1822+] 
) Phe: above: description is: that of the 
female fly’ I) accidentally): saw ;perch 
oni wleaf.;.Agentleman who, was:with 
me;| and myself, watched -her ‘opera- 
tions, and:she ‘did not seem at allbmo- 
lested at-our moving the leaf, to:see 
whatoshe was)/about: we noted, the 
time} and in eight days the eggs then 
deposited were hatched. into caterpil- 
lars: hus; all. the mischief is done in 
secrets and quiet; and, whilst hun- 
dreds! of) these flies are in a garden, 
the:cause is not known, and the injury 
is mot:seen, until it becomes irreme- 
diable.»- When first hatched, they 
gnaw only the inside of the leaf; but, 
aso they ,get older and larger, they 
feed upon the edge of the leaf, until 
the whole is;consumed, and then they 
retire: by the stem to the next leaf; 
and s0 on, until:every leaf is destroy- 
edi; In: about a fortnight the caterpil- 
lars: attain their full size, and then 
drop on the earth,—into which, or into 
the ‘creviees of a wall, or other conye- 
nieht place, they creep, where they 
are! lost:sight of, and are transformed 
into the pupa. 
)'Phemale fly is so very unlike the 
female, that,if I had not seen them 
united, Isshould have taken it for a 
different ‘species; and I never saw 
this union but once. The body of the 
male is:rather longer and darker than 
the)female, and not larger than a 
common pin, and is much more alert 
andsactive ; still it partakes of the dul- 
ness of its mate, and will allow itself 
to be caught without any difficulty. 
During the growth of the caterpil- 
lar;it'is needless to notice its extreme 
woracity ; the skeletons of the leaves 
aré a -sufficient proof of that fact.* 
‘Phe evil is the destruction of all the 
fruit, asa consequence of the destruc- 
tion of the leaves. This is a disap- 
pointment to many, and worthy an 
enquiry of considerable magnitude ; 
and this has induced me to be so par- 
ticular in the description of an animal 
im other respects only entitled to com- 
‘mon curiosity.: But I know no insect, 
except the turnip flea, or fly, that is of 
$0 injurious adisposition as the goose- 
. * Thus have L. seen. the fly produced 
from the caterpillar in a box, the male 
and female united, and the female lay her 
eggs, which came to caterpillars; and I 
lave now several aurelia. So that there 
ean be no doubt but that the caterpillar 
comes from the fly which has been de- 
seribed, and not from a moth or butterfly, 
as is generally supposed, 
and. Means for Preventing its Ravages. 
405 
berry caterpillar, and therefore I have 
given its shistory-and nature in detail, 
that, if\ possible, its: ravages may be 
prevented. 
Nowas to: the: remedy: as the fly 
first: makes its»appearance in the lat- 
ter end of>March and: April, and 
afterwards,,according to the season, 
or other causes*which we are unac- 
quainted with, appears throughout the 
summer, it strikes) me that the only 
remedy is by placing something about 
the stem, or among the branches of 
the bush, the smell of which is: ob- 
noxious to the flies, and which they 
will not approach; and I have been 
assured, by a gentleman who had re- 
peatedly made the experiment; that 
the smell of. coal-tar would, as -he 
called it, keep off the caterpillars; the 
fact is, that it kept off the: fly... His 
practice was to wrap a beam or twist 
of reed, strongly impregnated) with 
this strong-scented bitumen, round 
the stem of the bush; and no cater- 
pillar touched a leaf. If there be no 
fly, there can be no caterpillar.'There 
was not a leaf eaten upon this gentle- 
man’s» bushes, when all :his neigh- 
bours’ were destroyed, and the’ fruit 
of course spoiled. 
I have heard of other remedies,— 
such as, soap-sud water thrown over 
the bushes, lime, and chimney-soot, 
and a strong decoction of elder leaves; 
but who can eat gooseberries and eur- 
rants after they have been besmeared 
with such filthy materials, which at 
best apply to the evil in part? But,if . 
any one can discover ameans of keep- 
ing off the fly by the smell of some- 
thing which is disagreeable to it, it 
goes to the root of the evil at once; 
and there is nothing in the smell of 
coal-tar which can excite a prejudice 
in the most delicate stomach. | If this 
should not generally succeed, what 
has been said upon the subject may 
perhaps be the means of some of your 
chemical and philosophical © corres- 
pondents finding out something that 
will. Black pepper keeps off the flies 
from meat, and it is by no means im- 
possible that a discovery may be 
made to keep these flies from) the 
gooseberry-bushes: for I) am» well 
assured, that there can be no effectual 
remedy for this evil, but the discovery 
of something, the effluvia of which will 
produce this effect; and the season 
is now approached when the at- 
tempt should not be neglected: for, 
if the first invasion succeeds in 
making 
