NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 231 
GOOSEBERRY AND CuRRANT BUSHES ATTACKED By Larv2. 
—Many of the gooseberry and currant bushes in this neighbour- 
hood have this year been almost stripped of their foliage by 
immense numbers of those little pests, the larvee of Nematus 
Ribesi. A short time ago I had a box of these larve brought 
to me, which I fed up, and this day (July 12th) several of 
these sawflies have emerged. Can any entomologist suggest any 
means whereby we may withstand their attacks should they assail 
us in the future ?—R. Lappmman; Norwich, July 5, 1879. 
Insurntous Insrects.—The whole of the gooseberry and currant 
bushes in this neighbourhood are entirely denuded of leaves by 
the larvee of a sawfly; they are here in countless thousands ; 
the bushes are dreadful objects, not a vestige of green left on 
them, but plenty of fruit. Other pests are abundant, but partial ; 
but the gooseberry grubs are everywhere.—V. R. Perkins; The 
Brands, Wotton-under-Edge, August 8, 1879. 
PARASITES OF THE CELERY Fuy.—At folio 141 of his 
‘ British Entomology’ Curtis says of Alysia Apu :—“ For speci- 
mens of this insect and their history I am indebted to a lady 
who found the larve feeding upon the parenchyma of celery 
leaves the 30th September; on the 11th October they had 
changed to shining oval pupze of a dull ochre colour, having very 
much the appearance of a shell (Z’urbo Chrysalis of Turton) ; the 
imago appeared the June following.” Amongst the addenda 
to this fine work he, however, expresses a doubt whether the 
shell-like pup did not belong to a Tephritis, and that the Alysia 
was its parasite ; subsequently the matter was so, correctly, stated 
in his paper in the ‘Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society ’ 
(vol. ix., p. 192, August, 1848), and again in ‘ Farm Insects.’ 
There he goes further, for speaking of the beautiful and peculiar 
Chalcid, Pachylarthrus smaragdinus, Curt., he says :—‘‘ Whether 
the Pachylarthrus is a direct parasite, and punctures the larva of 
the Tephritis, or lays its eggs in the pupe already occupied 
by the Alysia, which in all probability is the case, has not 
been ascertained.” ‘This spring, in breeding this pretty fly 
(Tephritis onopordinis), whose larvee were so destructive to our 
celery crops last year, I have met with several specimens of 
Pachylarthrus smaragdinus. ‘This insect is excellently figured on 
Plate 427 of ‘ Brit. Ent.’ under the name of Phagonia smaragdina, 
