394 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



namely hamorrhoidalis, the red-tailed, maurus. the dark-colored, 

 and ajftnis, the allied, so called from its near resemblance to the 

 preceding species. These singular insects were taken upon a 

 willow-tree, by my friend, the Rev. L. W. Leonard, and were 

 presented to me many years ago. 



The red-tailed Oryssus has been renamed and described, by 

 Mr. Newman, in the October number of the fifth volume * of 

 " The Entomological Magazine," published in London in 1838. 

 It is his Oryssus terminalis. The female only is known to me. 

 Her body is black, rough before, and smooth behind, with the 

 last three segments of a blood-red color. The outer side of the 

 fourth and fifth joints of her antennae, her knees, and a line on the 

 outer edge of her shins, are white. Her feet are dull red. Her 

 wings are clear and transparent, with a broad, smoky brown, trans- 

 verse band, beyond the middle of the first pair. Her body meas- 

 ures nearly six tenths of an inch in length. 



The dark-colored Oryssus is probably the same as one de- 

 scribed by Mr. Westwood, in 1835, in the fifth volume f of " The 

 Zoological Journal," under the name of Oryssus Sayii, in honor 

 of the late Mr. Say, who sent him the insect. It is of a deep 

 black color, rough before and smooth behind, and is marked with 

 white on the antennae and legs, like the red-tailed kind, with the 

 addition of two, short, white lines on the forehead, between the 

 lower corners of the eyes. The feet are black. The wings 

 have a smoky band beyond the middle, which, however, fades 

 away towards the inner margin. I have seen only females of this 

 species, and they measure from four to five tenths of an inch in 

 length. 



It is possible that my Oryssus offinis, which is a male, may be 

 the mate of the foregoing dark-colored species, from which it 

 differs in having reddish feet, and in wanting the two white spots 

 on the forehead. It measures four tenths of an inch in length. 



From this somewhat extended account, it is evident that we 

 have very little power over the insects of the foregoing family. 

 The most that we can do, towards checking their ravages, will 

 be to destroy the females, whenever they are found laying their 



egg*- 



* Page 486. I I'age 440. 



