580 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



Altogether the list now presents a very fair picture of our Hymenopter- 

 ous fauna, although even yet far from complete. 



PHYTOPHAGA. 



The species of this series have little in common save that, with few 

 exceptions, they feed directly or indirectly on vegetable matter; directly 

 when, as with the saw-flies, the entire tissue is eaten; indirectly when, as 

 in the gall-flies, a distortion of growth is caused, upon the secretions of 

 which the larva is nourished. 



Super-family TENTHREDINOIDEA. 



These are the saw-flies, in which the ovipositor of the female is modi- 

 fied into a pair of plates variably serrated at the edges, working between 

 a pair of sheaths. They are usually rather compactly built but not very 

 hard species, head, thorax and abdomen of nearly equal width, abdomen 

 sessile or united to the thorax for its full width, without trace of stalk, the 

 wings folded over the abdomen when at rest, the secondaries with a 

 broad anal lobe, making them wider than the primaries. The flies are 

 sometimes sluggish and may be picked off the plants on which they rest 

 with the fingers. 



The larvae vary greatly in feeding habits, some forming galls, others 

 living in stems, a few in fruits, many as leaf-miners, some as leaf skele- 

 tonizers, while the majority eat openly upon their food plants. In a 

 general way they resemble caterpillars in form; but have at least five 

 pairs of abdominal pro-legs. Many have the habit of characteristically 

 curling up the hind portion of the body while feeding, and quite a number 

 are viscid and slug-like in appearance. They are usually kept in check 

 with arsenical poisons or with white hellebore, dry or in decoction, to 

 which they are peculiarly susceptible. Against some of the slimy forms 

 dry hydrate of lime or even very fine road-dust is satisfactorily available. 



Family 



ODONTOPHYES Konow. 

 O. avingrata Dyar. Ft. Lee, Plainfield: on hickory and butternut (Dyar). 



MACROXYELA Kirby. 



M. infuscata Nort. (aenea Nort.) Staten Island III (Ds); larva on 



leaves of elm. 



"M. ferruginea Say" will probably not be found in New Jersey, but 

 "bicolor MacG." and "distincta MacG." are likely to occur. 



XYELA Dalm. 



X. minor Nort. Riverton IV, 17, Clernenton V, 19 (Jn) ; larva on pine 

 (Dyar). 



