ROSE INSECTS. 693 



front of the body being of a rich golden yellow, clouded with orange, with 

 four purplish-brown bars, the two middle ones running obliquely across the 

 wings, which are also ornamented with silvery scales. The wing has a yellow 

 ground, fringed with paler yellow, with a patch of silvery scale in the centre, 

 the hind wings being blackish brown. 



1875. The end of its being is to propagate its species, and as soon as it 

 appears in June, it begins to deposit its eggs in the embryo buds of the rose- 

 tree. The heat which develops the young bud hatches the larvae ; the outer 

 leaves are forced out of their natural position, so as to form a nest for the 

 eggs ; the young caterpillar, when hatched, eats its way to the surface, 

 devouring the lower parts of the petals of the flower, as well as the leaf. 



1876. The caterpillar is of a dark flesh-colour, with a black shining head, 

 and two black patches on the first segment of its body, the second and third 

 being spotted with brown, and having six black short-jointed legs on the first 

 segment, and a pair of short fleshy false legs on the last segment. When 

 disturbed in its depredation, it has the jDower of dropping itself to the groimd 

 by spinning a thin thread from its mouth, by means of which it recovers its 

 foriiier retreat, when the cause of alarm has departed. When full-grown, it 

 fastens the leaves round it by means of these threads, forming a web or 

 covering, within which it throws off its caterpUlar skin, and assumes the 

 chrysalis state about the end of June. It is now of a shining reddish-brown 

 colour, with transverse rows of short sjiines or hooks, directed backwards ; 

 their use being to assist, before it attains its perfect state, in pushing the 

 body forward until the front part is exposed. When the time arrives, 

 the moth is thus able to cast off the chrysalis skin, without having to make 

 its way through the folds of the leaf 



1877. There are two seasons at which this pest of the rose-garden may be 

 extirpated. On the first indications of them in the young leaf, pinch the buds 

 ■sharply : this will destroy the larvae, and leave the tree at liberty to throw 

 out new leaves ; again at maturity the moth should be caught by a hand gauze 

 net, and destroyed before it has deposited its eggs. At other times the only 

 remedy is hand-picking, and destroying them in the caterpillar state when 

 they can be found. 



T87S. Another of the bell-moths, Spllonata aquaria, feeds on the rose-leaves. 

 Its wings are ashy-white, with leaden or slaty-coloured clouds, with a broad 

 triangular brown patch at the base, and a black spot towards the external 

 extremity of the wing : it appears in June. The caterpillar fastens the leaves 

 together, and forms its silken web between them, like the other, preparatory 

 to its chrysalis state. 



1S79. The bedequar excrescence which is sometimes seen on rose-trees is the 

 product of one of the gall-flies, PJiodites rosce, and not a purely vegetable growth, 

 as is sometimes supposed. The woolly exterior, on being cut open, shows that 

 it is charged with slender lateral filaments, and the method of their growth is 

 supposed to be produced by the puncture the female insect makes for the pur- 

 pose of depositing her eggs ; each of which becomes surrounded by a fibrous 



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