FESTS 83 



Gooseberry and Currant Sawfly [Neniatiis ribesii). — 

 The false caterpillars of this sawfly will often destroy 

 the foliage of large plantations of gooseberries in a 

 few days. This occurs mainly in May and June. 

 The caterpillars when young are green, with dark 

 heads, and minute black spots on their bodies : when 

 full grown, they are nearly an inch long, and then 

 some of the segments are orange-coloured : the black 

 dots disappear with the last moult, after which they 

 go down into the ground, and spin their cocoons. 

 The sawflies emerge from these in about twenty days. 

 There are two or more broods of these sawflies durinof 

 the year: the last brood lives as larvae in the soil 

 all the winter in earthen cocoons, which pupate in 

 spring, and the sawflies emerge in April and May, 

 to lay their eggs on the under sides of the leaves. 



Remedies. — In late winter dress the ground with gas- 

 lime. When the caterpillar appears, lose no time in 

 spraying with weak emulsion ; if the attack is an 

 early one, arsenate may be used, but not in the case 

 of later attacks, or there would be a danger of poison- 

 ing the fruit : arsenate also appears to be less 

 efficacious than emulsion. Dusting with hellebore 

 powder (25) is often very successful. 



Gooseberry and Currant Scale {Lecaniuni persicoi^ var. 

 sarothanini). — These appear on the twigs as oval 

 brownish warts, less than a quarter of an inch in 

 diameter. They are the female insects, which event- 

 ually dry up, their skins remaining to shelter their 

 minute eggs. The latter hatch in autumn, giving rise 

 to small, flattish, oval, crimson or reddish-brown 



