GOOSEBEKRY AND CURRANT SAWFLY, 



101 



season of their fulhi- developed 2)resence, points directly to the 

 advantage of scraping off and getting rid of rough bark as far 

 as can be managed, and also of removing gnarled and rough- 

 barked boughs ; also, and very particularly, of syringing and 

 running soft-soap washes down the stems so as to fill the 

 crannies and angles of the branches, and thus choke up the 

 lurking-places, and stifle the mites within them. 



Gooseberry aud Currant Sawfly. Nematus ribesU, Cameron." 



Male sawfly, caterpillars, and cocoon ; all magnified. After figures in Reports 

 of the Entomological Society of Ontario. Dimensions given below. 



The attack of the Gooseberry and Currant Sawfly is perhaps 

 one of the most destructive that bush-fruit growers have to 

 contend with, on account of the frequent recurrence of the 

 infestation, its prevalence in the island from its most northern 

 to its most southern counties, and its great powers of ruining 

 the leafage of the attacked bushes, even by scores of acres. _ 



When very young the sawfly caterpillars are green, with 

 black heads, and with minute black points on their bodies. 

 When full-grown they are about an inch in length; the 

 ground colour green or pale-green ; the segment next to the 

 head and a little of the next one orange-coloured ; so also are 

 the tail segments, but with such a large black mark above, 



* This species is the one fully treated of in notices in the Reports of the 

 Entomological Society of Canada under the synonym of Nematus ventricnsiis, 

 Klug, and I have added the name of " Cameron," as above, to the name of 

 Nematus ribesii, as it is the specific designation chosen by him in his ' Mono- 

 graph of British Phytophagous Hymenoptera ' ; and at heading of his paper on 

 this insect — vol. ii. p. 168 — will be found a list of its various appellations. 



