202 



THE AMERICAN 



and in tliis instance the rate of consnmptiou was 

 about the same, two caterpillars a day for each 

 of these little creatures. Tlie second time I fed 

 them they did not get though their work quite 

 so quickly; possibly they uuiy liiivc overfed 

 themselves at first. 



While turning up the hnini-hcs of some of 

 my gooseberry bushes. I observed a number of 

 whitish eo-o;s on some of the leaves, aiTanged 

 lengthwise in regular rows at short distances 

 apart, on the principal veins or ribs of the leaf. 

 Usually they were placed singly iu the rows, but 

 here and there double. These were the eggs of 

 the currant worm, they were about one tweuticlli 

 of an inch long, four times as long as brnad. 

 rounded at each end with a whitish glossy sur- 

 face. On the branch I was examining there were 

 three leaves with these eggs on ; t\\'o of them had 

 their princiiial veins pretty well covered, while 

 the third had but a few ou it, as if this had been 

 the work of a single insect which had exhausted 

 her stock before the third leaf was covered. 1 

 counted these, and Ibund there were 101 in all. 

 Having just then caught one of the parent flies, 

 a female which was hovering about as if look- 

 ing for a place on wliich to deposit her eggs, 1 

 squeezed some eggs out of her body and com- 

 paring them with those on the leaf, found they 

 were only about half the size, showing that the 

 tirst must have grown considerably after being 

 laid and that they were probably nearly ready to 

 hatch. Ill nhonl lliree hours afterwards. I ob- 

 served that several of the young larvie had come 

 I ml (if the eggs, and placing the leaf under a 

 iin( Tdseope had the good fortune to see some of 

 Ihem escape. The egg consisted of a thin elastic 

 membrane sufHcieiiil\ iniii>p:n('nt to give a dim 

 view of the en.l..s,.,l l.iiva. The black spot 



stjecies. eiialiled nie lo deleniiiiie Ihe posit'on the 

 creature (>ccupie(l. It \\;is xmiew lial eciiled up 

 and resting on its side witli its jaws aiiaiiist the 



could not perceive that it liad an\ ol liei- means of 

 rupturing the egg than liy it> iiianiiililes. \\ jiicli 

 were working visilily within. In a slidft time 

 the egg was niptitred and the liead <>[' the larva 

 protruded fnmi the oriliee. AVithdrawing its 

 two front teet from tlie egg. it seized the leaf on 

 wdiich it was jilaeed. and by raising uj) its hacU 

 and working itself from si(h' to side, it soon 

 worked itself out. The tiin<' ii(<ii]iied in tliiis 

 extracting itself, from the tii-t aiipearaiue of the 

 head, varied from six t.i ten minutes, for I 

 watched several nf tlieni through the process. 

 The egg was so lliin and elastic'that it yielded 



very closely to it, coutracting and shrivelling up 

 as the body was withdrawn. 



After the laiTa comes out it does not consume 

 the egg or any portion of it, as is the case with 

 most Lepidoptera, but sets to work at once eat- 

 ing the leaf on which its considerate mother 

 placed it. When just hatched the woiTtis are 

 about one-twelfth of an inch long ; bead large, 

 dull whitish with a round dark spot ou each 

 side, and a few minute short hairs ; mandibles 

 pale brown. Body above and below whitish, 

 semi-transparent, sometimes with a slight green- 

 ish tinge. From this time it rapidly increases 

 in size, becoming gi-eeu then changing to green 

 with many black dots, and finally reverting to 

 pale green again, tinged with yellow at the 

 extremities, just before it becomes a chrysalis, 



I have a fact to communicate regarding the 

 winter history of this insect. It has been uni- 

 versally held, that the lai-vae, when they leave 

 the bushes in the fall, at once construct their 

 cocoons, either at the surface of the ground or 

 just below the surface, and change to pupa^ 

 either then or sometime before early spring. 

 Possibly as a rule this may be the case, if so 1 

 have an interesting exception to record. On the 

 22nd of May I was trying some experiments iu 

 crossing gooseberries, fertilizing the flowers of 

 the Houghton's Seedling with some of the large 

 English varieties, and having operated on several 

 branches, tied them up in new jiaiier hags to 

 prevent interference with the ^Mirk. either from 

 insects or otherwise. The parliciUar hag 1 am 

 about to refer to, was attached to an upright 

 branch on the summit of the bush, about eight- 

 een inches from the groiuid. While examining 

 it im -May :;i>t. nine days afterwards, to ascer- 

 tain tlie ii-uli iif my work, I found in one of the 

 folds of the bag a cocoon of Nemantus veniri- 

 cosus finuly attached to the paper. In this in- 

 stance the larva must have remained unchanged 

 during the winter, then crawled from th(> ground, 

 attaehing itself as related and eonstnieling its 

 ••oeooii after llie 22(1 of May. A few days later, 



wliii'li iVinii its iVesh aiipearauee I inferred had 

 Iieeii ediistiucteil about the same time, although 

 I am unable to advance any positive statement 

 regarding it. During the summer I have found 

 a ediisiderable number of such cocoons fastened 

 to till' underside of the leaves of the bushes on 

 which the larvie have been feeding, and these 

 ha\e been observed iu all positions from near 

 the base to the summit of the bushes, showing 

 that it is not the invariable practice of the larva 

 to undergo its change to chrysalis, either at the 

 surface or under the surface of the ground. 



