CATERriLLARS. o79 



at Coombe Wood, and in the following year I captured 

 several at Muswell-hill, since which time I have not seen 

 any at large."* Mr. Haworth also says, " it has not of late 

 years been seen at Chelsea, where it formerly abounded." 

 We have never met with it at all. According to Salisbur}^ 

 the female butterfly lays her eggs near the extremity of an 

 old rather than a young branch, and covers them with a 

 coating of gluten, which is both impervious to moisture and 

 impenetrable (this we doubt) to the bills of birds. "In 

 this state," he adds, " we have instances of their remaining 

 without losing their vitality for several years, until a 

 favourable opportunity of their being brought into exist- 

 ence arrives, "t The caterpillars, which are at first black 

 and hairy, live in common in a silken tent. They become 

 subsequently striped with reddish brown, and disperse over 

 the trees. This caterpillar and its butterfly are figured in 

 a subsequent page. 



Our gooseberiy and red-currant bushes are very fre- 

 quently despoiled of their leaves, both by the speckled 

 caterpillar of the magpie moth (Abraxas grossulariata), and 

 by what Eeaumur terms the pseudo-caterpillars of one of 

 the saw-flies (Nematiis Ribesii, Stephens). The latter insect 

 has a flat yellow body and four pellucid wings, the two 

 outer ones marked with brown on the edge. In April it 

 issues from the pupa, which has lain under ground from 

 the preceding September. The female of the gooseberry 

 saw-fly does not, like some of the family, cut a groove in 

 the branch to deposit her eggs; — "of what use, then," 

 asks Reaumur, "is her ovipositor-saw ?" J In order to 

 satisfy himself on this point, he introduced a pair of the 

 flies under a bell-glass along with a branch bent from a 

 red-currant bush, that he might watch the process. The 

 female immediately perambulated the leaves in search of a 

 place suited to her purpose, and passing under a leaf began 

 to lay, depositing six eggs within a quarter of an hour. 



* Illusti-ations, i. HausteUata, 27. 



f Hints on Orcliards, p. 57. 



X See chap. vii. for a description of tliis curious instrument. 



