42 



Fig. 24. 

 of two or three distinct sorts 



their numbers were not very 



light, and in taking their egg 



As soon as the young larvae 



a cheering ray, a bright prospect of assistance, from 

 a small ichneumon fly. On examining a number of 

 the cocoons of disiocampa, as they were safely nes- 

 tled in the folded fragments of leaves left on the 

 trees, we found a large proportion infested with 

 maggots or small white grubs. These we found were 

 one was a largLsh white grub, and existed in the body of the 

 caterpillar, sometimes solitary and sometimes in pairs, and entirely devoured the internal por- 

 tions ; and in other cases they were smaller and closely huddled together, but in each and 

 every case the destruction of the caterpiller and of the future egg-laying moth was most 

 complete. 



Our methods for suppressing this grievance and lessening 

 effectual, but consisted in entrapping the moths by means of 

 clusters from the branches of the trees and destroying them. 



were hatched in the spring our practice was, as early as possible in the day, while they were 

 yet very young and closely compacted, to collect them in masses and destroy them. In this 

 way millions were easily and effectually captured and destroyed, but there are always some 

 careless neighbours who would do nothing, and declare it was of no use fighting them as they 

 would eat up the trees anyway, and so by swarming in from the forests, and those neglected 

 orchards, the trouble was annoyingly kept up. 



Measuring Worms {Geometers) and Leaf Rollers, {Tortrices) 



were this year, as usual, very abundant on all our fruit and ornamental trees, shrubs and 

 plants, but the diligent overseer, by his watchfulness and skill can, with comparative ease, so 

 reduce these troublers that their work on the mass of foliage is scarcely perceptble. The 

 only way they seem to us damage, and in which we feel them to be a burden is as assis- 

 tants combined with the already multitudinous forces in the same field of destruction, we feel 

 that we could readily do without their services. 



The Currant Bush Borer (supjMsed to he the European Aegcria Tijjvli/ormis, See fig. 25.) 



is doing us considerable damage in our currant plantations, and here, too, this 

 evil is permitted by the careless and indolent cultivators to increase upon us, 

 so that eventually, currant growing in this country will become very uncertain 

 and very troublesome. These insects eat out the heart of the young stem and 

 so weaken it that it is incapable of ripening its fruit and shortly dies or breaks 

 off. Of far more serious moment at present, however, is 



The Currant or Gooseberry Worm [Nematus Ventricosus). 



The larva of 



this pest is seen 



in fig. '26. The 



perfect fly, male 

 I and female, fig. 

 1 -^7 ; and the 

 I eggs as laid on 



the leaves in 



fig. 28. This 



abundant and 



voracious insect 



feeds readily in 



the larval state 



either on the 



leaves of tie 



currant or those 



of the goose- 

 berry, but I pre- 

 fer to call it by 

 way of distinction, the Currant Worm, and the insect that feeds on the fruit of the goose 



Fig. 25. 



Fig. 27. 



