GOOSEBERRY-FLY. 57 



fruit thrives on smoke, but that the enemies of fruit abomi- 

 nate it. In many of my neighbours' gardens, the goose- 

 berry-bushes are all but dead : the old stems are naked as 

 in winter, and the shoots of the year so withered, shrunk 

 and lithesome, that you might tie them in knots without 

 breaking them : and then the poor gooseberries are shrivel- 

 led into disgusting abortions, after making a futile attempt 

 to redden into ripeness. 



Now the history of the pest is on this wise. Uncon- 

 nected \\ith its object, that of giving birth to one of the 

 greatest nuisances that ever afflicted a fruit-garden, the 

 parent fly is a pleasing and good-looking insect, and is 

 rather a favourite with gardeners, who think it the harm- 

 less harbinger of the cloudless skies which accompany its 

 visit. I have often watched these flies glancing in the 

 sunshine, chasing each other over the leaves, spreading out 

 their gauzy and glossy wings, the hind wings projecting 

 from beneath the fore wings, like those of the lappet-moth, 

 and enjoying to the top of their bent the genial influence 

 of that delicious mock summer which we always have 

 before the chill eastern blasts which usher in the real one, 

 and which are supposed to bring the grub into existence. 

 I will describe the fly : the wings are 

 four, perfectly transparent, and in 

 bright sunshine reflect the tints of the 

 rainbow : the head and antenna? are 

 black : the thorax is yellow, with a 

 large black spot above and below, the 

 upper spot is generally divided into 

 three : the body is of a clear, delicate, GOOSEBERRY-FLY. 

 unspotted yellow : the legs are yellow and the feet blac 

 I send you drawings of the fly, the leaves and the grub, 



