HYMENOPTERA : TENTHREDINE1VE. 3/9 



The Genus Selandria embraces the Rose Saw-Fly and 

 its allies. The Rose Saw-Fly, 5. rosee, Harr., is over three 

 twentieths of an inch long, the color is deep shining 

 black, the wings smoky, with a brown spot near the 

 middle of the first pair. This species comes out of the 

 ground from the last of May to the middle of June. The 

 females fly little, remaining most of the day on the rose 

 leaves, and, when touched, draw up their legs and fall. 

 The female thrusts her saws obliquely into the skin of 

 the leaf, and deposits in each incision a single egg, which 

 hatches in about ten days. The larvae are soft, head yel- 

 lowish, with a black dot on each side of its body, green 

 above and yellowish below. These gelatinous larvae eat 

 the upper surface of the leaf in large patches, leaving the 

 veins and skin beneath untouched. They cast their skin 

 several times, and after the last moulting are opaque yel- 

 lowish. At length they go into the ground an inch or 

 more, make an oval cell, where they go through their 

 transformation, and come out of the ground early in Au- 

 gust and lay eggs for a second brood, which in turn per- 

 form their work of destruction, go into the ground in 

 autumn, and appear in the perfect form the following 

 spring and summer. 



The Vine Saw-Fly, S. vitis, Harr., is about a quarter 

 of an inch long, jet black, except the upper side of the 

 thorax, which is red, and the fore legs and under side of 

 the others, which are light. This fly rises from the 

 ground in spring, and lays its eggs on the lower side of 

 the terminal leaves of the vine. In July the larvae of vari- 

 ous sizes are seen in swarms beneath the leaves, feeding 

 side by side. They begin at the edges, eat the whole 

 leaf, then take another, and thus proceed down the branch. 

 When full grown they are about five eighths of an inch 

 long, head and tip of the tail black, body light green 

 above, with two transverse rows of minute black dots 



