THE GOOSEBERRY SAW-FLY. 225 



numerous rows of minute black tubercles, each of 

 which bears a small hair at its summit. These larvae 

 are of a social disposition, and are always found in 

 great crowds upon the bushes ; sometimes, according 

 to Mr. Westwood, a thousand or more will inhabit 

 a single bush, which, as we may easily imagine, is 

 soon entirely stripped of everything green. In about 

 ten days from the time of their hatching, these vora- 

 cious little larvse acquire their full growth, when they 

 descend into the ground beneath the scene of their 

 ravages, enclose themselves in a small cocoon, and 

 undergo their transformation into a pupa. In this 

 condition the insects remain for a fortnight or a little 

 longer, when they emerge in the perfect state. 



The fly thus produced [Nematus Gy^ossularm) , which 

 will be in its turn the parent of a host of destructive 

 gooseberry-grubs, measures about a third of an inch 

 in length, and is of a yellow colour, with a black 

 head and thorax. Its antennae are composed of nine 

 joints, long, slender, and tapering, and its wings are 

 of rather large size, transparent, and elegantly reticu- 

 lated. It deposits its eggs along the course of the 

 principal veins on the lower surface of the leaf, where 

 they are placed rather close together like rows ot 

 minute beads, and the pupae proceeding from the 

 second brood of larvae pass the winter in the earth, 

 and the perfect insects do not emerge from them 

 until about the month of March in the following 

 year. 



Many other species allied to this may be met with 

 abundantly in our fields and woods during the warmer 

 spring and summer months, and amongst these one 

 of the commonest is the Allantus lividus, an insect 

 nearly half an inch long, of a black colour, with the 



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