THE YOUNG GRUBS. 
59 
period is not a constant one, varying from four to twelve 
days ; lie comes out liead 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 fi'om 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 
