HYMENOPTERA. 425 



tached to the tree by its awl or borer, of about the same 

 length, near an inch of which was fast in the hard wood ; and 

 there were several deep punctures near it, evidently made by 

 the same instrument, and in some of them eggs were deposit- 

 ed." Not long afterwards Major Bartlett found that the body 

 of this tree, two or three feet from the ground was pierced 

 with many small holes, to the depth of an inch or more, and, 

 in these holes, there were great numbers of larvae, about one 

 sixth of an inch in length, which he supposed were hatched 

 from the eggs seea there before ; and he came to the conclu- 

 sion that the tree was " destroyed by the deadly needles of the 

 winged insect" above mentioned.* The latter was subse- 

 quently sent to me for examination, and enabled me to furnish 

 an account of it, which, with a description of the male insect, 

 was published in January, 1827, in the fifth volume of the 

 " New England Farmer." The insect proved to be the Sirex 

 Columba of Linnaeus, or Tremex Columba of modern natural- 

 ists. Sirex is a corruption of the Greek name for a wild bee ; 

 Tremex signifies a perforator, or maker of holes ; and Columba 

 a pigeon. The body of the female is cylindrical, about as 

 thick as a common lead-pencil, and an inch and a half, or more, 

 in length, exclusive of the borer, which is an inch long, and 

 projects three eighths of an inch beyond the end of the body. 

 The latter rounds upwa^rds, like the stem of a boat, and is 

 armed with a point or short horn. The head and the thorax 

 are rust-colored, varied with black. The abdomen, or hinder 

 and longest part of the body, is black, with seven ochre-yellow 

 bands across the back, all of them but the first two interrupted 

 in the middle. The horned tail, and a round spot before it, 

 impressed as if with a seal, are ochre-yellow. The antenna 

 are rather short and blunt, rust-colored, with a broad black ring 

 in the middle. The wings expand two inches and a quarter, 

 or more ; they are smoky brown and semitransparent. The 

 legs are ochre-yellow, with blackish thighs. The borer, awl, or 

 needle, is as thick as a bristle, spear-pointed at the end, and of 

 a black color; it is concealed, when not in use, between two 



* See "New England Farmer," Vol. V., pp. 167, 175, 186, and 211. 



54 



