120 HYMENOPTERA 



taken for that of some Lepidopterous insect, for it has 

 six tme legs, a number of abdominal or false legs, and 

 one pair at the tail ; but it can be readily distinguished. 

 A Lepidopterous larva has never more than four pairs 

 of abdominal legs ; the Saw-fly larva may have five or 

 six pairs or more. The number of these abdominal 

 legs on the larva of the Gooseberry Saw-fly is six pairs. 

 The grub is of a dark green — the colour of the goose- 

 berry leaf — spotted with black, and beset with short 

 hairs ; the head is deep black, and so are the true legs ; 

 towards the head and tail end the colour is of a 

 yellowish tint. Hand picking is the best remedy. The 

 drawing of the insect on Plate V., Fig. 7, is the Turnip 

 Saw-fly {Athalia Spinai'um) considerably magnified; 

 the larv?e, called ''niggers" in some counties, feed on the 

 leaves of the turnip, which they reduce to mere skeletons 

 of fibres. These flies come over from the north of Europe, 

 according to Curtis, but are probably bred in small 

 numbers annually in this country. Mr. F. Smith, the 

 eminent entomologist of the British Museum, once 

 encountered a multitudinous host of these Saw-flies on 

 the sand hills near Deal, towards the end of Augwst. 

 " I pursued my way," he says, " penetrating into the 

 cloud of insects, which, when observed from a jiosition 

 in which I faced the sun, assumed a tint approaching 

 vermilion red. The insect-clouds were borne seaward 

 by a gentle south land breeze. I plunged into the 

 water, and hoped by swimming irom the shore to free 

 myself from their annoyance, but finding that at a 

 distance of not less than three hundred yards the 

 surface of the sea was thickly covered with them, and 

 as far as I could see that they floated in equal numbers, 



