THE YOUNG GRUBS. 



59 



period is not a constant one, varying from four to twelve 

 days ; he comes out head foremost, his head, by the way, 

 like that of most young animals, being of unseemly size : 

 his body is nearly transparent, but just tinged with smoke- 

 colour ; the eyes so conspicuous in the egg still being very 

 observable, but as the head becomes darker these gradu- 

 ally disappear. The grub is ready to begin eating directly, 

 so crawling down from the rib he commences operations on 

 the fleshy part of the leaf, in which he gnaws a little round 

 hole. Immediately after making his first meal, the green 

 of the leaf communicates its colour to his body, and he is 

 forthwith a green, instead of a smoke-coloured grub, but 

 still so transparent, that the particles he has eaten show 

 through his skin as a green line down the middle of his 

 body, and it is this green line which tinges all the other 

 parts. The little grubs descend from the rib in equal 



LEAF EATEN BY YOUNG GOOSEBERRY-GRUBS, 



numbers, right and left, leaving the skins of the eggs 

 attached to the rib, and looking like a row of empty silver 

 purses. The depredations are now visible above, from the 



