195 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



the cause of any very material injury. But in North 

 America a second species nearly related to it, known 

 there by the name of the slug-worm, has become preva- 

 lent to such a degree as to threaten the destruction not 

 only of the cherry, but also of the pear, quince, and 

 plum. In 1797 they were so numerous that the smaller 

 trees were covered by them ; and a breeze of air passing 

 through those on which they abounded became charged 

 with a very disagreeable and sickening odour. Twenty 

 or thirty were to be seen on a single leaf; and many 

 trees, being quite stripped, were obliged to put forth 

 fresh foliage, thus. anticipating the supply of the succeed- 

 ing year and cutting off the prospect of fruit a . — In some 

 parts of Germany the cherry-tree has an enemy equally 

 injurious. A splendid beetle of the weevil tribe (Ri/n- 

 chites Bacchus, Herbst,) bores with its rostrum through 

 the half-grown fruit into the soft stone, and there deposits 

 an egg. The grub produced from it feeds upon the kernel, 

 and, when about to become a pupa, gnaws its way through 

 the cherry, and sometimes not one in a thousand escapes 5 . 

 This insect is fortunately rare with us, and has usually 

 been found upon the black-thorn. The cherry-fly also 

 ( Tephrites Cerasi, Latr.) provides a habitation for its mag- 

 got in the same fruit, which it invariably spoils c . 



animal inhabiting the sallow. Probably, confounding the two species, 

 he described the imago from the insect of the former, and the larva 

 (if he did not copy from Reaumur or Linne) from that of the latter. 

 Linne was correct in regarding Reaumur's three insects as distinct 

 species, though he appears to be mistaken in referring to him under 

 T.jkiva,as the saw-fly of the currant and gooseberry is not wholly 

 yellow. 



d Peck's Nat. Hist, of the Slug-worm, 9. 



10 Trost Kleiner Beytrag. 38. c Reaum. ii. 477- 



