376 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



American fir saw-flies are not identical with those of Europe, as 

 they differ from them rather too much to have originated from the 

 same stock ; neither do they sufficiently agree with Dr. Leach's 

 descriptions of Lophyrus Americanus, Abbotii, compar, &c. ; 

 and, therefore, I propose to name this apparently undescribed 

 species Lophyrus Abietis, the Lophyrus of the fir-tree. The 

 following is a description of the insect in its winged state. The 

 two sexes differ very much from each other in size and color, 

 and still more remarkably in the form of their antennae. The 

 male is the smallest, measures one quarter of an inch in length, 

 and expands his wings about two fifths of an inch. His body is 

 black above, and brown beneath ; his wings are transparent, with 

 changeable tints of rose-red, green, and yellow ; and his legs 

 are wholly of a dirty leather-yellow color. His antennae resem- 

 ble very short, black feathers, wide at the end, and narrowed to a 

 point, and are curled inwards on each edge, so as to appear hol- 

 low. The genus Lophyrus derives its name from the plume-like 

 crest on the heads of the male insects. The body of the female 

 is about three tenths of an inch long, and her wings expand half 

 an inch or more. She is of a yellowish brown color above, with 

 a short blackish stripe on each side of the middle of the thorax ; 

 her body beneath and her legs are paler, or of a dirty leather- 

 yellow color ; and her wings resemble those of the male. Her 

 antennae are short, taper to a point, consist of nineteen joints, and 

 are toothed on one side like a saw. My specimens of this kind 

 of saw-fly, which were raised from the caterpillars in the summer 

 of 1838, came out of their cocoons towards the end of July in 

 the same year ; but I have also found them on pines and firs early 

 in May. The European pine saw-flies lay their eggs in slits 

 which they make with their saws in the edges of the leaves ; and 

 it is probable that our fir saw-flies proceed in the same way. In 

 June and July the false caterpillars of the latter may be found on 

 firs ; and, according to notes made by me many years ago, the 

 same insects, or some very much like them, were observed on 

 the leaves of the pitch-pine also. They are social in their habits, 

 living together in considerable swarms, and so thick that some- 

 times two may be seen feeding together on the same leaf, and sit- 

 ting opposite to each other. In order to lay hold of the leaf 



