92 INSECT PESTS 



to the hand picking of swollen buds, are all we can do at 

 present, and again, success is more likely to come to him 

 who is early on the job. (See Plate 20.) 



The Magpie or Gooseberry or Currant Moth (Abrazus 

 grossulariaia) is well known to everybody. This is the 

 dainty creature which flits about all over the garden and 

 lays its eggs on practically every shrub without any 

 regard to flavour, shape or size. The larvae must be able 

 to eat anything, but the fruit-grower is only too well 

 aware of the way in which it defoliates his best currants 

 and gooseberries. Black and yellow are the colours which 

 characterize this insect through all its stages, another 

 exception to the general rule. I would recommend egg 

 search here again, as they are laid, two or three here and 

 there, in prominent positions on the top of a leaf, and 

 the Magpie females will do it under your very eyes if you 

 watch them in the garden on a fine sunny morning in 

 July or August. The grubs hibernate during the winter 

 and come out of their hiding-places among the dead 

 leaves in spring to spin a silken cocoon in which they 

 change to a glossy black and yellow pupa. Hand pick- 

 ing is also of course of great value. (See Plate 20.) 



There is a wood-borer in the shape of the Currant Clear- 

 wing Moth {Sesia tipuliformis) a gnat-Uke creature which 

 eats away the wood in the shoots of red and black currants. 

 It is not half as serious as the Bud Mite, nor so prevalent 

 but its presence may be detected by the brittleness of the 

 shoots, which if broken o£E will disclose the maggot within. 



The Nut Weevil (B. nucum) is a curious insect, as will 

 be seen from the picture. It is provided with a mighty 

 weapon in the shape of a bodldn-like growth in front of 

 the head with which it pierces the young hazel nut on 

 which it subsists. As has been stated before, weevils 

 are the most difficult of insects to grapple with, and 

 their numbers are legion. There has not been enough 

 " beating " for them in the past, and a systematic shaking 

 out of the bushes should be taken in hand as a check to 



