TENTHEEDINID^E . 



225 



with a short black stripe on each side of the thorax. The 

 larvae are about half an inch long, of a pale dirty green, yel- 

 lowish beneath, striped with green, and when full-fed yellowish 

 all over. They are social, and may often be found in consider- 

 able numbers on a single needle of the pitch-pine. The larva: 

 spin tough cocoons 

 among the leaves, 

 and the flies appear 

 during August, but 

 probably in greater 

 numbers in the 

 spring. 



These slugs can 

 be best destroyed 

 by showering them 

 with a solution of 

 carbolic acid, pe- 

 troleum, whale oil Fig. 153. 

 soap, or tobacco water. Mr. Fish has sent me the larvre of a 

 saw-fly, allied to L. abietis, which, in Eastham, Mass., ravaged 

 the young pitch-pines planted in the sandy soil of that region.* 

 The eggs are laid singly in the side of a needle of the pine ; 

 though sometimes an egg is inserted on each side of the 

 leaf. 



Mr. Riley has described the habits of the White-pine saw-fly, 



of ail inch in length when full}- grown; darkest above, and with indistinct black- 

 ish spots upon the sides. The head is white with a small black dot upon each side. 



" Specimens were taken upon the leaves July 4th. Went into the ground about 

 the 20th of July. The cocoon is formed near the surface of the ground of a little 

 earth or sand drawn together. Four specimens came forth about August 22 d, all 

 seeming very small for so large larvae." 



* On sending specimens of the male and female to Mr. Norton he writes that 

 this is an undescribed species, of which he has prepared the following description : 



" Lophyrus pini-rigidce Norton. New Species. Female. Length, 0.30; expanse 

 of wings, 0.6.5 of an inch; antennae seventeen-jointed, short, brown; color, luteous 

 brown, with a black line joining the ocelli, a black stripe down each of the three lobes 

 of the thorax above, and the sutures behind; body paler beneath; the trochauters 

 and base of the tibia waxen; claws with an inner tooth near the middle; wings 

 very slightly clouded; cross nervure of the lanceolate cell straight. Male. Length, 

 0.25; expanse of wings, 0.55 of an inch; antenna; fifteen-jointed, black, quite short, 

 with twelve branches on each side, those at the base nearly as long as the sixth 

 and seventh ; apical joint simple, enlarged at base; color of insect black, with the 

 abdomen at apex and beneath yellow- brown; legs the same color at base; below 

 the knees whitish. 



15 



