As this moth pretty generally makes its appearance in our plum orchards from year to year, I have thought it advisable to give a short history of its different stages for the benefit of our fruit-growers.

It is a member of a family of moths to which the great naturalist Linnæus gave the name of Sphingidæ, on account of the resemblance he conceived some of their caterpillars bore, in certain positions, to the notorious Egyptian Sphinx, and which our artist has faithfully represented in the engraving of the larva—fig. 1. while the ravages caused by this caterpillar are fortunately not very extensive, yet it generally appears in different localities from time to time in numbers quite sufficient to cause considerable annoyance to the plum-growers of those regions.

In May last I became the tenant of a house in the central part of the city of Quebec. To this house is attached a garden, which contains a few plum trees and a considerable number of currant and gooseberry bushes. The plants, however, are very old, and as the garden has been neglected noxious insects have increased and multiplied to no small degree. I intend in this paper to give my experiences as regards the currant and gooseberry bushes, leaving the rest till another time, and trust that I shall be able to add something to the history of the insects, unfortunately too common, which infest these small fruits.

To make the Entomologist more interesting and useful to fruit-growers, it is intended to devote a page of every number issued during the summer season to giving practical hints in reference to insects whose times of appearance may be near at hand, with a condensed summary of such means and remedies as have been found most serviceable in lessening the numbers of such as are injurious. We shall be glad to receive communications from fruit-growers relating to any new insect pests occurring in their neighbourhood.

Attentive readers of the entomological portion of the late Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for the Province of Ontario, will have noted the fact already well known, to entomologists, that the female moth of this species is wingless, and lays her eggs on the outside of the cocoon from which she has escaped. Last fall the moths were unusually common, and their nests of eggs are now so abundantly distributed among our fruit trees that unless some effort is made to destroy them the larvæ will probably be exceedingly numerous and destructive during the approaching season.