IIYMENOPTERA. 121 



I hastened to shore, and as quickly as I could made my 

 way to the West of the hills, when I found myself freed 

 from their annoyance. Every blade of grass, every rush 

 and twig was thickly studded with the flies, and was 

 bending with their accumulated numbers. The majority 

 of the insects I observed were females."* 



The larvae of the Gooseberry Saw-fly are said to 

 undergo their transformations in society, one attaching 

 the end of its cocoon to the end of the next. The 

 whole family of Tenthredinae is eminently destructive ; 

 the larvae have the habit of rolling themselves up 

 spirally when disturbed. Before passing into the pupa 

 state the creatures form for themselves a silk-lined cell 

 in the ground, or they burrow into the pith of plants, 

 or attach a long oblong cocoon to the surface of a 

 thorn branch. 



As an instance of the Boring Terebrants I select the 

 large hornet-like insects, not very uncommon in Eng- 

 land, though it is believed not breeding here. This is 

 the Fir-wood-borer {Slrex gigas), of which a figure of 

 the natural size will be found on Plate V., Fig. 9. The 

 formidable appearance of this insect — the female of 

 wliich has a long ovipositor, supposed by the uninitiated 

 to be a sting — its great size and conspicuous colouring, 

 have rendered it an object of alarm. I once received a 

 specimen from an acquaintance, who assured me that a 

 number of these insects attacked and stung his carriage 

 horses as he was driving out, and wished to know what 

 the horse-stinger could be. A few of these large insects 

 approaching horses with a loud humming, would very 



* Staveley's Brit. Insects, p. 160. 



