RIBESIACE^E 



77 



Currants are much used for jam, and black- 

 currant jam has frequently been used to disguise 

 the flavour of nauseous medicine, especially in the 

 case of children. 



Gooseberry and currant bushes are very liable 

 to the attacks of caterpillars, chiefly of moths and 

 saw-flies, which often strip them entirely of their 

 leaves. 



The brown spiny caterpillar of the Comma 

 Butterfly ( Vanessa C-albuni) feeds on these as well 

 as on other trees and bushes ; its back is varied 

 with reddish and yellowish. The butterfly is about 

 2 inches in expanse, and is easily recognised by 

 its deeply and irregularly dentated wings, which 

 are tawny, spotted with black, above, and blackish 

 beneath, with a white mark like a C in the middle 

 of the hindwings. It was formerly common in 

 England, but, like several other butterflies, has been 

 getting increasingly rarer and more local during the 

 last century. 



Three moths may here be specially noticed. One 

 is the Currant Clearwing (Trochilium tipuliforme), 

 the whitish caterpillar of which feeds on the pith 



of currant bushes, inside the shoots. The moth 

 is black, with long narrow wings, three-quarters of 

 an inch in expanse, transparent in the middle, and 

 bordered with black, varied with orange ; the thorax 

 is black, striped with yellow, and the long slender 

 abdomen has three yellow belts and a black 

 terminal tuft. 



The caterpillars of most butterflies and moths 

 have sixteen legs; but those of a large group of 

 moths to which we have already alluded, called 

 Loopers or Geometers, have usually only ten legs. 

 Most of the moths have slender bodies, and broad, 

 brightly coloured wings. Two species which 

 feed on gooseberry and currant bushes are very 

 common. One of these is the Magpie Moth 

 {Abraxas grossulariata). It is about an inch and 

 a half in expanse ; the wings are white, varied with 

 black and orange ; and the caterpillar is also white, 

 with black spots, and a yellow line on each side. 

 This is one of the very few moths in which the 

 moth and caterpillar have any resemblance in 

 colouring. The other moth is the V-moth (ffalia 

 wavaria). It is smaller, measuring only an inch 



