258 



PINE. 



to be used at once, or it would he worth w'liile to heap up any 

 rubbish neai^ over the trunk and char the outside. 



Sometimes the insects ai)pear suddenly in great numbers. 

 I have seen twelve to twenty specimens captured in a few 

 hours, as they came out of one Larch trunk lying by a Fir 

 plantation in West Gloucestershire (Ed.) ; and in such a case 

 a child with a net could easily catch and kill them. Generally, 

 however, they appear singly or a few at a time, often over a 

 period of several years from one trunk. 



"Steel Blue" or "Common" Sirex. Sircxjiivenms, h'mn. 



Common Sirex and maggot. 



The Steel Blue or Common Sirex is a most variable insect, 

 both in its size and colouring. The female is commonly blue- 

 black, with rusty red thighs, and reddish shanks and feet ; 

 black horns, and somewhat transparent brownish wings, with 

 rusty veins and spot on the fore edge. The male blue-black ; 

 abdomen, with margin of the third and the whole of the four 

 following segments, red ; the hinder shanks and feet dilated 

 and compressed, and dark blue. 



Both sexes, however, vary in amount of red or black on the 

 legs ; also sometimes the prevailing blue tint is varied by 

 greenish colour, and also, in the case of the male, the abdomen 

 is sometimes bright red, excepting the two rings at the base ; 

 or again, the six lowest joints of the horns may be red, and 

 many other small differences of colouring also occur in 

 different specimens.* 



* For detailed descriptions of British species of Sirex, see Stephens' lUus. of 

 Brit. Ent. Vol. 7 (Mandibulata), pp. 113— IIG. 



