SAWFLIES, ANTS, WASPS, BEES, ETC. Ill 



They come together during the resting and non- 

 feeding period, when they crawl over one another 

 and form a solid phalanx, which, when disturbed, 

 sends up a number of tails and ejects jets of fluid, 

 thus showing a more formidable front to the enemy 

 (birds or parasitic w^asps) than a single grub would 

 do. The grub of Pcrga lewisi is very similar. 

 (Plate 14, Fig. 11.) 



There is another common type of sawfly whose 

 larva has a body which is prolonged at the end to 

 form a rat-tail (Plate 14, Fig. 10). These grubs 

 have eight pairs of pro-legs (or pseudo-legs), and are 

 found on Leptospermum bushes in groups of six or 

 seven, but feeding separately and not in squirming 

 masses, at least in the day time when we have seen 

 them. This one is called the "pin-tailed sawfly" 

 (Ptcrygophorus). Froggatt records of this larva: 

 "When full grown it bores into dead wood pupating 

 in a rounded oval cocoon." 



In most species, the larvae of sawflies pupate in 

 the soil, usually in close proximity, and specimens 

 have been found showing a solid mass of sawfly 

 cocoons which had been made in the ground. 



So we see that there is a tendency to social 

 habits in the gathering together of the larvae and 

 pupae. 



Experiment. — Sawflies can be reared by placing 

 the grubs in a box with several inches of soil, part 

 of which is damp but not too moist. The food 

 plant can be placed in the damp soil or in a shallow 

 bottle with water in'it, They ar? not easily reared 



