strip the bushes completely bare of their leaves, and ruin the prospect for a good crop of fruit. Of course, like other winged insects, they can fly from garden to garden in search of a suitable spot whereon to deposit their eggs; so that any point where they have been once imported becomes, in a few years, a new centre of distribution for the immediate neighborhood.

Nurserymen and all others, importing Gooseberry and Currant bushes from a distance, should be particularly careful, before they plant them, to wash the roots thoroughly in a tub of water, and burn or scald whatever comes off them. Any cocoons, that may happen to be hidden among the dirt attached to the roots, will then be destroyed. By attending to this precaution the dissemination of this mischievous little pest, throughout the United States, may be greatly retarded for many years to come.

For those who are already cursed with it, the same hellebore which we shall recommend at the end of this Article, as universally efficient against all three kinds of Gooseberry and Currant Worms, is the best, the cheapest and the most available remedy. Where this cannot be conveniently obtained, the Imported Currant Worm, owing to a peculiarity in its habits, can be pretty successfully fought upon a system, which is inapplicable to the other two species on account of the difference in their habits. Unlike the other two, the Imported Currant Worm, as has been already stated, lays its eggs in large groups on the under side of the leaf, and upon the principal veins, as shown at No. 1 in Figure 9, instead of attaching them in comparatively small patches to the twigs and branches. Hence, when the eggs hatch out, the minute little larvæ can find