ORDER VI.—VEIN-WINGED INSECTS. 245 
Figure 69. 

The Pigeon Tremex. 
ily of them, is provided with a borer, which is one inch 
long, as thick as a bristle, of a black color, and always con- 
cealed within the body when not in use. Elm-trees and 
button-wood are their favorite points of attack, into the 
trunks of which they bore holes half an inch deep and 
drop their eggs therein. In performing this operation they 
not unfrequently become victims of their zeal and labor, 
driving in their borer so tightly that they are not able to 
extract it, in consequence of which they are fastened to the 
spot and perish by starvation. Their eggs are oblong, and 
the larve, or grubs, proceeding from them are in turn often 
stung by the long piercer of the Pimpla, who smuggles her 
cuckoo egg into the hole upon that of the Tremex, and in 
so doing also loses her life very often, by being in like man- 
ner fastened to the trunk of the tree. 
The larve of the wood-wasp are yellow, somewhat re- 
sembling the grubs of the May-beetle, and are often found 
in blocks of wood at the shops of carpenters. They feed 
exclusively on wood, making long passages through it, and 
thus destroying much valuable timber; and as they grow 
