destructive of the Spruce Fir. 631 



made from a North American specimen, in the collection of 

 Mr. Yeats of London, and which was a female. This specific 

 description he only again repeats in his Entomologia Systema- 

 tica, 1793, vol. ii. p. 125.; and, as his other works contain 

 merely the original imperfect specific character, which incor- 

 porates no notice of the sex of his insect, and which, happen- 

 ing to agree very well (or as well as the majority of Fabrician 

 diagnostics agree in general) with the male of the insect to be 

 described below, it has been thus erroneously presumed to be 

 Fabricius's American species. There still exists a possibility 

 of its being a Fabrician, and also an American, species, namely, 

 his Sirex cyaneus, as the Pinus nigra is an American fir; yet, 

 as Fabricius's description is not fully determinate, less confu- 

 sion, I think, is likely to result from considering this a new 

 species, than treating it as another Fabrician one, which the 

 recovery of the original specimen, formerly in Mr. Yeats's 

 collection, may further prove to be incorrect. That Klug, and 

 subsequently Hartig, following Kliig, are both wrong in con- 

 sidering ours only as a variety of the Sirex juvencus Linn. 9 

 the following description will, I think, satisfactorily show : — 



Sl^REX DU V PLEX Shuck. 



Fcem. Nitidus, capite thoraceque viridi-aeneo ; pedibus flavo-ferrugi- 

 neis ; abdomine cyaneo, aculeo toto abdomine corniculoque longior, dimidio 

 exserto corniculo fere triple- longior. Long., aculeo incluso, 9 — 14 lines. 

 ? Sirex cyaneus Fab. Sp. In., t. 1. 419. 8. ; Mant., 2. 58. 10. ; Ent. 



Si/st., 2. 127. 11. ; Piez., 50. 11. 

 ? Sirex juvencus Klug. Mon. Sir. Ger., pt. iv. f. 1. 

 Mat. Nitidus, capite thoraceque viridi-aeneo ; pedibus flavo-ferru- 

 gineis ; tibiis et tarsis posticis atro-cyaneis ; abdomine toto, basi excepta, 

 ferrugineo. Long., 4£ — 13 lines. 



Sirex nigriccrnis Ludwig, in Sachsen Entdeckten Insecten, p. 56. ; New- 

 man, Ent. Mag. ; Curtis' s Guide, 1837, 481. 2 b. 

 Sirex juve'neus £ Christ. JBienen und Wespen, pt. xlvii. f. 4 ; Klug. 

 Mon. Siric. German., var. iv. p. 38. ; pt. iv. f. 3. ? var. ; Hartig Blatt 

 und Holzwespen, vol. iii. p. 384. 



Head and thorax much punctured, pubescent, of a greenish 

 bronzy tint ; the legs yellowish, ferrugineous, excepting the 

 coxae and trochanters, which, as well as the entire abdomen, 

 are of a beautiful steel blue, exclusive only of the extreme bar 

 of the ovipositor, or rather the cap of its sheath, which is also 

 ferrugineous : the wings subhyaline ; their margins obscure, 

 and nervures and stigma pitchy black, excepting the costal 

 nervure, which, as far as the stigma, is ferrugineous, and with 

 a dark cloud upon the first submarginal cell. The entire 

 aculeus is longer than the abdomen ; and the exserted half 

 nearly three times as long as the corniculus, which is exceed- 

 ingly acuminate and serrate % . 



The $ differs in having the abdomen entirely ferrugineous, 



% z 4 



