and practical Means for preventing its Ravages. 437 
tion of the butterfly tribe. 1 will endeavour to give an exact 
description of the female fly. In the first place, it is avery dull, 
stupid, little animal, that will allow itself to be caught without 
the least difficulty: it has two horns or feelers; a head very dark, 
with two large eyes; four transparent wings; the body or car- 
case a light orange colour, when full of eggs not so large as a 
grain of wheat; the shoulders dark, to which are affixed six legs, 
three on a side, also orange colour, having three joints, five black 
spots on the last joint of each leg. It is a fly in every respect, 
having no resemblance whatever to a moth or butterfly; and, with 
the exception of the horns or feelers, and yellow body, it is very 
much like the small house-fly, the wings being quite smooth and 
transparent, resembling fine isinglass, of a snuff-colour tint, and 
free of all that down or feather which covers the wings of butter- 
flies and moths. Still it must be admitted to be among the 
genus of the moth or butterfly; as they do not appear to take 
any food, and undergo the common transformation from the egg 
to the caterpillar, the awrelia, aud the fly*. There is a black 
stripe on the outer part of the two largest wings. The whole 
inseet is not above the third of an inch in length, which seems 
the more surprising, as it produces such a pernicious race of 
destructive caterpillars, at their full size nearly an inch long. 
Their habit is to perch on the outside of a gooseberry or currant 
leaf, and then immediately to creep on the inside, when they di- 
rectly begin to drop their eggs on the ribs of the leaf. Thus, to 
a person who does not know the fly, and watch her motions, the 
the parent of these millions of insects is unknown; and people 
wonder, as the cause is unseen, from whence and from what 
these caterpillars proceed: but something cannot come out of 
‘nothing. It is generally imagined that they proceed from a 
moth or butterfly; yet it is admitted that no moth or butterfly 
is ever seen about these bushes; but the fact is, that the mother 
_ of all this mischief is the little fly which I have described. 
The above description is that of the female fly I accidentally 
saw perch on a leaf. A gentleman who was with me, and my- 
self, watched her operations, and she did not seem at all mo- 
lested at our moving the leaf, to see what she was about: we 
noted the time, and in eight days the eggs then deposited were 
hatched into caterpillars: Thus, all the mischief is done in se- 
cret and quiet; and, whilst hundreds of these flies are in a gar- 
den, the cause is not known, and the injury is not seen, until it 
becomes irremediable. When first hatched, they giiaw only the 
inside of the leaf; but, as they get older and larger, they feed 
* <A fly in entomology is an order of insects, the distinguishing charac- 
ter of which is, that their wings are transparent, By this they are distin- 
guised from moths, butterflies, &c.” 
upon 
