128 STUDY OF 



This insect, as might naturally be expected, 

 was very injurious in the year 1826. 



Considering the gooseberry as one of the most 

 valuable of our garden-fruits, it is remarkable, 

 that more attention has not been paid to the 

 insects which infest the tree : practical gardeners 

 know very little, and entomologists of eminence 

 have differed much, respecting them. 



The sesia tipuliformis of Fabricius, was for- 

 merly considered as the parent of these grubs. 



In the folio edition of Merian, published at 

 Amsterdam, in 1730, chap. 25, there is an en- 

 graving of a phalaena, and also one of a ten- 

 thredo, in the same plate, both of which are 

 stated to be destructive to the gooseberry. In 

 the first volume of the celebrated work of Kirby 

 and Spence, page 1 95, the larvae of the phalaena 

 grossulariata are said to have been very destruc- 

 tive to the foliage of the gooseberr}^ 



At Sale, I have never found these larvae with 

 less than twelve spurious feet, and, therefore, 



and, I apprehend, it is equally evident, that diseased vegetables, 

 like unhealthy animals, are most liable to the attacks of their 

 respective parasites. 



