﻿OP THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



This insect is single-brooded, and the eggs are exposed to all the 

 heat of summer, and the vicissitudes of winter, without losing their 

 vitality. At length, when the proper time arrives, and the Gooseberry 

 and Currant unfold their leaves so as to afford plenty of food, these 

 eggs hatch, and in little more than three weeks the worms attain their 

 full larval development. 



now IT SPREADS. 



Owing to the above peculiarity and to the fact that the eggs are 

 attached to the permanent parts of the plant where they are with 

 difficulty seen, the species is frequently carried in the egg state upon 

 transplanted bushes from one neighborhood to another; which ac- 

 counts for its sudden appearance in parts where it was before unknown. 



A NATIVE SPECIES. 



This Gooseberry Span-worm is a native American insect, not to 

 be found on the other side of the Atlantic. There is, however, an 

 allied species [Abraxas grossulariata)^ which in Europe infests Cur- 

 rant and Gooseberry bushes in much the same manner as our species 

 does here. The two insects were at one time supposed to be identical., 

 but the European species is at once distinguished by its black, white 

 and yellow markings in the larva and imago slates ; and by forming 

 its chrysalis above ground. It used to be very common in a dearly- 

 loved garden at Walton, England, where, in watching its metamor- 

 phoses I first, as a child, became interested in insect life — th3 bright 

 colors and striking pattern of the species in all stages, and its external 

 habit, making it a most convenient object for study. 



ITS PAST HISTORY. 



Our species undoubtedly fed originally on some one or all four of 

 our indigenous gooseberries, but after the introduction of the European 

 gooseberry it very soon manifested its preference for the latter, and, 

 under the new conditions, multiplied so rapidly as soon to become a 

 serious pest. The depredations of this insect in some of the Eastern 

 States, particularly in New York and Pennsylvania, date back a great 

 number of years. In the West it was first noticed by myself {Prairie 

 J^armer, July 16, 1875) in the neighborhood of Chicago, in 1862, where 

 for a few years afterAvard it multiplied to an injurious extent. 



In Missouri, my attention was first called to it in May, 1868, by 

 Mr. T. W. Guy, then living at Glenwood. His gooseberry bushes had 

 been entirel}'^ denuded of their leaves by it. Mr. Huron Burt of Wil- 

 liamsburg, on May 30, 1870, sent me specimens of the worms, with the 

 statement that they had been defoliating his gooseberry bushes, and 



