438  . Description of the Gooseberry Caterpillar’. 
upon the edge of the leaf, until the whole is consumed, and ther 
they retire by the stem to the next leaf; aud so on, until every 
leaf is destroyed. .In about a fortnight the caterpillars attain 
their full size, and then drop on the earth,—into which, or into 
the. crevices of a wall, or other convenient place, they creep, 
where they are lost sight of, and are transformed into the pupa. 
The male fly is so very unlike the female, that, if I’ had: not 
seen them united, I should 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 and active ; still it par- 
takes of the dulness of its mate, and will allow itself to be caught 
without any difficulty, 
During the growth of the caterpillar, it is needless to notice 
its extreme voracity; the skeletons of the leaves are a sufficient 
proof of that fact*. The evil isthe destruction of all the fruit, 
as a consequence of the destruction of the leaves. This is a dis- 
appointment to many, and worthy an inquiry of considerable 
magnitude; and this has induced me to be so particular in the 
description of an animal in other respects only entitled to com- 
mon curiosity. But I know no insect, except the turnip flea, or 
fly, that is of so injurious a disposition as the gooseberry cater- 
pillar, and therefore I have given its history and nature in detail, 
that, if possible, its ravages may be prevented. 
Now as to the remedy: As the fly first makes its appearance 
in the latter of March and April, and afterwards, according to 
the season, or other causes which we are unacquainted with, 
appears throughout the summer, it strikes me that the only re- 
medy is by placing something about the stem, or among the 
branches'of.the bush, the smell of which is obnoxious to the fliesy 
and which they will not approach; and I have been assured, by 
a gentleman who had repeatedly 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 towrap a 
beam or twist of reed, strongly impregnated with this strong- 
scented bitumen, round the stem of the bush;: and uo caterpil- 
lar touched a leaf, If there be no fly, there can be no cater- 
pillar. ‘There was not a leaf eaten upon this gentleman’s bushes, 
when all his neighbours’ were destroyed, and the fruit of course 
spoiled. 
I have heard of other remedies,—such as, soap-sud water 
* Thus have I seen the fly produced from the caterpillar in a box, the 
male and female united, and the female lay her eggs, which came to cater- 
pillars; and [ have now several aurelia. . 80 that there can be doubt but 
that the caterpillar comes from the fly which has been described, and not 
from a moth or butterfly, as is generally supposed. 
thrown 
