GOOSEBERRY AND CURRANT SAWFLY. 49 
The day after some will be found dead; the second day, a good number; 
and the third day, as a rule, the bushes will be cleared. Many people 
make a grave error here. They expect the insects to be killed in a few 
hours after the application, forgetting that they must have time to eat 
the poisoned foliage, and that it must have time to do its work. Con- 
sequently they will apply a stronger mixture, which is certain to scorch 
the foliage, and thus they complain that purple can only be effective at 
such a strength as will likewise burn the foliage. This is entirely 
wrong, for after years of experience I can confidently guarantee that, 
mixed and used in the proportions and way I have named, London- 
purple will kill almost every caterpillar that may be present. I am 
proving this every day in my own orchards.’’—(F. N.) 
To the above, Mr. Nixon added that he sent me a few Gooseberry- 
leaves with the caterpillars on them, as he wished me to see exactly 
how they died. These had been syringed with London-purple in the 
way described above at noon on the previous day (that is, just twenty- 
four hours from time of writing). Mr. Nixon noted that they were not 
quite dead when he put them into the box, but supposed they would 
be when they reached me, which proved to be the case; all the speci- 
mens—that is, the caterpillars of the Gooseberry Sawfly—were dead 
when I received them on the following day. 
The Gooseberry Sawfly caterpillars, when full-grown, 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, with 
smaller dots at the side, that the tail is sometimes described as black. 
They are furnished with a pair of black claw-feet on each of the three 
segments next the head; the next segment is legless; and on the suc- 
ceeding six segments is a pair of pale-coloured sucker-feet, and there 
is another pair beneath the tail, making twenty pairs in all. The 
caterpillar is sprinkled with dots, or patches of black, until its last 
moult, when these are thrown off with the skin, and the caterpillar 
becomes of a pale-green, but still orange behind the head and on the 
tail. 
Shortly after this last moult they go down to the ground and 
bury themselves, and spin their cocoons, about two inches deep, or 
more, according to the nature of the soil, and in these they turn to 
chrysalids. 
The Sawflies come out from these cocoons in about three weeks in 
summer; the late broods of caterpillars remain in cocoon during 
winter, and the fly comes out in the following spring at the time of 
the Gooseberry- and Currant-bushes coming into leafage. The Saw- 
flies are of the shape figured at page 45, with four transparent wings. 
The head and body between the wings are yellow or ochrey, marked 
E 
