THE GOOSEBERRY. 
affecting the fiiuit. 
Th %X^~“ mingred and P utrid - containing within it one or more small bright 
The Gooseberry Midge — Cecidomyia Grossvlariw. 
It is common to find upon the gooseberry bushes in our gardens 
some of the young fruit of a prematurely ripe appearance, turn¬ 
ing red and dropping to the ground. Some years much of the 
nuit is lost in this way. This premature ripening of the goose¬ 
berry is caused by inserts puncturing and depositing their eggs 
in it. We have at least two insects which thus attack the goo'se- 
berry One of these appears to be a species of moth which 1 have 
not yet obtained in its perfect state. The other is the larva of a 
midge or a small two winged fly, of the genus Cecidomyia and 
iatnily Iipulidie. On examining some of these affected'gooseber¬ 
ries early in July, their pulp was found to be putrid and infested 
with small maggots of a bright yellow color and oval form, their 
bodies divided into segments by five impressed transverse lines, 
and their whole appearance being closely like the larva of the 
Wheat midge, found in the ears of wheat. These completed their 
transformations and gave out the winged flies the latter part of 
the month of July. In size, number of joints to the antenna, etc., 
these correspond with the C. Ribesii of Europe, but that is des¬ 
cribed by Macquart (Dipteres, vol. i. p. 1(52,) as having black 
bands upon the thorax, the abdomen blackish, &c. Hence it is 
evidently a much darker colored species. 
G ° osi ? b ek r y MmCE is scarcely the tenth of an inch in length to the tins of 
and ofTwa'x“vd'loJ h' 8 <>f a P a . l< : 3')' llow c< > 101 '. the thorax paler than the abdomen 
l Y hyaline ned^r n l Ue t f^-T® ad<i ant “ nni f blackish > of twelve joint*, separated 
roun R M.df ? ? o rd aS ° Dg aS the J oints > which are short-cylindrical with 
faintW tt„„ft ’ tl . lt ; ,r , len « th scarcely tnort^ than double their breadth; legs si raw yellow 
faintly tinged with dusky towards their tips; wihgs hyaline faintly tinged with dusky. 
It is probable that those flies which come out the latter part of 
July deposit a second crop of eggs in the gooseberries, or else re¬ 
sort to some other fruit of a similar nature, and that the lame 
which come from these eggs lie in the ground during the winter; 
ror we do not perceive how, otherwise, there can be flies in June 
to deposit their eggs in the young fruit. 
All fruit upon the gooseberry bushes which is found premature¬ 
ly decaying and assuming a ripened appearance, and all which 
tails to the ground, should be gathered and thrown into the tire, 
to destroy the worms which the berries contain, fly attention to 
this measure the haunts of this insect in the garden can be easily 
broken up, whereas, it this step is neglected the evil will be liable 
to continue year after year. As this insect breeds equally 
well in the wild gooseberries, we cannot hope to exterminate it 
rom our country. But none of these wild gooseberries should be 
permitted to grow in the vicinity of the garden, for from them, 
i near, this midge will continually be finding its way to the 
bushes oi the cultivated gooseberry. 
